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Russia is the great missing person in the AI ​​race. He has neither chips nor talent, and his great ally only gives him the leftovers

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What’s happening with AI in Russia? The artificial intelligence race has as absolute protagonists to the US and China, and it’s surprising that a power like Russia does not seem to be advancing in this type of field. The truth is that he is doing it, but his situation in this area is worrying. Russia does have AI models. Although they are hardly talked about, there are several AI models that are developed by Russian companies and that, above all, are totally oriented towards their citizens. The country does not have access to Western models such as ChatGPT or Claude, but it does have access to these alternatives: GigaChat: is probably the most advanced Russian model. It is developed by the financial institution Sberbank, and It is available via web although to use it it is necessary to have an account in said entity. Yandex Alice: the company that has already offered a search engine in the image and likeness of Google for years also has its own artificial intelligence model, called Alice AI. It is possible to use from its official website in both English and Russian (Spanish is not supported) like a traditional chatbot. MTS AI – one of the largest telecom operators in Russia also has its own model, MTS AImore aimed at companies and developers with its Cotype models that recently support the ability to create agents for enterprise applications. behind. The veto of chips and advanced technology from the US has been one of the factors that has caused these models to be clearly behind the latest frontier models from companies such as OpenAI or Anthropic. He proves it launched three months ago from GigaChat-3.1-Ultra-702B, an open weights model derived from DeepSeek 702B A36B. In the published benchmarks, the performance of this model is at the level of DeepSeek v3 (launched in December 2024) or Qwen3-235B (launched in April 2025). This model is for example available at Hugging Face. China is your natural ally. China and Russia have long maintained a geopolitical alliance that has an impact in various areas. The curious thing is that in this case that impact is being felt less than one would expect. Russian AI models are based on Chinese open models, but at the moment it seems that These are somewhat old versions which they later adapt to Russian. And as happens with Chinese models, which censor certain topics, Russian models apply that same filtering to avoid sensitive issues. Without chips there is no AI. The big problem Russia faces is the same one China faces, but amplified. They don’t have access to advanced Nvidia chips to train their models, so they have looked Shortcuts to bypass trade restrictions and be able to develop those models. Russia, get in line. Sberbank, for example, is trying to get access to Chinese AI chips like the Huawei Ascend 950 for your projects, but there are two problems here. The first is that these chips are aimed at model inference, not their training. The second, that at the moment those who have priority access to these chips are the Chinese companies themselves, which are reserving large quantities for their future projects. ByteDance, Tencent or Alibaba have placed important orders that leave Russia in a complicated situation. Russian chips in the (distant) future. These problems of access to specialized chips could be solved if Russia manages to boost its semiconductor industry. Baikal Electronics has been working on alternatives to x86 chips from Intel and AMD for some time, but also promise develop AI chips in 2029 or 2030. Once again, commercial and technological vetoes mean that in both scenarios the company’s proposals cannot compete with the latest advances of its Western competitors, at least for now. Industrial and military use. Russian LLM developments not only try to present an option for Russian citizens, but also for military applications. The war with Ukraine has actually revealed how Russia is using the well-known AI miniPCs Nvidia Jetson for its Shahed missiles. Russia has it very difficult. The current situation in Russia makes it difficult for the country to present notable alternatives to the most advanced AI models of the US or China (or even Europe). The war with Ukraine also caused an exodus of talent and Russian engineers, although companies like Sber have tried to boost campaigns to attract talent in the university environment. All of this adds to Russia’s difficult access to the most advanced hardware and software and its dependence on an ally like China that is prioritizing its own AI companies. In Xataka | Russia already has its own multi-core CPUs for AI. What it doesn’t have yet is the most important thing: its GPU

As Silicon Valley perpetuates its workday, the four-day work week has found an unexpected ally: OpenAI

