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Big tech had ambitious climate goals. Then the AI ​​came and started devouring them

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There was a time when technology seemed to have found a comfortable way to tell its climate future. The big companies talked about “clean energy”net zero emissions, increasingly efficient operations and commitments dated to 2030 or 2040. It was an attractive story because it coexisted with our daily use of the internet, services and applications. Generative AI, however, has complicated that picture: not only does it bring more smart services, it also requires more infrastructure, more electricity, and climate pressure that is much more difficult to square with the promises those same companies made just a few years ago. The most recent movement comes from Microsoft. Bloomberg has published that the company would be considering delaying or even abandoning one of its most ambitious energy goals, at a time when the race for AI requires increasingly more computing capacity. Tell OpenAI or Anthropic. This case does not appear in a vacuum: other large technology companies are also facing increasingly visible challenges to fit their climate commitments with the expansion of their data centers. The question is no longer just what they promised, but what happens when those promises collide with the actual scale of AI. The companies did not reach these commitments in a single way nor did they promise exactly the same thing. Some focused on the purchase of renewable energy, others on zero-carbon electricity, others on net-zero emissions, and others on eliminating more carbon than they generate. There were also different reasons for doing so: regulatory pressure, investor expectations, reputation and a fairly widespread conviction that digital infrastructure could grow. without triggering its climate impact. What interests us here is not to review all those promises, but to follow some of the most ambitious ones and see how they are holding up to the AI ​​race that is unfolding before our eyes. Climate promises in the face of expanding data centers As we say, the fundamental change is that many of these commitments were formulated before generative AI became an absolute priority for the industry. Until then, the growth of data centers was already a challenge, but it could be projected with a more gradual logic. The new race has altered that pace: training models, deploying them in massive products, and answering large-scale queries requires computing power that grows very quickly. What once seemed like a difficult but manageable roadmap now faces a different dynamic. Microsoft was one of the companies that formulated one of the most demanding goals. In July 2021 he announced his 100/100/0 commitment, a way of saying that by 2030 he wanted match 100% of your electricity consumption100% of the time, with zero-carbon energy purchases. The nuance matters: it was not just about offsetting annual consumption with renewables, but about getting closer to an hour-by-hour correspondence. Furthermore, the company proposed doing so in the same electrical networks from which it took that energy. Now that commitment is under obvious pressure. The aforementioned economic media indicated that the Redmond company is studying delaying or even abandoning it, according to anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, while seeking to clear obstacles to powering its data centers. Microsoft has not confirmed that change and its director of sustainability, Melanie Nakagawa, maintained that the company remains committed to its environmental goals. He also left an insight that sets the tone for the official response: any adjustment would be part of a review of approach, not a change in long-term ambition. Google also set a powerful goal. In 2021, the Mountain View company set the goal to achieve net zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030, including its consumer hardware products. To achieve this, he proposed reduce 50% its absolute emissions compared to 2019, not only those generated directly by the company, but also those linked to its activity and its supply chain. What it could not reduce, according to its roadmap, it would compensate by removing carbon from the atmosphere through natural and technological solutions. The current situation shows how difficult it is to put this roadmap into practice. In its 2025 environmental reportGoogle points out that in 2024 its emissions were 11.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent. That is 11% more than the previous year and 51% above its 2019 base. The nuance is important: they did not increase 51% in one year, but rather compared to the starting point chosen by the company. The report itself also recognizes that integrating more AI into its products can complicate the reduction of emissions due to the greater demand for computing and technical infrastructure. Amazon also presented a high-ambition climate pledge. In September 2019the e-commerce giant announced together with Global Optimism The Climate Pledge, a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040ten years before the horizon set by the Paris Agreement. The company founded by Jeff Bezos became the first signatory of that initiative, which called for measuring and reporting emissions on a regular basis, applying decarbonization strategies and neutralizing remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial compensations. Amazon’s situation shows that these promises already had gray areas even before AI was at the center of the debate. In September 2023, Data Center Dynamics published that the Science Based Targets initiative had removed the Amazon commitment from its panel and placed it in the “expired commitment” category. The reason, according to the media, was that both parties were unable to agree on a sufficiently significant emissions target. Amazon responded that the requirements had changed and that it would continue to look for credible third-party validators. In this sense, general photography goes in the same direction. The US Department of Energy estimates that the Data centers consumed around 4.4% of the country’s electricity in 2023 and could be between 6.7% and 12% in 2028. The International Energy Agency also projects a relevant leap on a global scale: from about 415 TWh in 2024 to about 945 TWh in 2030. Not all of this growth can be attributed solely to AI, … Read more

