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Disney has invested more than 5.7 billion euros in Disneyland Paris. He still hasn’t recovered even half of that amount.

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On March 29, 2026, Josh D’Amaro inaugurated World of Frozen before Emmanuel Macron, Penélope Cruz and Naomi Campbell. It was his first major public act as CEO of Disneyeleven days after taking office. However, he did not do it in the now classic Disneyland in Orlando, but in Paris. A park that, according to French commercial recordsaccumulates a deficit of 4.2 billion dollars after more than three decades open. Disneyland Paris is Disney’s most profitable international subsidiary and even so, it still You have not recovered your initial investment. So…why is it still open? On paper, all good. When Disney makes public the financial results of your parksit doesn’t break it down by installation. But since Euro Disney Associés (EDA), the company that manages the complex, is obliged to publish detailed accounts in France, we can know the Parisian figures: in the year ending in September 2025, EDA’s income reached a record of 4 billion dollars, 8.4% more than the previous year, driven in part by the implementation of the controversial dynamic prices. Net profit reached 304.2 million, also the highest in its history. For its part, the results of Disney’s international parks segment They rose 25% in the last quarter of fiscal year 2025and the company explicitly attributed that improvement to the pull of Disneyland Paris. Do the math. However, since opening in 1992, what was initially known as Euro Disney has only made a net profit in 13 years. Accumulated losses total 3.7 billion dollars. In other words: Disney has invested a total of 6.8 billion dollars (5.7 billion euros) in the complex and has not yet recovered that figure. With 304 million annual profits, it is difficult to think of it being recovered. The French trap. EDA operates within particular financial parameters. France gave up the coveted 2,230 hectare land in Chessy (almost a fifth of the area of ​​Paris) in exchange for the complex being organized as a public-private collaboration. Disney started as a minority shareholder with 49% and since it was not the main shareholder, Disney did not capitalize the company as it would have done in its American parks. It only contributed 132.1 million of the 4.9 billion that the construction cost. The remaining 59.8% was covered by a bank loan assumed by the Euro Disney joint venture. EDA was listed on the Euronext, which on the one hand forced accounting transparency, and on the other hand chained the company to a very fragile capital structure just before the first great recession of the time hit. A year after the opening, Philippe Bourguignon, president of Euro Disney, recognized that the company’s financial imbalance was so severe that its very existence was at risk. Crisis after crisis. In reality, the history of Disneyland Paris is a summary of the great economic crises that the sector and, specifically, France has experienced. The park opened during a recession that affected all of Europe, but especially the country (with a drop in GDP of 1.5% in 1993). French tourists rejected the prices of tickets, the absence of alcohol in restaurants and English as the dominant language. Disneyland Paris’ second park, Walt Disney Studios (renamed Disney Adventure World in 2026), opened in 2002 just as global tourism was suffering after 9/11. The worst year came in 2016: Disneyland Paris posted a record net loss of $961.8 million after the November 2015 attacks plunged attendance at the park. Disney’s reaction in 2017 was to buy the remaining 51% of shares for 250.8 million and pay another 1,700 to eliminate all the accumulated debt. But the misfortunes did not end: the 2020 pandemic cut off the recovery that this sanitation had started. And things are not over: the war in the Middle East affects energy and flights, and it remains to be seen how it will impact the business in the medium term. The clear accounts. For 34 years, the royalties and other management expenses that EDA has paid to the American parent company total 2.4 billion dollars: fees for attraction design, licensed characters, costumes, show production… But Disneyland Paris receives 16 million visitors a year, it is the most frequented tourist destination in Europe and, according to the study itself contributes 6.1% of France’s total tourist income. In 2025, the parks and experiences divisions generated the 57% of Disney’s consolidated operating profiton total revenues of $94.4 billion. It is the weight of that segment that took D’Amaro from parks management to CEO. But one thing is clear: EDA cannot distribute dividends until its accumulated losses are fully compensated. At 304 million in annual net profit and with the historic hole unclosed, that moment is not around the corner: it seems that we are not talking about short-term compensation. Header | Pablo Monteagudo In Xataka | Abu Dhabi Disney Park will be like no other. For a hot reason