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While in the mecca of the technology industry celebrates the “996” model (from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week) as a mantra to not to be left behind In the AI ​​race, the creator of ChatGPT stands out by proposing just the opposite: reducing working hours with a four day work week. OpenAI just published your report ‘Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First‘. In it, the company suggests that AI can be the perfect excuse for us to work fewer hours a week without losing a cent of our salary. The idea is not just an academic conjecture, but proposes a package of labor policies designed for the age of AI. Four-day days without touching the salary. One of the most surprising sections of the report refers to “efficiency dividends.” With them, OpenAI proposes that governments, companies and unions promote pilot tests of 32-hour days or four days of work per week without salary reduction, as has been established tested successfully in different countries around the world. The stated objective is to maintain the same levels of production and service, taking advantage of the automation options provided by AI and then making the leap to a model of permanent reduced working hours or cumulative vacation days for employees. The striking thing about the proposal is not its content itself, something that has already been implemented with success in some companiesthe key is who proposes the change. Instead of a union or a workplace welfare study, the idea comes from the company itself that is accelerating the transformation of the labor market around the world. Not just reduction in working hours: better pensions and care. OpenAI presents this measure as a way to redistribute part of the productivity benefits extra generated by AI, so that profits are not concentrated only in the shareholders or in the big technology companies, but that the entire population participates in this advance. The four-day week is just one of the most striking measures, but the report goes much further. OpenAI suggests that companies that profit from AI also increase their contributions to their employees’ pension plans (not just those of their managers as a bonus), and that they cover more of their employees’ healthcare expenses. He also proposes what he calls “benefit bonuses“, direct bonuses linked to improved productivity and subsidies for the care of minors and the elderly. If robots work, let them quote. The document recognizes that AI automation can lead to the massive displacement of jobs and further concentrate wealth in a very small number of large companies. That is why it calls for more robust social protection networks. Curiously, OpenAI’s postulate coincides with the statements made a few weeks ago did Bill Gatesarguing that if AI was to reduce dependence on human labor, taxation should shift from wages and contributions to capital gains and corporate profits. The document introduces the idea of ​​”taxes on automated work”, linked to jobs previously done by people who would be replaced by robots. In Xataka | The war in Iran has achieved something that no government has achieved: giving reasons to bring back teleworking Image | Unsplash (Nathan Kuczmarski)

Your main competitor in chip manufacturing is your greatest ally

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Approximately 30% of Intel chips It is manufactured outside of its semiconductor plants. And most of these ICs are produced by TSMC. This Taiwanese company is the largest chip manufacturer on the planetand therefore it is also Intel’s main competitor in the market for custom semiconductor manufacturing for third parties. Despite this, Intel is deeply dependent on TSMC. Currently, the latter company manufactures Intel’s most advanced integrated circuits in those nodes where the company led by Lip-Bu Tan has not yet reached optimal wafer performance. The CEO of Intel has confirmed recently that his company is also outsourcing the production of those chips that have frequent demand peaks, and which, therefore, is not able to manufacture in sufficient quantities to satisfy the needs of its customers. TSMC is producing Intel’s entire Lunar Lake line, and most of Arrow Lake as well. In addition, Intel is one of the first clients of this Taiwanese company with access to 2nm node latest generation. In fact, TSMC has already started production testing of the compute tile of Nova Lake at its Hsinchu plant, and large-scale manufacturing should begin before the end of 2026. During Intel’s latest financial results presentation, Tan confirmed something indisputable: TSMC is an essential partner of your company. TSMC also depends on Intel Intel’s current dependence on TSMC is a consequence of the delay accumulated for years in the development of its manufacturing nodes, before the arrival of Lip-Bu Tan. In fact, the delays in the jump to 10 nmand later the 7nmcontributed to TSMC overtaking Intel from a technological point of view. In addition, dependence on Intel is also based on the need to cover short-term demand. The dependence on Intel is based on the need to cover short-term demand This scenario clearly reflects that Intel and TSMC are competitors. But they are also partners. In fact, few people know that Intel sells chip manufacturing equipment to TSMC. Pat Gelsinger confirmed itthe former CEO of Intel, at the end of 2024 during a meeting with his investors: “TSMC is an impressive company. They serve their customers well, and they serve us well. Lunar Lake would not exist without TSMC (…) But we also supply them with some of our advanced equipment. “It is a complex relationship that is important for Intel, for TSMC and for the entire industry,” Gelsinger explained. It is clear that the former CEO of Intel wanted to convey positivity with this statement, and, to the extent possible, defend his management. We all know how it ended. Be that as it may, there is no doubt about one thing: Intel’s dependence on TSMC is not temporary; It is structural. It is the result of years of technological delays, is maintained by TSMC’s superiority in mature advanced nodes and has been consolidated as part of a strategy that prioritizes flexibility over in-house production. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Bad news for Intel and Europe: construction of Germany chip factory will be delayed until 2029 or 2030 In Xataka | TSMC promised them very happy with their new factory in Arizona. I wasn’t aware of the nightmare I was facing.