DeepSeek V4 has given China the boost it needs against the US. Four chip makers are the big winners

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DeepSeek V4 It is the catalyst China needed. This model of artificial intelligence (AI) developed by the quantitative hedge fund specialized in trading algorithmic High-Flyer has been designed natively to live with Chinese chips. This is exactly the strategy that the Chinese government supports in response to the pressure that the US is putting on China. The Administration led by Donald Trump prevents the most powerful GPUs from Nvidia, AMD or Cerebras from reaching this Asian country. And Beijing has decided to do without them. The challenge facing the Chinese government is that it is much easier to set this goal than to put it into practice. This is the scenario in which DeepSeek V4 has emerged as the asset that China needs. And its arrival has led, for the first time, to several Chinese AI chip designers achieving something that until now had only been within the reach of Nvidia: guaranteeing full compatibility with the latest High-Flyer AI model from day 0. A great opportunity for Huawei, Cambricon, Moore Threads and Hygon DeepSeek V4 has marked a turning point. Its adoption in China is likely to be very notable, which has caused AI chip designers to compete among themselves to ensure full compatibility with this model from the moment it arrives. None of them wants to miss the opportunity to grow in the largest market on the planet if we stick to the most relevant indicators, such as purchasing power parity or the volume of population with the capacity to consume. Huawei is one of the companies that benefited most from the arrival of DeepSeek V4 Huawei will surely be one of the companies that will benefit the most from the arrival of DeepSeek V4. And its entire portfolio of GPUs for AI is compatible with this model. Nevertheless, your Ascend 950PR chip has been established as the main inference solution. A note before moving forward: inference is broadly speaking the computational process carried out by language models with the purpose of generating responses that correspond to the requests they receive. China’s three largest internet groups (Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent) have placed orders for several hundred thousand Ascend 950PR processors following the launch of DeepSeek V4, according to Reuters. However, Huawei is not the only Chinese company that has won the lottery with the arrival of this AI model. Cambricon Technologiesthe Chen brothers’ company, has already completed the adaptation to the framework open source vLLM inference framework and has published the code on GitHub. Besides, Moore Threads has worked closely with the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Academy to run DeepSeek V4 on its MTT S5000 card using the FlagOS software stack. And Hygon has carried out a deep optimization of this model in its DCU platform with the purpose of consolidating its hardware as an attractive option for industrial use. The competitiveness of DeepSeek V4 outside of China is unclear because is less capable than its more advanced American competitors, but its future within the borders of its home country appears to be guaranteed. Image | Huawei More information | SCMP In Xataka | The US’s problem in the AI ​​and humanoid race is not China: it is all of Asia and it is greatly disadvantaged

More and more people are looking at invasive species as the new big culinary goldmine. Science has something to say