a 4.5 billion bridge over the Panama Canal

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Panama-David. That is the name of the most important railway project in the Central American country. A 450 kilometer long route that aims to connect the country by train, crossing its width at speeds of up to 180 km/h. A route that also includes routes for the transfer of goods and that has a critical step over the most famous canal in the country. And to verify that everything is going correctly, Panama has trusted Renfe. Panama-David. It is “the flagship project” of the Panamanian Government. So, in fact, It is how the state website itself defines to the Panama-David railway line. The project aims to connect the entire country by crossing its width with a high-speed train line that can travel at 180 km/h. This railway line, which will employ more than 50,000 Panamanians, according to official information, will have 14 stations and the capacity to transport goods on rails at a maximum of 100 km/h. The plans included starting the works this year and, for this, Renfe will be key. The approval. And Renfe will be in charge of approving the technical reports that have already been developed by AECOM (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operations and Management), the American company to which Panama commissioned the evaluation of the project in 2024. Now Renfe will have to certify that the project, according to the bases designed by this company, are viable. The feasibility of the planned train stations and workshops will be studied, among other aspects, but it is a bridge that is really worrying. A bridge that will cross the Panama Canal. The Bridge. At one end of the line, the fifth bridge over the Panama Canal has been planned. This bridge will be in charge of carrying the line to the border with Costa Rica, where the project ends. It is estimated that building this new step would cost about 4.5 billion dollars. From the little that is known, it has been published that the bridge would be parallel to the Centennial Bridgethe second to be built in this enclave and which was designed to relieve traffic from the Bridge of the Americas, the first to be built over the Canal. Why Renfe? They explain in the local newspaper The Press that the Panamanian Government has chosen Renfe because of the prestige that the company has when evaluating technical railway projects. The assignment falls on Renfe International Projectsthe division of the company that is responsible for offering service or advice outside our borders. In Panama they highlight that Renfe will be key to understanding if the preliminary report is viable and if the bridge can be built as planned. The company will also analyze future expansion possibilities and technical concepts such as work to be carried out underwater or evacuation routes. All of this will allow, according to the National Railway Society (SNF) of Panama, “to reduce technical and operational risks, and strengthen informed decision-making to guarantee the viability, efficiency and sustainability of the railway project.” another assignment. As we said, Renfe International Projects is the company in charge of carrying out railway work outside our borders. Last year it had a turnover of 20 million euros (the Panamanian project will bring in more than 300,000 dollars, according to local media) and its star project is the AVE to Mecca. In addition, the company is also interested in operating on the French high speed and look for your place in Italy but it is also present in Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. Photo | André Marques and Paulo3082 In Xataka | Mexico spent a fortune building its Mayan Train to attract tourists. Things are not going as expected.