To achieve the milestone of building the largest drone industry without China, Ukraine has found an explosive ally: Taiwan

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In the midst of the Cold War, several Western engineers they were surprised upon discovering that some of the most reliable small electronic components on the world market came from an island that barely made the big geopolitical headlines. Decades later, that silent specialization in manufacturing tiny and apparently invisible parts would end up becoming one of the industrial capabilities most coveted on the planet. The war that changed an industry. For decades, Taiwan was known primarily for making chipselectronic components and invisible parts that ended up inside telephones, computers or servers spread all over the planet, but modern wars are beginning to push that industrial capacity towards another, much more explosive terrain. The Guardian said that what is happening between Ukraine and Taiwan reflects a quiet change that barely existed a few years ago: the creation of a new technological alliance born directly from drone warfrom Chinese pressure and the desperate need to produce millions of cheap, autonomous and combat-ready systems. Ukraine wants to break its dependence on China. The war forced Ukraine to build at full speed a gigantic industry of drones capable of feeding a front that consumes absurd quantities of devices every month. The problem is that much of the global supply chain remains dominated by China: Motors, batteries, navigation systems, electronic components and rare earths continue to depend heavily on Chinese manufacturers. As we said, kyiv began to consider this dependence as a strategic risk When suspicions grew about indirect support from Beijing to Russia and fears grew of possible export restrictions. There Taiwan began to appear as an alternative unexpectedly important. His huge experience in semiconductors, microelectronics, electronic integration and advanced technological production made it one of the few places capable of supplying critical parts without being completely dependent on the West or trapped under direct Chinese control. For Ukraine, finding industrial partners outside of China stopped being a commercial issue and became literally a matter of survival. And Taiwan found Ukraine. While Ukraine seeks to produce millions of drones, gradually moving away from China, Taiwan observes the conflict with another concern: the possibility of one day confronting Beijing on its own territory. That coincidence of threats is creating a relationship ever deeper between both worlds. In fact, The New York Times said what Taiwanese engineers They send drones to Ukraine to be tested directly in combat, American companies transfer designs born on the Ukrainian front to Taiwanese production and former Taiwanese soldiers who today fight in Ukraine return home telling how modern war really works. Many Taiwanese militaries are beginning to discover that traditional doctrines are completely outweighed by swarms of FPV drones, unmanned maritime systems or cheap ground robots capable of destroying multimillion-dollar vehicles. Ukraine is thus becoming a kind of university improvised military for Taiwan, one where the lessons do not come from simulations but from a real front where every mistake costs lives. The new military industry no longer resembles the old one. One of the most profound changes of this war is that military production no longer depends solely on gigantic state factories or large traditional contractors. Ukraine has developed more than one hundreds of local manufacturers of components while constantly adapting its systems to specific front-line needs. Ukrainian companies modify drones, software and guidance systems at a much higher speed to the Western classical industry. Taiwan fits perfectly in that transformation because it has exactly what Ukraine needs to accelerate that production: advanced electronics, specialized chips and flexible industrial capacity. Several Taiwanese companies already operate from Poland or Lithuania to indirectly supply kyiv, while Taiwanese drone exports to Europe have skyrocketed massively. In parallel, American companies are using Ukraine and Taiwan like two extremes of the same industrial chain: Ukraine provides combat experience and accelerated development, and Taiwan provides technological capacity and scalable manufacturing. The obsession with building drones outside of China. Both Ukraine and Taiwan share another priority that is becoming almost an industrial doctrine: building supply chains at the expense of Beijing. The problem is much more complicated than it seems because even many components manufactured outside China still use materials, batteries or magnets that depend from Chinese suppliers. Even so, both territories try gradually reduce that exhibition. Taiwan wants to build a drone industry completely disengaged from China by 2027 and increase its own production of rare earth magnets, while Ukraine continues to shift production within its borders. There is no doubt, the challenge is gigantic because Chinese products continue to be much cheaper and more abundant, but strategic logic is beginning to outweigh the economic cost. In the middle of a war, the priority shifts from buying the cheapest to ensuring the supply chain continues to function when the next crisis hits. Building something bigger than drones. If you also want, the most important thing in this relationship may not only be the production of drones, but the emergence of a new technological and military axis informal between two territories that live under permanent threat from much larger neighbors. Ukraine contributes real experience of war, proven tactics and a brutal speed of innovation under extreme pressure. Taiwan contributes industrial capacitysemiconductors and access to critical technologies that the West does not produce quickly enough. The result is beginning to look like something much more ambitious: an entire international network of distributed military production where private companies, engineers, volunteers and manufacturers work beyond official diplomatic limitations. Even the Ukrainian government recognize as drone factories based on Ukrainian designs are popping up outside its borders, including one in Taiwan. One more thing. Ultimately, what the war is accelerating is an idea that a few years ago would have seemed improbable: that to build the largest drone industry on the planet outside chinaUkraine has ended up finding one of its most valuable and strategic allies in Taiwan. Image | x, Trydence In Xataka | Today in “the war in Ukraine beyond all comprehension”: drone pilots are training with ‘Grand Theft Auto’ In Xataka | Ukraine has barely … Read more