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Honolulu, Hawaii, is famous for its beaches and the kind of paradise landscapes you dream of when planning your vacation. A few weeks ago, however, one of its most picturesque beaches hosted a contest that sounded like anything but paradise: “Eat the Invaders” (“Eat the invaders”). Although the title may be shocking macabre, in reality it was a fishing tournament in which participants had to capture three invasive species. Then a chef was in charge of preparing them to demonstrate that, in addition to being a huge environmental problem, fish ta’ape, to‘ouch either roi They can be a delicacy. It seems like an anecdote, but that Honolulu tournament is just part of a much bigger problem: the ‘invasivorism‘. What the hell is ‘invasiveness’? The word is confusing, but it refers to a very easy concept to understand: the ‘invasiveness’ It consists of neither more nor less than consuming invasive species. Exactly what encouraged to do a few weeks ago in Honolulu: stop seeing ta’ape or roi as simple invasive species and understand them as something more, an ingredient for delicious dishes. In theory, this does not mean that we give up eradicating them or ignore the damage they cause to local ecosystems. It is simply encouraged to go further and turn the problem into an opportunity. Does it only happen in Hawaii? Not at all. Honolulu residents haven’t invented anything new. Not even the slogan of “Eat the Invaders”, which is actually the title of a series from the ABC network that explores precisely the culinary potential of Australia’s invasive species. In 2025 even the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) used that same hook (“Eat the invaders”) to launch a campaign that encouraged taking advantage of species introduced by man and that now threaten native diversity. “Consumption of invasive species can help protect native fauna and flora. By trapping, trapping and consuming them we can reduce their population and the damage they cause,” claims an article signed by Erin Huggins, from the FWS communications area, which details half a dozen species that represent a problem in the US and “should be considered”: Myocastor coypus, Channa argus, iguana iguanasilver carp and Sus scrofacreatures from other areas of America, Asia or Europe. Sounds good, right? That’s the crux of the matter. At first glance it seems like squaring the circle: an invasive species is combated and in the process a benefit is easily transferred to the entire population. The idea is so powerful that in 2013 even the FAO encouraged fighting jellyfish plagues with a similar slogan: “If you can’t fight them, eat them.” The problem is that there are experts who believe that invasiveness is actually a trap that is tantalizingly easy to fall into. At first it seems like the perfect solution, but it often ends up aggravating the invasions. The issue is of sufficient concern that a group of scientists from several countries, led by the Doñana-CSIC Biological Station, has published an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in which he questions the basic argument of invasiveness: that the consumption of invasive species is an intelligent strategy, especially if it ends up turning the capture and exploitation of those same species into a lucrative business. “Encouraging commercialization can create incentives to maintain them instead of eradicating them.” What do they say exactly? That what at first seems like a solution can end up becoming a problem. “Invasivorism is usually presented as a strategy win-win (mutual benefit) based on the idea that the consumption of an invasive species generates wealth while minimizing its impacts”, recognize Fran Officialdegui, researcher at the Doñana-CSIC Biological Station and main author of the article. “But the reality is much more complex, and in many situations, when the problem becomes a business, a resistance to ending it arises.” “What is not often said is that the objectives of commercial exploitation and management of invasive species are, in most cases, opposite,” affects the researcher before warning of the greatest risk: that a market will be generated around foreign species. When this happens to the interest in eradicating them, another that pulls in the opposite direction can be added: the interest in conserving them. Can that really happen? It has already happened, in fact. In their article, the researchers recall the case of the Kamchatka crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus). Although it is a species native to the North Pacific, about 60 years ago the USSR decided to introduce it to the Barents Sea, in the Arctic. There these crustaceans found a place where they could easily expand and ended up becoming a pest. Also in something else: the engine of a prosperous business that over time led to overexploitation. What did the authorities do when fishing threatened to eliminate the theoretically invasive species? Catch limits were set to guarantee the business that had been created. Why are they issuing the warning now? Because, as they remember from the Doñana-CSIC Biological Station, the discourse of invasiveness seems to be settling little by little. And in part this expansion is due to campaigns promoted by companies, administrations and even conservation organizations that are carried away by the motto of “If you can’t beat them, eat them!” that already used years ago the FAO. Officialdegui also warns that what happened in his day with the Kamchatka crab could be replicated in Spain with the Callinectes sapidusor blue crab, a invasive species whose goodness culinary now they start promoting themselves. In fact it is easy to find recipes that explain how to prepare it with rice. “It is very likely that scenarios similar to that of the Kamchatka crab will occur on the peninsula when, once the commercial exploitation of the blue crab is established (Callinectes sapidus), there are declines in its population”, keep it up Officialdegui. In his opinion, invasiveness can help raise social awareness about the risk of exotic species, but that cannot mislead us. “Addressing biological invasions requires long-term commitment, scientific knowledge and coordinated … Read more

Ibiza has evicted 200 people who lived in campers and caravans. Their big problem is that they are key workers for the island