35 billion dollars to build the largest airport in the world

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95,192,160 passengers. This is the number of travelers who registered at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in 2025, according to data from Airports Council International (ACI). A figure that elevated it to second place in the world for passenger traffic, only behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States. This last location has been repeating for three years asThe busiest airport in the world and last year it moved 10 million more passengers than Dubai, breaking the barrier of 106 million passengers in a single year. A figure that, year after year, Dubai wants to reduce to become the airport with the highest passenger traffic in the world. And it has a $35 billion plan to achieve it. An airport like no one ever conceived As we said, so far Dubai has remained below 100 million passengers per year. However, the ambition is to break this barrier in just two years. Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, assured Time Out that they aspired to break this ceiling soon and that by 2031 they want to reach 113 million passengers. These figures would predictably make them the busiest airport in the world but it has a problem: the current Dubai International Airport (DXB) and remodeling it would cost as much money who, directly, prefer to get a new one. At least that is what they maintain from the Emirate. And in 2010 the Al Maktoum International Airporta space that until now has operated at half throttle and is a ridiculous size compared to its Dubai brother. But in 2024 an expansion was approved to position it as the largest airport in the world with the capacity to handle 260 million passengers in a single year. That is, almost the same passengers as the three busiest airports in the world right now: adding Haneda in Tokyo (third in the world) to those mentioned in Atlanta and Dubai. According to the voices that have defended the project, the problem is that the current airport is so large that maintenance work drives up costs and, they say, it is cheaper to build a gigantic expansion of the current Al Maktoum International Airport than to renovate the famous Dubai International Airport. For this, it has been planned to invest 35,000 million euros to make the current Al Maktoum International Airport the center of the Dubai World Central (DWC), the most ambitious mobility hub in the world. This space has been planned as a megacity with residential spaces, hotels, golf courses… and, above all, the largest airport in the world built by man in its history. Specifically, has been projected that the renovation of the new airport costs $34.85 billion. This figure reflects the ambitions to multiply the size of the DBX by five, building five 4.5 kilometer long landing strips separated by 800 meters. It will have four main concourses and more than 400 doors to operate flights. The intention is that, operationally, the new airport will be operating at higher performance by the end of the decade to make the complete move from the current DBX to the renovated Al Maktoum International Airport in 2032. That year they hope to manage the traffic of 150 million passengers in one year. That is, about 44 million more passengers than the current Atlanta airport, the busiest in the world, handles. These passengers will be distributed across three terminals. The intention is that one of them is dedicated solely to the operations of the Emirates Group and another to international flights. The third will concentrate low-cost flights. In addition, a parking lot with 100,000 spaces is planned for workers only. The intention is to build a high-speed train between both airspaces but to transfer the bulk of the operations to the new construction. Of course, its surroundings and all its services are not expected to be built until 2050. By then, Dubai intends to be able to operate flights with the capacity to move up to 260 million passengers. That is, it should be able to manage half the population of the European Union in a single year. To consolidate this mega-move, the Dubai airport is already working with new biometric recognition and baggage management systems using artificial intelligence as a test before the airlines arrive at the new space. Obviously, the intention is scale operations to mitigate the risk of collapse. Consolidation as the largest mobility hub in the world is not only understood with commercial flights. Dubai wants this new space to be the best place in the world for landing flights. Airbus A380the largest passenger plane in the world, but also the best place to carry out your maintenance and repair work. Likewise, it wants to consolidate itself as a key place for the transportation of goods and have restricted space for the landing and takeoff of private flights to which it will be offered all kinds of luxuries with a huge range of auxiliary services such as the aforementioned hotels, shopping centers and leisure spaces. Photo | DWC and Adam Khan In Xataka | European airlines are taking advantage of the Iran crisis to accelerate something old: making your trip even more complicated.

The United States promised to be very happy manufacturing its own chips. Nvidia just spent 150 billion in Taiwan