In its efforts to once again conquer the Peninsula, the brown bear has just found its main ally against the ranchers: tourism

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In the late 80s and 90s, the brown bear was on the verge of total extinction in Spain. There were just a few dozen spread across remote areas of the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees. Today there are more than 400 And although we have been recovering the species for almost 40 years, the truth is that it has not stopped being controversial for a single moment in all that time. A controversy that, little by little, spreads throughout the country. An absence of 150 years. In the regions of La Cabrera, Sanabria or Carballeda and even in areas bordering Ourense, it had been more than a century and a half since anyone had seen a brown bear. However, a new study They have documented up to 85 tests that he has returned to the region. They are direct observations, verified footprints, damage to hives, phototraps and testimonies. It doesn’t matter, despite the size of these bugs, identifying them is difficult. The interesting thing is that, as another study pointed out, the bear has expanded to 17,000 km2. But… how did we do it? There are three key pieces to the system: great efforts were made to prevent poaching, their natural habitat was protected, and Slovenian bears were reintroduced to replenish populations. In the Pyrenees, in fact, the native line ended up disappearing (although, in 2025, it was recorded the first native bear cub born in the mountain range in more than 50 years). An even more important question: why are we doing it? That is, what purpose does a brown bear serve and why do we want to reintroduce it. Well, according to experts, the brown bear has several important functions in the maintenance of its ecosystems. To begin with, they are dispersers of seeds of fleshy fruits (something very beneficial for the forest mass), they control the populations of herbivores, they clean the forest of bodies as scavengers and it is a bioindicator of the quality of the ecosystem. The bear is at the top of the food chain: its presence improves ecosystems, manages them, maintains them. But, it creates problems… doesn’t it? That’s what the livestock industry says. According to data from the Aragonese Pyrenees, in 2024 there were 33 confirmed attacks (29 in Ansó and 4 in Hecho). The result was 44 dead sheep and 2 goats. The dispute is that, according to the ranchers, the compensation (22,431 euros in 2024) is insufficient. For them, not only deaths must be counted, but also stress abortions, disappearances and a drop in production. That is, what they defend is that part of the costs of the reintroduction of the bear are being paid by them. The issue, as its presence is consolidated, the interests of the ranchers are no longer the only ones. Little by little, the bone regions are attracting wildlife tourism which also generates money. A lot. In the Val d’Aran, there is even talk of overcrowding. In the end, the problem is always the same: Are we willing to pay the cost of living with the nature that we say we want to save? Whether we like it or not, the accidents on the farms in the Pyrenees and the massive replantings (up to 150,000 trees) in the Cantabrian Mountains are two sides of the same coin. It is not enough to throw it in the air and wait to see what happens. Image | Karl Paul Baldacchino In Xataka | Faced with the largest flood of wild bears in memory, Japan has taken a measure: emergency hunts

The computers of the future have found an unexpected ally to store information: fungi