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If you enter Idealista and you are looking for a home For rent in Ibiza the cheapest option right now, a 32 m2 studio in Sant Joan de Labritja with the kitchen almost at the foot of the bed, is 799 euros. And that, the ad warns, is only the price of “the winter season.” Looking ahead to spring and summer, things change. The next option, a 35 m2 studio, already costs 1,000 euros. From there up. Especially if you are looking for near Eivissa. With similar prices to many workers who keep the island’s hospitality and construction industry afloat they have no other choice than staying in cabins, shanties, vans or (hopefully) caravans. The problem is that they are often installed in unauthorized settlements that end up dismantled by court order. What has happened? That Ibiza has just expanded its (increasingly large) list of evicted settlements. He April 21 About twenty police officers went to the Sa Joveria site, near the Ibiza fairgrounds, to clear what was probably the largest settlement of substandard housing on the entire island. When the agents arrived there were barely any tenants left (the date of the operation was announced days before), but it is estimated that in Sa Joveria they have come to live (badly) more than 130 people who spent their daily lives in caravans, shacks, tents or vans camperized. Just a few days later, the April 29another judicial delegation moved to Can Misses to dismantle another settlement made up of caravans, tents and shacks. The photo was similar: when the agents arrived at the lot there were hardly any people left, but not so long ago more than fifty people lived there (it is estimated that between 70 and 80), part of them bounced from a previous eviction in Can Rova. The eviction left no incidentsbut it is a new reminder of the housing challenge that Ibiza faces. Are these the first evictions? Not at all. a few days ago Ibiza Diary took stock and counted at least half a dozen similar operations since 2024, including the last two in Sa Joveria and Can Misses. The list starts with what was probably the most dramatic episode of all: the eviction of Can Rova in the summer of 2024, when agents from the Santa Eulària police and the Civil Guard dismantled a settlement in which they lived hundreds of peopleincluding children. The episode ended with detained. In March 2025, a similar (more peaceful) operation was carried out in Can Raspalls and in July of that same year the scene was repeated in the es Gorg and Can Rova industrial estate (again). Now the authorities have returned to act in Sa Joveria and Can Misses, among other reasons due to the fire and pest risk what the settlement entailed. “Ibiza city has a major housing problem, but the administration cannot tolerate this becoming a habit of life,” argues the mayor, Rafael Triguero. Why is it a problem? Ibiza is not the only territory in Spain (or Europe) that deals with illegal shanty settlements. The problem is that there is a peculiarity on the island that is explained by its residential market: a good part of those who are forced to survive aboard motorhomes or vans parked in lots like Can Misses or Sa Joveria are not people at risk of ‘social exclusion’, without jobs or fixed income. It comes with reading the local press and the interviews with evicted people to understand that construction, hospitality and tourism workers also live in the towns. People with stable jobs and payrolls that exceed 1,000 euros per month. The problem is simply that their salaries are not enough to find housing. Or what they find (rooms in shared apartments in exchange for exorbitant rents) is less attractive than the prospect of living alone in caravans or vans. Are there testimonies? Yes. Recently The Country chatted for example with Ahmed, a 35-year-old immigrant from Western Sahara who works in a five-star hotel on the island. At least until a few weeks ago, before the eviction of Sa Joveria, at the end of his shift he returned to the cabin built with wood and cardboard that served as his home. The newspaper claims that 80% Of those who lived on the plot were Sahrawis who worked as seasonal workers in the construction and tourism sectors. Another similar case was that of Mohamed, 38 years old, installed in a tent. Also interesting is the experience of Yamile Elisabeth, a Venezuelan who has resided in Spain since 2019. Until her eviction, explains to elDiariolived in a van in Can Misses for which he paid 550 euros a month. “When you look for a rental, they easily ask for 1,000 euros and three or four months’ deposit to share a small space with five other people,” the woman clarifieswho claims that he works several hours a day cleaning a bank branch, although in reality he has training as a physiotherapist and last summer he earned 1,600 euros by working six days. Is housing that expensive? Not only is housing becoming more expensive in Ibiza, but there are a number of factors that have put special strain on its market. The first is its status as an island, with limited space. The second, its enormous demand for tourist accommodation, which even leads some homeowners to abandon them in summer (they temporarily move into caravans) to rent to visitors. The result is prohibitive income for many workers, including civil servants. Three years ago, in fact, the case of a firefighter at Ibiza airport who was forced to settle in a caravan was reported. “The only solution to save some money”, recognized the man, of Andalusian origin, in an interview with laSexta. Is there more? Yes. The problem, as remember our colleagues Motorpassionthe thing is that living in a caravan on the island is not that simple either… or economical. Laws like the 5/2024 vehicle control or that of the Rustic Land of … Read more

We believed that the secret to rest was sleeping eight hours. A study has shown that we forget a big element