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Houston, we have a problem. A couple of days ago the CEO of Nvidia stood on the stage at Computex in Taipei and said an inconvenient truth for the United States: “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI ​​revolution. This is where chips and packaging are made. This is where systems are created. This is where AI supercomputers were created.” The setting was Computex 2026, Asia’s biggest tech event, and it wasn’t a compliment to the host, it’s a real depiction of how the industry works. It may sound paradoxical for an American company and at a time when The United States wants to reindustrialize with chipsbut he needs it. It is a structural issue. The harsh reality of profitability. Nvidia plans spend 150,000 million dollars a year in Taiwan, much more than the 100,000 million they spend now and with an abysmal difference compared to the 10,000 and 15,000 million five years ago. If it sounds silly, it’s because it is, but so is its billing: in the first fiscal quarter of 2026 billed 81.6 billion dollars, 85% more than the previous year in that same period. Also its benefit it’s already going off the charts: 58.3 billion, more than triple compared to the same period last year. That this money goes to Taiwan and not to the United States is due to technical and objective issues: Taiwan produces 90% of the most advanced chips in the world, according to a study by the Stimson Center. Of that Taiwanese production, TSMC controls 70% and is going to invest between 52,000 and 56,000 million this year. Bottom line: If Nvidia wants cutting-edge manufacturing capability, it has to be there. Why is it important. The best way to see it is to put Vera Rubin on the table, who In Huang’s words it is “probably the biggest product launch in Taiwan’s history.” Each system contains about two million parts and is assembled with 150 suppliers, almost all Taiwanese. This mechanism is not assembled by decree or in a legislature: it requires years and putting billions of dollars on the table. There is no factory in Arizona that can do something like this at least until 2030. Constellation will be Nvidia’s new headquarters in Taipei and will come to stay permanently: 4,000 engineering professionals will work in that center that according to Huang It will be operational by 2030. It is no longer that it buys in Taiwan, it is that the most valuable semiconductor company in the world is building the heart of its R&D in that core, an island 10,000 kilometers from the United States. A splash of cold water on Trump’s aspirations. Context. In January 2026, Taiwanese companies they committed to invest $250 billion in semiconductors and AI in the United States, as part of a trade agreement with Washington. Because Taiwan and the US are a symbiosis: each needs the other to maintain its position in the race for AI. The investment of a private company like Nvidia is another expression of this pact. In fact, Nvidia is not the only one: AMD is doing exactly the same: associate with Taiwanese manufacturers such as ASE, SPIL and Wiwynn with their Helios AI platform on the horizon (expected for the second half of 2026). That the two largest AI chip designers in the world strengthen ties with Taiwan is confirmation that the island’s industry is strategically necessary for the entire industry, not a particular bet by one firm. The elephant in the room: China. China’s role in this story is twofold: it is a threat and also a client. According to Reutersin 2026 Chinese companies have placed orders for more than two million units of the H200. Trade restrictions have made the operation difficult, but they have not been able to prevent it. One of the last cases point upon the arrival of a shipment of Nvidia AI chips to China via Japan. Nvidia lives in a contradiction from which it cannot escape: Its supply chain is on an island that China considers its own. China, which is its largest potential market, is blocked. Washington prohibits him from selling to Beijing while asking for independence from Taipei. And judging by his statements, Jensen Huang has bet everything on continuing to walk that wire. Yes, but. The Nvidia CEO forgot one problem in his speech: Taiwan makes the overwhelming majority of the world’s most advanced chips, but TSMC’s diversification into Arizona, Japan and Germany will not be ready before 2028 at best. That is to say, there are almost four years ahead in which Nvidia depends totally on Taiwan, a country that matters 97% of your energy. Furthermore, the atmosphere in the Strait of the same name is increasingly heated. Concentrating the production of its most critical component in a geographically hot spot is dangerous to say the least: if something explodes, there is no plan B. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has reminded us of this the hard way. In Xataka | Huawei has found a way to counteract US sanctions: overcoming Moore’s Law In Xataka | US companies have always had a hard time making a lot of money in China. One industry is the exception: chips Cover | freepik and Jimmy Liao

‘Star Citizen’ has managed to reach $1 billion in financing. We have no idea when it will be released

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There are video games that fall behind, video games that change course, and video games that seem to live in a category of their own. ‘Star Citizen‘ clearly belongs to the latter. What we have seen for more than a decade is not only the development of an ambitious space simulator, but a phenomenon that is difficult to fit into the usual molds of the industry: thousands and thousands of players financing a promise that continues to grow without there being yet a closed date for its full commercial launch. A figure that is difficult to ignore. The official website of Roberts Space Industries places funding ‘Star Citizen’ at $1,011,412,026, with 6,560,271 Star Citizens registered at the time of capture contributed. We are not talking about an estimate or a figure reconstructed from outside, but rather the public accountant of the project itself. This data allows us to better understand the magnitude of the phenomenon: a community that has not only closely followed each progress, but has also financially supported one of the most ambitious and prolonged bets in modern video games. Fourteen years of waiting. The origin of the project helps to understand why this case has become so unique. ‘Star Citizen’ began to take shape in 2012when Chris Roberts, known for ‘Wing Commander’, co-founded Cloud Imperium Games with Sandi Roberts and decided to finance development directly with the community. The game was originally aimed at 2014a reference that today serves to measure the distance between that first ambition and the current state of the project. Open development as fuel. The study has not maintained interest only with an initial promise, but by showing the process almost live. We have seen a development accompanied by weekly broadcasts, blogs, roadmaps and early access to the alpha, a way of working that has made the community a visible part of the project. Sandi Roberts also points to that link when she talks about AMAs on Reddit, forums and ‘Bar Citizens’ events, gatherings organized by fans themselves. It’s not finished, but it’s not empty either.. It is convenient to separate two ideas that are often mixed. ‘Star Citizen’ does not yet have a full commercial version, but those who support the project You can now play an alpha with available content on PC. In its current state, the project allows for bounty hunting, mining, large-scale industrial transportation, medical rescue, and ship recovery. Ships, promises and thousands of dollars. The financing model also has a particularly striking side. Many of the highest-value contributions are tied to ships associated with the game, with options that can start at $15 and others that run into the thousands. The most recent example is the Anvil Odina ship worth more than $5,000. Also, there is an important nuance: it is a “concept pledge”, so it is not yet available in the game. The final stretch remains undated. In parallel to ‘Star Citizen’, Cloud Imperium is also working on ‘Squadron 42‘, a single-player campaign set in the same universe and with a cast that includes several figures. ANDn statements to VarietyChris Roberts assured that the team is in the final phases, although without a fixed schedule. Therein lies the big unknown: the project has reached an enormous scale, but we still don’t know when version 1.0 will arrive. Images | Roberts Space Industries In Xataka | If you had any hope of buying a Steam Deck OLED at a good price, the RAM crisis has something to tell you