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Bioelectronics has been studying for some time the possibility of taking advantage of living organisms in order to produce electrical activity and, in some way, take advantage of it to make our machines work. Although at first glance it could be a topic worthy of the Matrix script, the truth is that there is a whole fascinating world in that of the memristors based on organic elements. Some researchers have found the key to demonstrate how the mycelium of mushrooms such as shiitake can function as a memristor, an electrical component with the ability to ‘remember’ past states. This discovery could be the key to a new generation of sustainable and biodegradable electronic devices. What is a memristor and why does it matter? A memristor is an electronic component that combines the functions of memory and resistance, capable of “remembering” previous electrical states. They are currently manufactured with materials such as titanium dioxide between two metal electrodes, but their production requires scarce minerals and polluting and high-cost industrial processes. Hence the importance of looking for more sustainable alternatives through organic materials. How mycelium works as memory. John LaRocco’s team at Ohio State University grew shiitake mushrooms in Petri dishes until complete development. They then dehydrated them in the sun, turning them into rigid disc-shaped structures that can be rehydrated when necessary. By connecting electrodes to these samples and applying different voltages, discovered that the mycelium presents conductive structures similar to conventional ‘memristors’. According to LaRocco, “if we could develop a microchip that mimicked real neural activity, we could dramatically reduce the amount of energy consumed when the machine is not in use.” The results of the experiment. After two months of testing, the shiitake-based memristor demonstrated the ability to change electrical state up to 5,850 times per second with an accuracy close to 90%. When they applied a specific sine wave, the characteristic figure-eight curve of an ideal memristor appeared, confirming that the mycelium indeed remembers electrical flow. Although performance eventually decreased at higher frequencies, connecting multiple samples improved stability, something the researchers compared to the network effect of neural connections in the brain. Vadvantages over traditional semiconductors. The main attraction of these biological memristors is its sustainability. Mushrooms are developed from organic biomass, they are biodegradable and their environmental impact is minimal. Furthermore, growing them is economical and their production can be easily scalable, from small laboratory experiments to industrial manufacturing. Additionally, fungi have exceptional radiation resistance, which could also make them especially valuable for aerospace applications. Potential applications and pending challenges. The flexibility and scalability of these components opens up possibilities in fields from extreme environment computing and space exploration to autonomous systems and wearable devices. However, significant obstacles remain. And just as they count from Wired, current samples are too large and need to be miniaturized to compete with existing microchips. Furthermore, the electrical properties of mycelium vary between samples even grown in the same medium, which makes its stable industrial manufacture difficult. Next steps in the investigation. The team plans to develop techniques to grow mycelium and give it an ideal shape using 3D printing and methods for incorporating electrical contacts during cultivation. They are also exploring the optimal way to preserve it long-term, combining techniques such as freeze-drying and special coatings. “Society is increasingly aware of the need to protect our environment and preserve it for future generations, and that could be one of the driving factors for new biocompatible ideas like these,” pointed out Qudsia Tahmina, co-author of the study. Beyond mushrooms. This is not the only organic material that has demonstrated ‘memristive’ properties. Researchers from other universities They have experimented with honey and human bloodexploring their possibilities as biodegradable electronic components. Honey, for example, can change resistance in just 500 nanoseconds and is completely biodegradable. In the case of blood, scientists in India discovered in 2011 that it could function as a memristor by applying different voltages, keeping the resistance stable for at least 30 minutes. Cover image | Yuval Zukerman In Xataka | In the midst of the RAM memory crisis, Samsung takes a leap with its HBM4 memory. It does not imply good news for the pocket

“Why the ‘rebound effect’ has become the surgeon’s best ally against Ozempic

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In the last two years, the GLP-1 receptor agonists like for example Ozempic either wegovy have gone from being drugs for diabetes to becoming the cultural and medical phenomenon of the decade for fight obesity. And such was its impact, that it was thought that surgery for obesity had come to an end, but the reality has been very different. The premise. The idea is quite clear: if I can take medication twice a month to lose weight… Why would I go into an operating room? A logical idea, especially given the risks that one always has when entering surgery, no matter how well controlled they are. But this enthusiasm of abandon the scalpel It is slowly being diluted, since according to the latest research, bariatric surgery is still superior to GLP-1 agonists and achieves much better results. The devastating fact. The study that has shaken the board comes from NYU Langone where researchers compared patients undergoing interventions such as gastric bypass with those who had taken Ozempic. The result was quite clear. Those who had undergone surgery managed to lose between 24 and 26% of their body weight, while patients on drugs lost an average between 5 and 6%. A result that does not agree with what was expected by pharmaceutical companies with their clinical trials in hand. But the problem is that the variable adherence to treatment It is once again a big problem in medicine. More data. The University Clinic of Navarra He also wanted to investigate in this field, doing a large study with 20,000 patients, concluding exactly the same thing: bariatric surgery surpasses GLP-1 agonists in total weight loss, reduction in BMI and body composition. The human factor. The great failure of a pharmacological treatment is undoubtedly the humans who are going to take it. And it is quite common in medicine for patients to forget to take a dose of their medication or even abandon treatment halfway through without any type of control. But luckily, the big difference between a pill (or injection) and surgery is that the second cannot be “forgotten.” The studies are clear in this sense: between 60% and 70% of patients They abandon GLP-1 treatment before the first year. Something that causes a great rebound effect which makes a patient return to their original weight, especially if they return to the same eating habits as before starting treatment with Ozempic or others. The difference. The reasons for reaching this point in treatment are varied: from persistent gastrointestinal side effects to the high monthly cost of treatment or the shortage. But the thing is that while stopping pricking yourself causes a rebound effect, bariatric surgery, although invasive, offers much more stable long-term results. Although logically he has many other problems behind him. Beyond the scale. The superiority of surgery is not measured only in waist centimeters. Science points through a systematic review published in JAMA Network Open This 2025 suggests that surgery is associated with lower overall mortality and a more drastic reduction in major cardiovascular events compared to drugs. And although GLP-1 has shown great benefits, the truth is that science indicates that surgery is still better in remission of type 2 diabetes with a minimal risk of mortality. Furthermore, despite the initial cost of the operation, in the long term surgery is cheaper for health systems than chronic drug treatment that costs hundreds of euros per month for life. A combined therapy. Despite all this, we are not in a war of one against the other, but the future points to an integration of both elements. In this way, strategies are already being explored where GLP-1 is used before surgery to reduce surgical risk in patients with extreme obesity, or after surgery as a rescue tool if the patient begins to regain weight years later. Even the WHO has begun to include these drugs in its comprehensive treatment guidelines, but emphasizing that they are one more piece of the puzzle, not a universal substitute. Images | David Trinks In Xataka | We have more and more research on the effects of Ozempic. And the problem is that we have more and more doubts