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One of the mantras most repeated ad nauseum in the field of health is related to the need to sleep at least eight hours nightly. A goal that has been widely studied with the repercussions that failure to meet it may have. But now we have seen how the regularity in sleep is a much more powerful preacher of long-term health than mere duration. It’s when you sleep. Although we had very ‘glorified’ how much sleep we have to, trying to make up for lost hours on the weekendthe reality is that the important thing is to have good consistency, as is the case with many other processes. The regularity. The scientific consensus on this paradigm shift is gaining strength, and the last major proof is published by the National Sleep Foundation with an article that points to this regularity as one of the most forgotten components of our nocturnal habits. The key here lies in the internal clock, since we must remember that the time of waking up and early exposure to natural light is what activates our internal system with the cortisol release. In this way, by maintaining a constant reference, we ensure that critical biological processes, from hormonal secretion to body temperature, are regularized. When we don’t respect it. Just like when we travel to another country and we follow schedules very different from ours, the same thing happens here. We have the classic situation on the weekend, where we go to bed late and get up two or three hours later than usual, and surely the feeling when we get up is exhaustion. This is what is now known as ‘social jet lag’ or ‘Monday jet lag’, responsible for that mental fog, lack of alertness and low cognitive function with which we start the week. A shield. Unlike total sleep duration, regularity is a direct marker of the integrity of our circadian system, since when the internal clock and the demands of the environment become out of sync, known as chronodisruption, the body suffers. Just like when we travel between countries or experience time change. Here, a study published in Health Data Science HE dedicated analyzed more than 88,000 adults in the United Kingdom and found that irregular sleep patterns are associated with a greater predisposition to suffer from up to 172 different diseases. In fact, actigraphy studies have shown that intra-individual variability in our sleep hours is a direct marker of all-cause mortality, so trying to accumulate hours on Saturdays and Sundays not only does not save the furniture, but it puts us at risk. The impact of irregularity. In this sense, a linear relationship can be seen between sleep instability and the risk of suffering a cardiac event. But trying to “compensate” for tiredness on the weekend also results in worse insulin sensitivity and ends up altering glucose metabolism, which causes the bill to be quite expensive in the long run. Furthermore, the lack of a clear sleep routine causes a chronic pro-inflammatory state. This alteration compromises our immune response to pathogens, worsens the regulation of autoimmune diseases, and decreases the ability of our cells to repair themselves and eliminate metabolic waste. In summary, following set hours of sleep is essential if we really want to have optimal results in our daily lives. Images | diana.grytsku in Magnific In Xataka | We have accepted that “deep sleep” is the standard for sleep quality: science points in another direction

The success of Artemis II has lit China’s space fire. Now, your space station will be twice as big

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All powers have embarked on the new space race and Artemis II It has been the lighthouse that demonstrates the interest that continues to arouse in sending humans outside our borders. Aside from rockets, in low orbit humanity has one of the most exclusive laboratories in the universe: the International Space Station. While the long-standing facility awaits dismantling, China has just sent a message with its Tiangong space station. Soon, it will be twice as big. Ambition. When China was left out of the International Space Station project, it got to work on its own facility. The Tiangong It began to take shape in the 2000s and launched its central module into low orbit in 2021. Other modules have been added designed for Chinese astronauts to investigate in an environment that, until now, was forbidden to them. Since then, it has become a symbol of the ambition of the Chinese space program. Also of the speed at which they are completing goalswith round trip rocket tests and plans for build, together with Russia, a lunar station. Despite everything, he has a problem. It is considerably smaller than the ISS and has a mass of just 100 tons, a pressurized volume of 340 m3 with the capacity to house a crew of three astronauts. Expanding the Tiangong. The ISS can support a crew of seven astronauts, has triple the pressurized volume capacity and a mass of more than 420 tons. If China wants to get involved in space research, it had to do something, and its response has come in the form of a project to expand the Tiangong. How has informed state television CCTV, the station will go from being a ‘T’-shaped structure with three modules to a cross-shaped one with six modules. Its mass will be approximately 180 tons and, although it will remain smaller than the ISS, it will have the capacity to equal the astronauts on a permanent mission: six. If the plans are fulfilled, the three current modules will be joined by a fourth that will have multiple docking ports that will give rise to future laboratory units, increasing the potential to six modules. At the moment, there is no date for this expansion, but it is estimated that work will begin around 2027 and will be a Long March 5B the rocket that will transport what is necessary. Since its T-shaped module was completed, astronauts have performed more than 260 experiments and 26 spacewalks. Exclusiveness. China spent 2025 launching rockets, culminating in a month of December in which they broke all their launch records in a stress test for your multiple mission points. With plans to expand their space station, they show that they are committed to this new era of research and exploration, being something that arrives just when the International Space Station remains in question. Tiangong has remained an exclusive laboratory for Chinese researchers, but if it suddenly becomes the only station in low orbit, China is the one that has the access key so that foreign astronauts can carry out their work in those special conditions. On April 22, the Chinese Manned Space Flight Agency already commented that two Pakistan Air Force pilots would be trained as reserve astronauts and one would travel to Tiangong. He will be the first non-Chinese astronaut to do so, although there are already other astronauts from Hong Kong and Macau who will perform the same process. It is something that responds to China’s intention to promote cooperation projects with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, but without forgetting that the Tiangong is Chinese and, as we say, they have the keys to the doors… and the right of admission. Scrap. While the Asian giant announces the good news around its station, on the other side of the world a dismantling process of the ISS is still scheduled for 2031. The plan is that NASA use a vehicle exclusive to SpaceX to guide the ISS to a space cemetery somewhere in the Pacific. In recent months there has been a lot of discussion about whether it is a better idea to dismantle it, turn it into scrap metal or use it as a portbut at this point, the plan continues its course and it is possible that, sooner rather than later, Tiangong will remain the only manned space station in low Earth orbit. In Xataka | Europe has grown tired of being NASA’s “supporting actor.” And that is why it is starting to work with China