Bill Gates is responsible for the “biggest mistake of all time” that cost Microsoft 400 billion, according to the co-founder of Android

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Nobody is perfect. Not even the great tycoons who have taken technology companies to the peak of success. One of these examples is Bill Gates who during an interview recognized What has been the biggest mistake he has made in his time running Microsoft. And the co-founder of Android did not hesitate to mock him through social networks several years after this confession. Today we all associate the Android operating system with Google, which is the company behind it. But in its beginnings Android was in limbo between Microsoft and Google. This is where Bill Gates’ mistake was, who did not decide to bet on this operating system, causing Google to keep it and get the great performance it has today. Android co-founder gives a different version of Gates’ “biggest mistake” It was a few years ago during an interview with Julia HartzCEO of Evenbrite, where the Microsoft co-founder acknowledged that the biggest mistake he has made ““It’s the mismanagement that I got involved in that caused Microsoft to not be what Android is.” This mismanagement caused Google will develop Android before Microsoftand achieved the great success it has today. In addition to the many benefits that Android leaves today for being the operating system with the largest market share, 72.46% global share according to statistics from the end of 2025. That is why a bad decision and problems with antitrust laws meant that this operation was not closed. Although he tried to do something similar with Windows Phone, it didn’t turn out well as we have already seen. For Bill Gates there is only room for an operating system other than iOS on the market. And this is something that figure at 400,000 million dollars that he lost with this bad decision 20 years ago. He related it in the following way: The biggest mistake of all was the mismanagement I got into that caused Microsoft to not be what Android is, meaning Android is the standard platform for non-Apple phones. In reality, it is a winner-take-all market. If you have half as many applications or 90% of them, you are on your way to total ruin. There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system, and how much is that worth? 400 billion dollars that would be transferred from company G (Google) to company M (Microsoft). For Gates, this is one of the biggest mistakes in history, and he has no doubt that if he had reached the mobile market before Google, Microsoft would be the company that would be dominating today. Their mistake was leaving Google with Android “free” until it developed Windows Phone. The best part of this story comes when the co-founder of Android appeared last year to comment on these words through your X account. In a publication he details that his goal when developing Android was to prevent Microsoft from controlling phones “as it did with computers, stifling innovation.” Click on the image to access the publication. With this concern that Microsoft could control the mobile world, the co-founder of Android affirms that “Sorry Bill, but you’re more responsible for the $400 billion loss than you think.” On this topic Steve Ballmer also spokethe charismatic former CEO of Microsoft, who admitted that this mistake by Microsoft was motivated by overconfidence and “arrogance” focused on the supremacy of the Windows brand. This led them to underestimate the competition and assume that they could dominate any new market by imposing their ecosystem, but evidently this was not the case. Images | Wikimedia Commons (UK Government) Via | Windows Central In Xataka | “In five years they will have to pay taxes”: Bill Gates has pointed out the elephant in the room of AI and humanoids A version of this article was published in 2025 in Genbeta

Europe throws away 16 billion a year in electronic waste. Spain has just turned on the first oven in Europe to recover them