A cheese giant is slowly taking shape in Spain thanks to a key ally: Mercadona

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The long list of Spanish companies that grow in the heat of Mercadona adds a new name: Entrepinaresa company dedicated to the production of cheeses and dairy products that started 40 years ago in Valladolid and today manages centers spread throughout Galicia, Castilla and Madrid, in addition to generating employment for something more than 1,500 people. Although the signature presume to be “the largest cheese manufacturer”since more than 20 years has a key alliance with Mercadona. And that is helping it expand. Why is it news? Because their 2024 accounts have just been released, a year during which Entrepinares managed to skyrocket both its turnover and its profits. The first section rose to the 665 million euros8% more than in 2023. As for the second, EBIDTA (earnings before taxes) reached 64 million, which represents an increase of 16%. Both indicators are partly explained by an increase in production: in 2024, 100 million kilos of cheese came out of the Entrepinares factories (8.3% more than in 2023) and around 35 million kilos of dairy products. In addition to being the main supplier of Mercadona cheeses, the company saw how it was reinforced its foreign activity, with exports to more than 50 countries. Is there more data? Yes. We know that the company dedicated 41 million to investments in search of greater efficiency, which raises the mobilization of resources for that purpose above the 140 million in the last four years. Thanks to this commitment, it has managed to gain a prominent place in the sector at a national level. In fact it leads the sectoral ranking of cheese manufacturers (at least based on turnover volume) prepared by elEconomista. Regarding staff and internal resources, the firm has more than 1,500 workers, collaborates stably with more than 700 farms and a large score of cooperatives and manages four production centers spread across Valladolid, Fuenlabrada, Villalba and Los Yébenes. Added to these are a logistics and packaging center in Valladolid and two other plants specialized in whey treatment located in Castrogonzalo (Zamora) and Vilalba (Lugo). Why is it important? Because of the data itself and its context. Entrepinares is not the only Mercadona supplier that has grown in recent years coinciding with the expansion of the Valencian chain, which has managed to strengthen its position in the market with a business share that It is already on its way to 30%. One of the clearest examples is that of the group Martinez Familywhich integrates several business lines and operates as a strategic supplier to Mercadona. It was recently revealed that the company will invest around 150 million euros between this and the next year to reinforce its Traditional Dishes facilities and keep up with Mercadona. Months before it had emerged that last year its billing increased by about 8% and its net profit 16%. Are there more cases? Yes. Another Mercadona supplier that has managed to grow is Ozturk Quebapa firm based in Toleado specialized in the production of kebabs and meat products that has been supplying the Juan Roig chain for years. Last year it invoiced around 63.8 million euros and this year it hopes to exceed 75. For now, in the first semester it reached 37.8 million. Its expansion is prior to the agreement with Juan Roig’s company and the firm exports to other nations, but Ozturk recognizes that “with Mercadona everything changes.” Mercadona’s leverage is also serving Sefood Group. Its subsidiary Leroy Processing Spain hoped in the spring to close this year with a turnover of 160 million euros30% more than last year. The company has been dedicated to the production of Japanese food for a few years and has managed to make Mercadona one of its main clients. The Roig chain also has among its suppliers: Profand and Panamar, Tarradellas House and Summer. Images | Entrepinares e iStock In Xataka | Mercadona has found a vein to grow beyond its white label and prepared food: tourism