cost savings are becoming very expensive for big tech

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Large technology companies have been in a dynamic for months that is difficult to understand if the current technological context is not taken into account. Companies that, according to your tax results of the first quarter of 2026, record historic profits close to 80%they are cutting jobs at the same time. What is happening in their workforce has nothing to do with a financial crisis, but rather responds to a strategic decision regarding AI. According to the records from the portal Layoffs.fyiSo far in 2026, more than 92,000 employees in the technology sector they have lost their job throughout the world due to layoff rounds that the main technology companies have launched. The main argument for these layoffs is AIbut not because this technology is going to do the work that programmers used to do, but rather it responds to a restructuring of companies to lighten their workforce and focus only on developing AI. The measure is not coming cheap. The big bet of AI that must be paid. By chance (and the proximity to the presentation of their first quarter results) Microsoft and Meta announced, on the same day, layoffs that will affect more than 16,000 employees between the two. Meta will lay off 8,000 workers, 10% of its global workforce, and will leave another 6,000 vacancies unfilled. The goal of both companies is to improve efficiency and offset investment in artificial intelligence. Microsoft will face investments close to 145 billion dollars only in this fiscal year, thus adding to investments in AI what are they doing each and every one of the big technology companies. Maintaining that bet without margins suffering forces cuts, and personnel is the expense that investors like it less. Altogether, investments worth 700,000 million will be accumulated among all large technology companies during 2026. These estimates also include compensation expenses that are associated with these personnel cuts. Oracle, for example, reserved 2.1 billion dollars only for this game in your round of 30,000 layoffs. Microsoft launches a different formula: voluntary dismissal. Instead of announcing collective layoffs, Microsoft has chosen a path that the company had never used in its 51-year history: making voluntary exit offers to encourage its employees to leave by their own decision. Google already applied this formula of voluntary dismissals in its 2025 personnel cuts, not without the risk of losing its best employees by opening the exit door for them. This initiative is aimed at employees with a very specific profile who, in theory, would be more complicated to relocate to a new internal position within the framework of this workforce restructuring. In total, this offer has been made to 7% of its workforce in the US, more than 8,500 people. Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s chief people officer, announced the move in an internal memo. In that statement to which had access CNBCColeman wrote: “Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the option to take that next step on their own terms, with the company’s generous support.” Why an incentive instead of a layoff. Both voluntary departure and conventional dismissal have the same outcome: the workforce is reduced. However, as as highlighted to Fortune Domenique Camacho Moran, lawyer and partner at the Farrell Fritz law firm, specialized in labor law for Fortune 500 companies, traditional layoffs are legally more complex because they require evaluating the performance of each worker and argue his dismissal to avoid legal risks. “The voluntary exit option gives the employer the ability to say that it’s not that we don’t think you’re doing a good job, but that if you’re thinking it’s time to move on, I’m going to encourage you to do so because we need to downsize.” Incidentally, since it is an initiative of the employee, the company does not have to look for arguments for dismissal, which simplifies the process and avoids future legal claims. A risky bet for talent. However, as we already mentioned, the voluntary dismissal formula is risky since it leaves the decision in the hands of the employee. possibility of resigning. In a context of shortage of specialized talent (especially in AI), companies run the risk that their best swords will accept the incentive, paying a double cost for it. Last year, Google offered voluntary departures across several teams, including its search and advertising division. Vice President Nick Fox was blunt in his memo: “I want to be very clear: If you are excited about your job, energized by the opportunity ahead of you, and performing well, I really (really!) hope you don’t take it.” as collected CNBC. In Xataka | While technology companies dispense with juniors to replace them with AI, IBM is doing the opposite: catching bargains Image | Unsplash (Compagnons, Sam Torres)