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Those cell phones, computers and small devices that are gathering dust in a drawer and ending up in a landfill contain valuable minerals such as copper, silver and platinum inside, which also end up there. Every year in the Spanish state almost 930,000 tons of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) are thrown away, which makes Spain the sixth state on the continent in generation of this type of waste. according to data from the UN E-waste Monitor by 2024. Of these, less than half is documented and recycled waste. In a context in which rare earths and critical minerals are a strategic resource of which Europe wants to achieve sovereignty, Spain has taken a step forward with a CSIC pilot plant pioneer in the old continent: a furnace capable of melting that electronic waste to extract valuable metals from it. The pioneer oven. A few days ago the National Center for Metallurgical Research of the CSIC inaugurated in Madrid the first European pilot plant capable of recovering critical metals from electronic waste using a submerged lance furnace, which exceeds 1,200 °C to melt electronic waste. The milestone was formalized with the first experimental casting of metals obtained directly from electronic waste and obtained materials such as copper, gold, silver and platinum in a clean and efficient way. In conventional furnaces, the heat comes from the outside, but in this case a metal lance is introduced that injects oxygen and fuel directly into the molten bath, which generates intense turbulence that mixes and homogenizes the material, accelerates chemical reactions and improves energy efficiency. Why is it important. Because every year Europe generates millions of tons of electronic waste containing copper, gold, silver, platinum and strategic minerals necessary for the energy transition and digitalization. A part of them is not recovered: it is lost or used outside the continent. The facility in question is an advance in advanced pyrometallurgy and the management of waste from electrical and electronic equipment that shows that it is possible to treat this waste in Europe, thus preventing the associated economic value from leaving the continent, which allows the raw materials to be reincorporated into the European production chain itself. In addition, it connects directly with the Critical Raw Materials Law of the European Union, which fixed that at least 25% of the critical raw materials consumed by the EU by 2030 must come from recycling. The EU is currently heavily dependent on imports of critical raw materials, often from a single supplier, which poses a serious geopolitical risk in the form of dependence on strategic sectors such as renewable energy, digitalisation and defence. Context. The generation of WEEE is out of control and breaking records. According to the UN international waste observatoryin 2022 the world generated 62 million tons, 82% more than in 2010, but less than in 2030, when the estimated figure is 82 million tons. Europe takes the cake: in 2022 it was the region with the highest volume of WEEE per inhabitant with 17.6 kg per person, of which only 7.3 kg were recovered. But that garbage is money: the UN E-Waste quantifies the economic value of those 62 million tons at 91 billion dollars a year. If of this global total of WEEE, 13 million tons of garbage per year They belong to Europe. Calculated proportionally, it would be equivalent to losing about 19,000 million dollars annually due to poorly managing these materials (about 16,340 million euros at the exchange rate). While we search for deposits and accelerate their exploitation in a sector dominated by China, we have a deposit pending to be exploited: the “urban” mine with WEEE recycling. The situation regarding WEEE in Europe in 2022. UN E-Waste 2024 How it works. He submerged lance furnace is based on the ISASMELT processso that the raw materials only need to be pre-mixed, there is no need for fine grinding or drying, which simplifies the feeding with materials as heterogeneous as WEEE. The separation of materials is based on the difference in densities: once the waste is melted, copper and precious metals such as gold or silver tend to sink to the bottom of the reactor due to their greater density, while the slag (which is non-metallic) floats on the surface, which makes extraction simple. The project has been possible thanks to a public-private collaboration between CENIM-CSIC and two companies, the European copper smelting giant Atlantic Copper and the metallurgical company Glencore Technology. Yes, but. The CENIM facility is a pilot plant, not an industrial plant, and this leap in pyrometallurgy is not exactly small: engineering issues must be resolved such as the management of the gases emitted in the process or the useful life of the furnace’s refractory materials, among others. And this project may find its political framework in the Critical Raw Materials Act, but this It’s more of a statement of intent. than anything else: it does not have a roadmap nor has it made available new funds to accelerate these initiatives. However, the biggest problem is not in the oven, but in recycling or the absence of this: 46% of WEEE and the critical materials it contains are lost before reaching any recycling facility, simply because collection is poor. There is little point in developing highly efficient recovery technology if electronic waste ends up mixed with organic waste in the brown container. Or if it is exported outside of Europe. The real bottleneck remains collection. In Xataka | Mortadelo and Filemón work for the CSIC: TIA agents explain the history of science to us with their comics In Xataka | The CSIC wants to create quantum solar energy capable of self-regulating its temperature. His inspiration: painting Cover | yasin hemmati and Nathan Cima