Russia has found an old ally from other wars to bring down Ukraine’s most impenetrable defense: snowfall

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Winter has once again established itself as a decisive actor in the Ukrainian war. To the mud and fog A new enemy has been added to the Ukrainian defenses. Heavy snowfall and freezing rain are degrading the tool that has allowed kyiv to make up for its numerical inferiority for two years: the swarms of light, agile and deadly FPV drones that form the backbone of their “death zones” defensive. Winter as a weapon. The meteorology, which in other winters had shaped the strategy, this year is dismantling a defensive system which Ukraine had perfected into a nearly impenetrable barrier. Russia understood this before anyone else and launched large scale assaults taking advantage of the climate vulnerability of drones, opening gaps around Kharkiv, Huliaipole and especially Pokrovsk. For the first time in months, Moscow is advancing not because it has decisively improved its military, but because nature has given it a window that it is exploiting. with brutal determination. The unexpected weakness. It turns out that FPV drones, so effective in summer, are extremely fragile in winter. Their lack of inertia makes them victims of the wind, which pushes them and makes their trajectory falter with each gust, humidity and ice fog the cameras, snow reduces contrasts, fog blurs the depth of the visual field and the lenses become covered with drops that distort the image at the most critical moment. The pilot, who needs perfect vision to hit with surgical precision, encounters a blurry screenwithout references, unable to distinguish trenches, obstacles or even the final objective. The slightest loss of clarity turns an attack in a crash against the terrain or in an erratic missile. The result is devastating for the Ukrainian defensive strategy: when the drones do not fly, the death zones they cease to existRussian columns can advance under dark clouds and motorcycles and pickup trucks carrying troops take advantage of the fog to infiltrate towns like Pokrovsk, where urban fighting is already fierce. A dangerous opportunity. The adverse weather has created for Russia an opportunity that it has not enjoyed since the beginning of the war. With Ukrainian drones forced to remain on the ground, Russian forces have managed to maneuver with greater freedom of movement, something that drone warfare had made nearly impossible for months. They have crossed rivers in fog, entered towns with light vehicles without being detected and pushed through Ukrainian lines while the defense was reorganized while waiting for the weather to improve. Moscow’s advance, although limited in territorial terms, is having an impact psychological and tactical significant: it exposes the fragility of the Ukrainian defensive model when it is left without its star tool and shows that Moscow has learned to detect weather patterns to time attacks precisely. The November Fog already allowed its troops to deepen positions in Pokrovsk, a critical point whose control has become a symbol both for the Kremlin (which seeks to show progress to Washington) and for Kyiv, which is struggling to resist on a front where pressure is constant. Innovation against the clock. But the climate does not act in a unidirectional way. Just as quickly as drones became inoperable, atmospheric improvements allowed Ukraine to recover part of their kill zones and launch counterattacks with your FPV. The brigades, such as the 28th Mechanized, have taken advantage of the clear weather to hit Russian units newly deployed in Kostiantynivka, trapping them in exposed positions. This dynamic confirms that Ukraine is not defeated: is forced to adapt faster. Its industry, extremely flexible since 2022, is already developing a new generation of drones with more wind-resistant fuselages, low-light cameras, simplified thermal systems and control algorithms capable of stabilizing flight in adverse conditions. The arrival of these drones, scheduled for the coming months, will be key to reverse the advantage temporary that Russia has obtained. If Ukraine manages to deploy a winter-hardy FPV force, the balance on the front could tip again. The other winter war. While the drones fight in the white sky ahead, winter hits the cities otherwise: with blackouts of up to 16 hours, failed heating, stopped elevators and parents who go to the shelter with their children in their arms between explosions. The BBC told cases like that of Oksana, in her apartment in kyiv, who lives with a 2,000 euro battery that only extends normality by a few hours. Her daughter plays by candlelight and her husband works in the dark when bombing cuts off supplies. Millions of Ukrainians are preparing for what the authorities describe how “the worst winter in our history.” Moscow has intensified its attacks against transmission networks, not only to leave the population without electricity and heat, but to close bakeries, paralyze factories, stop transportation and suffocate the economy until causing social discouragement. According to the Ukrainian government itself, the Russian objective is not only to defeat the country militarily, but to destroy its internal cohesion. human wear and tear. After almost four years of war, fatigue has become widespread. He insomnia affects three times as many Ukrainians as people in countries at peace, and the nights are marked by sirens, Shahed drones and waves of missiles that have reached record numbers. Moral fatigue is mixed with the physical: the front is far away, but the war is in every hallway, in every staircase, in every unlit light bulb. And yet, surprisingly, the surveys show a rebound in optimism: more than half of Ukrainians believe in a better future, even if it is a fragile, oscillating one that depends on the evolution of blocked negotiations, the arrival of foreign aid or the result of a Russian offensive that is still far from a decisive victory. Frozen diplomacy. Plus: international negotiations are going through their most uncertain moment. A possible Trump-Putin summit is on pause. The EU is still discussing how to use 180,000 million on frozen Russian assets, and kyiv sees with concern how Washington sends mixed signals and how some European governments could change with elections less … Read more