why the silent user is the big winner of social networks

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A few years ago social networks were used as authentic repositories of information, with many publications throughout the day and maximum interaction. Nowadays it is not unusual to see Instagram profiles completely empty of posts and reserved only for stories or even on X people who publish absolutely nothing, but have a really old account. And it’s not that they are dead accounts, but that their owners are just “watching”. A paradigm shift. The technology industry has been selling us the need to have a presence on social networks to participate in the collective trend and with the aim of staying behind. But for science, these people who just watch without participating are actually the most intelligent and have received the name ‘lurking’. For a long time, this attitude was attributed to a lack of commitment, but the reality is that lukers We represent the vast majority of users on the Internet, who only prefer silent consumption without entering into controversies or commenting on anything at all. In this way, our opinions remain in our minds and are not materialized by putting an answer on X or a comment on YouTube on a video. Why does it happen? Here a key study from Frontier in Psychology has analyzed the psychological mechanisms behind this technological retreat and points to four critical factors: Seeing the lives of others generates pressure that inhibits the desire we may have to share our own life or our concerns. Concern for privacy, since a publication can easily be misinterpreted without context and expose itself to unnecessary controversy. The pressure to generate social interaction in the comment box of different platforms is something that can deplete our energy reserves. There is an excess of interactive stimuli that causes the brain to not be able to process more. Consumption without exposure. Not all those who remain silent do so for fear of entering into a controversy, but for many, it is a matter of efficiency. Here, according to a job from Computers in Human Behavior, the motivations for consuming content such as watching a tutorial on YouTube or reading a thread on X are totally different from those for participating. Here the user seeks mere usefulness for their daily life, making reading comments help to contextualize a news item without having to enter the mire of discussion. In this way, the user feels that they are up to date with all the news that may surround them, but without having to type a single word. The dark side. The problem is that these attitudes indicate that the level of toxicity on social networks is quite high, which is why this ‘defense mechanism’ is activated in which a user does not leave because they do not want to lose connection with the world, but they ‘turn off’ their microphone. In the end it is a selective withdrawal in which you continue to see what is happening, but the noise is not allowed to directly affect the user. Images | freepik In Xataka | Snapchat has almost 1 billion users and invented the king format of the Internet. He still doesn’t know how to make money with it

Big Tech is pouring billions of dollars into GPUs for AI. 95% are inactive

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When the COVID-19 pandemic began, toilet paper and yeast They flew from the supermarket. Paper because it is a basic good, but yeast because everyone was going to make a lot of bread in his house. That was the forecast, but we would really have to see how many of us ended up making bread. Well, something similar is happening in the data centers at the moment. Hyperscalers have spent billions and billions of dollars on GPUs for AI and, according to one report, 95% are idle most of the time. And all because of the fear of being left out. Kubernetes. Before getting into the matter, there is a concept that must be landed on. It is the one of the kubernetes. It is a kind of “operating system” in data centers, the foreman who organizes and monitors all the software that is being used. Imagine that a data center is a supermarket, the shelves are the servers and the products are the apps. Example of a control panel What this foreman does is find the perfect shelf to place the product in the most optimal way possible. In addition, he is constantly monitoring all the shelves at all times with the aim of not missing anything and ensuring that the data flow is perfect. It is, in short, a software that manages many physical servers in a very optimized way and 24/7. What’s happening. That said, the 2026 State of Kubernetes Optimization Report prepared by Cast AI has just revealed something: the tremendous inefficiency of data centers. They have analyzed about 23,000 kubernetes clusters in giants such as AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft) and GCP (Google) and have discovered that the average GPU utilization of these data centers is just 5%. This translates another way: 95% are inactive most of the time, which implies that these companies are paying to get 20 times more computing capacity than they really need. Right now you might be wondering if it was worth it. destroy the RAM and SSD marketmaking computers, mobile phones, consoles and practically everything more expensive. And it is a question that makes all the sense in the world, but there is another interesting fact. To worse. As we see in TechRadarthose responsible for Cast AI point out that it is “the third year that we published this report and the numbers are getting worse.” Specifically, we are talking about CPU usage falling from 10% last year to 8% currently, while memory usage fell from 23% to 20%. Oversized needs. Something that the report also points out is that, although the use of equipment drops compared to the previous year, hyperscalers continue buying as if the world was going to end. CPU overprovisioning, as they describe it, increased from 40% to 69%. In the case of memory, it went to 79%. FOMO. A few weeks ago, one of the leaders of SMIC, the large foundry in China, already pointed out that Big Tech was buying all the resources that they will need, or that they think they will need, during the next decade… but in just a couple of years. They are investing a fortune in creating wide highways when there are no cars or real demand, and from Cast AI they are pointing in that same direction. Hyperscalers are buying piecemeal due to fear of being left out. It is what is known as FOMO or fear of missing outsomething that applies to many scenarios, but here it has to do with not wanting to come last in the race that is moving many millions from one place to another. This hoarding instinct is fueling a cycle of component shortages that affects consumers, but also the industry itself. According to the report, it makes some sense to want to buy everything as soon as possible because delivery times are long, but they are precisely so because everyone is buying more capacity than they need. Math doesn’t work. In the analysis they also point out that there are clusters that do not have such bad performance and that there are some that are using 49% of their H200 or 30% of their H100, well above the aforementioned 5%, but it is not the norm. And beyond having exploded the components market, the consequence of having so much equipment idle is that they are losing money because they are not profitable. According to calculations, an unused CPU costs a few cents per hour, but an idle GPU costs several dollars. And therein lies another key to this whole matter. Amazon or Azure data centers serve to satisfy the demands of their own companies, but they also rent computing power to whoever needs it. And since having the GPUs stopped costs them money, in recent months it has been reported that the prices of those rentals are multiplying. When will it all end? Cast AI is not optimistic, since they claim that most hyperscalers prefer to assume the costs rather than change their habits for fear that this will take off one day and catch them on the wrong foot. The translation is that… I will never have my Steam Machinesince everyone is focused on making hardware for AI. Image | NVIDIA In Xataka | There are data centers being watched and guarded by robot dogs because apparently the future is already the present