15 billion minutes watched, modest budget and no stars in the cast

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No Hollywood stars in the cast. No epic battles or expanded universes. With a budget that, by current industry standards, can be described as modest. ‘The Pitt‘has just become the most watched series on global streaming. A production about hospital emergencies in Pittsburgh that does not fit into any of the models that the industry has been perfecting for a decade. And that surprise factor may be one of the reasons for its success. The figures. The second season closed its broadcast very recently with more than 15 billion minutes watchedaccording to Nielsen metrics. On April 16, its season finale attracted 9.7 million viewers in its opening weekend alone, the best result in the series’ two-year life. According to Warner, the season averaged 15.4 million viewers per episode50% more than the first. We can compare with other successful series: in the week of March 30 to April 5, ‘The Pitt’ topped the Nielsen ranking with 1.16 billion minutes, becoming the only one of the top ten to surpass the billion barrier. ‘The Boys’, which concludes its run on Prime Video this year, came second with 889 million. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, with decades of accumulated catalog and also a medical theme, appeared fourth in the general ranking. The secret of his success. The series was created by R. Scott Gemmill, with Noah Wyle and John Wells as executive producers: the same team that gave us ‘ER’ on NBC for years. And they have learned a lot from that experience: ‘The Pitt’ follows the 15-hour shift in the Emergency Department in real time, with one episode per hour on call. There are no time jumps, multiple scenarios, or subplots that drag on for seasons without resolving. And while other HBO productions like ‘The Last of Us‘ either ‘The House of the Dragon‘ show budgets of between 15 and 20 million dollars per episode, ‘The Pitt’ is pulling with just over 4 million per chapter. The cast’s salary model reflects that same economic philosophy: the nine main actors with a permanent contract earn between $35,000 and $50,000 per episode, amounts in the low-mid range of the sector that, however, represented attractive treatment for unknown actors at a time of contraction in the television market. The awards. In 2025, the series won five Emmy Awards, including Best Drama, becoming the first medical series to win. since ‘Emergency’ won it in 1996. Wyle won for leading actor and Katherine LaNasa won for supporting actress, in a ceremony in which the series defeated ‘Severance’, despite the fact that it had a bag of 27 nominations. How it looks. Another point that distinguishes the series from its competitors and that has done a lot for its success is its programming strategy: fifteen episodes per season, weekly broadcast and annual return every January. The first season premiered in January 2025, the second in January 2026. The third will try to reach January 2027. HBO CEO Casey Bloys has already spoken of ‘The Pitt’ as the equivalent of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, a procedural that may be active for decades. It seems too ambitious, but everything points in that direction: the weekly rhythm has allowed both to build fan loyalty and facilitate late additions of audiences with the season started, something that the TV series binge-watching Netflix type they don’t get. The dramatic structure also moves in that direction: the series has no problems incorporating and eliminating characters, even of great importance (as happens in a real ER) so that the cast and conflicts do not stagnate. ‘The Pitt’ doesn’t invent anything. And maybe that’s the mother of the lamb. Its cadence of weekly cases is typical of 1990s television and its cast is full of very little-known faces, so that nothing distracts us from the plots, which pile up in each episode at a frenetic pace. It is impossible to know if we are witnessing a broader trend, the return of a way of making television that was thought to be forgotten, or whether ‘The Pitt’ is going to be an isolated triumph. In any case, it is a refreshing slap in the face to series that mechanically stretch out for ten episodes what should be solved in one of fifty minutes. In Xataka | The big problem with the ‘Harry Potter’ series for HBO is also its main hook: it is identical to the movies