A year ago, Warner wanted to sink Suno’s AI to generate songs. Today he has decided to ally with her

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From chaos to order: when AI burst onto the music scene it seemed like everything was going to fall apart. And some of the latest news in that field seems to go in that direction: uncontrolled multiplication of false groups created with AI on streaming platforms, accelerated sophistication of AIs that allow the creation of music indistinguishable from that created by humans… however, the majors of the industry have taken action on the matter to turn the situation in their favor. And no, it is not that they have won the multiple lawsuits they filed against the AI ​​companies. It is, perhaps, something much more disturbing: they have reached agreements. What has happened? In just eighteen months, Warner Music Group has completed a radical strategic pivot regarding its relationship with AI. In June 2024the record company sued Suno along with Sony and Universal for massive copyright infringement, accusing the platform of training its models with millions of songs it owned and without authorization. But now he announces an alliance with that same company to license its complete catalog. What is Suno? A music generator through artificial intelligence that has attracted almost 100 million users in two years, and allows complete songs to be created from simple textual descriptions. Users can specify genre, mood, instrumentation and tempo, and the system generates two versions of the requested song in about 15 seconds. To achieve this, Suno combines its own musical model with ChatGPT, and from there come both the music and the lyrics, creating pieces that can include voices and instrumentation or be purely instrumental. What the agreement consists of. The pact establishes that Suno will launch in 2026 new advanced and licensed models that will completely replace your current systems. Artists in Warner’s catalog (Lady Gaga, Coldplay or Ed Sheeran, among many others) will have control over whether or not they allow their names, images, voices and compositions to be used in that AI-generated music. Neither Warner nor Suno disclosed the financial terms of the deal, although Warner CEO Robert Kyncl stated that the goal is to “compensate and protect artists, songwriters and the creative community.” As part of the deal, Suno acquired SongkickWarner’s concert discovery platform. Besides, from now on Song downloads generated by Suno will require a paid account, with download limits and options to purchase additional downloads, a bit like the usage limits established by the level free of other AI models. The original demand. The complaint of 2024 accused Suno and Udio of massive infringement of protected recordings. The record companies they requested damages up to $150,000 per infringed song. Suno admitted that he had trained his model with tens of millions of protected recordings but defended that it was “fair use” (the famous fair use Anglo-Saxon) And what is the reason for the change in Warner and company’s strategy? Suno closed a $250 million financing round at a valuation of $2.45 billion just a week ago, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They are not the first. This is not a desperate deal major allying himself with someone who just a year ago he considered an enemy. It is an industry trend: in June 2024, for example Universal Music reached an agreement with SoundLabs to offer its artists vocal cloning tools through the plugin MicroDrop. In November of this same year, Universal, Sony and Warner themselves closed separate agreements with the brand new startup KLAY to train your “Large Music Model” with licensed music Without a doubt, they are significant agreements, especially because, unlike the cinema wave pressto mention other leisure and communication sectors strongly impacted by AI, majors of music are the first to bury the hatchet. With what it may mean for hostilities to soften in other fields. A doubtful future. For a startSony and Warner maintain active lawsuits against Udio and Suno. And there are multiple doubts about the scope of the contract: supposedly the artists have the right to veto, but As Irving Azoff saysfounder of the Music Artists Coalition, “artists end up on the margins with crumbs.” Other analysts like Frankie Pizá They are even more pessimistic: “What some of us see as a collapse in what we understood as artistry/authorship is quietly becoming a new order regulated by the major record labels themselves” Pizá adds: “The music industry has been perfecting its ability to absorb any technological disruption for decades. It did so with Napster, with YouTube, with the streaming and now with generative AI. The pattern repeats itself: first moral resistance, then demands, then agreement and finally implementation.” Header | Amin Asbaghipour in Unsplash

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