In silence, the US is arming Spain’s most uncomfortable neighbor on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar in a big way.

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The scene took place in the 1980s, when the United States discreetly used bases in southern Spain to launch air strikes on Libya, an operation that showed to what extent the strategic balances in the Mediterranean could depend on little visible agreements for public opinion. Decades later, that same board moves again, although along less obvious paths for Spain. A silent turn in the Strait. In the surroundings of Strait of Gibraltar A fundamental strategic change is taking place that does not respond to a single movement in itself, but to an entire accumulation of decisions sustained over time that are strengthening Morocco. as a key military actor on the southern European flank. This movement, although it is still not public, has now acquired character official with the signature of a road map of defense between the governments of Rabat and Washington for the next decade, a movement that is neither trivial nor an isolated gesture, but the formalization of a broader commitment in which the United States consolidates Morocco in the next 10 years as itsyour preferred partner in North Africa, with direct implications for regional balance and, no doubt, for Spain’s position. From regional partner to strategic platform. Yes, because the relationship between both countries has evolved to make Morocco more than an allygoing on to play the role of operational and technological platform from which the United States projects influence towards Africa and the Mediterranean. There are several examples, for example, the exercises as African Lionwhich integrate troops, industry and technology, and reflect this transformation, as well as the incorporation advanced capabilities as the Link-16 systemwhich brings Morocco closer to NATO standards. This leap not only improves military interoperability, but also places the country in a privileged position within the Western security architecture. Access to advanced technology. The reinforcement of this alliance translates into a military modernization unprecedented, with a significant increase in defense spending and access to systems that until recently were out of reach, from helicopters Apache attack up to guided munitions and potentially the almighty F-35 Lightning II fighters. Added to this is the development of a self defense industrywith production, maintenance and training plants that allow Morocco not only to acquire capabilities, but to begin to consolidate them autonomously, reducing its external dependence in the long term. A rearmament to change the balance. Be that as it may, and despite this progress, Spain maintains a clear superiority for now in structural termsespecially in the naval field and in its technological and industrial base, which allows it to retain a significant advantage over Morocco. However, this advantage is no longer as large as in the past, and the trend and agreement with Washington aims for a progressive convergence, driven by Moroccan economic growth and its sustained investment in military capabilities. If you like, the result is not an immediate balance, but an increasingly competitive environment in which the distance between both countries is reduced constantly. Technology, influence and projection. Plus: Morocco’s objective is not limited to improving its military capacity, but is very possibly part of a broader strategy to increase its geopolitical weight in the Maghreb, the Sahel and the entire western Mediterranean. American support, along with its approach to other partners like Israelreinforces this idea and ambition, allowing Rabat to position itself as a central actor in regional security and as a privileged interlocutor of the great powers in the area. Gradual change. In short, the panorama that draw ten years view is not that of an abrupt and total break, of course, but rather that of a progressive transformation in which Morocco gains capabilities, influence and room for maneuver thanks to the US support. In this process, Spain will continue to be the dominant actor on the military level, but it no longer operates in a static environment, but in one in which its neighbor to the south, often uncomfortable depending on the circumstances, is getting stronger constantly, slowly altering the balance in one of the most sensitive points of Europe, and nuclear from Spain. Image | US Africa CommandNARA In Xataka | The tunnel between Spain and Morocco seemed like a chimera. Now a tunnel boring machine manufacturer says it is viable In Xataka | The US threatened to take the Rota base to Morocco. Spain has buried it with an unbeatable offer: more territory

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