His best gift has been having turned 5.5 billion euros into bricks

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Amancio Ortega has just turned 90, but the tireless businessman he hasn’t slowed down. While the world speculated about whether the founder of Inditex would reduce his investment activity at that age, his team in Pontegadea closed one operation after another at breakneck speed. In the last year, Pontegadea completed 17 real estate purchases with a total investment that exceeds 5.5 billion euros. As and as detailed The Worldthe figure of rental income that Ortega receives through his real estate giant exceeded 977 million euros in 2024, and in 2025 they reached 1,089 million euros. The landlord of big companies. Although 2025 has been characterized by the diversification of investments, the brick remains the star product of Ortega’s investments. The most striking bet of 2025 was the purchase of eight office buildings in six cities spread across five countries, with a joint investment of 1.5 billion euros. Pontegadea’s investment recipe is simple in theory, but somewhat more complex to put into practice: always choose buildings of high strategic value located in the most important urban centers…and, if possible, that already have solvent tenants. The logic is undeniable, a “high-end” building is a highly valued value by hotel chainslarge companies that use them as headquarters or brands that use them for set up their flagships in the center of large cities around the world. In this way, they ensure receiving income from day one. The largest operation of 2025 in this sense was the acquisition of “The Post”, a historic Vancouver office building with Amazon as a tenant. The millionaire closed the purchase of that former Canadian post office for 1.1 billion Canadian dollars, which is equivalent to about 680 million euros. The rest of the office purchases were distributed throughout Europe, the US and other regions, consolidating a portfolio of buildings spread throughout the world. The great logistics bet. If Inditex has become the textile giant that it is today, it is not because of its contribution to fashion designbut for the development of its logistics network that allowed it to take any clothing line to any corner of the world in record time. This obsession with logistics comes from its founder, and in 2025 we have also seen it in Pontegadea. Ortega’s investment in the field of logistics it’s not new. It has been investing in logistics centers in Europe and the US for years, but in 2025 it has opted for another approach: ports. At the end of October 2025, the millionaire’s participation was announced with 49% of PD Ports sharesone of the most important port operators in the United Kingdom, in an operation valued at more than 500 million euros. At the beginning of 2026, it was confirmed that Pontegadea was continuing along this investment path with participation in a joint offer valued at 11.7 billion Australian dollars (approximately 6.9 billion euros) to take over 100% of the Australian manufacturing giant. Qube logistics., although the exact percentage corresponding to the Spanish millionaire has not been made public. Control of energy. Using the same philosophy that Pontegadea applies to real estate investments, Ortega consolidated his position in the companies that control the power distribution networks in Spain and Portugal. It increased its stake in REN, the Portuguese electricity and gas network operator, from 12% to 13.7%, which places it as the second largest shareholder behind the Chinese electricity company State Grid Corporation, which controls 25% of the group. He occupies a similar position in Redeia, the electricity grid operator in Spain, of which he controls 5% of its capital, being also the second largest shareholder only behind the 20% held by SEPI. The engine that moves everything: Inditex. Behind all this investment movement there is a constant generator of liquidity: Inditex. In the last five years, Zara has increased its value by 98% and has increased its dividend by 88%, which has meant an income of 14.6 billion euros for Ortega. only in dividends. That constant cash flow It has been what has allowed us to finance the most active year in decades for Pontegadea. The result of this financial activity has been reflected in the form of an increase of 4.9% in the fortune of Amancio Ortega during 2025. Although it is a notable increase, the fortune of the founder of Inditex grew less than that of other large Spanish assets such as Rafael del Pino (34%) or Juan Roig (13%). In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives like another neighbor. Except for private jets and superyachts Image | GTRES, Unsplash (Sergio Kian)

164,000 galaxies and 13.7 billion years of cosmic history available to anyone

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The James Webb Space Telescope has made a super-detailed cosmic map, which includes 13.7 billion years of the Universe. No other telescope had been able to reach so far with such precision. Hubble tried, but didn’t achieve that much. What was invisible to him is now shown majestic before our eyes. Further and more precise. This new cosmic map it has been possible thanks to the work of a team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside. They have been in charge of analyzing a catalog known as COSMOS-Web, which includes the most extensive compilation of data from this telescope to date. In a space of sky equivalent to three full moons, they have seen what until now was invisible. James Webb’s superpowers. We know that the Universe is expanding, so the galaxies are moving further away, like painted dots on a balloon that inflates more and more. Since light is a wave, the wave emitted by these galaxies also stretches. That involves longer wavelengths which, in the electromagnetic spectrum, correspond to the infrared. This is known as redshift. The older and more distant a galaxy is, the more of that stretching it will have experienced, so there will be more redshift. Therefore, in order to detect very old galaxies, it is necessary to use instruments capable of detecting these infrared radiations very well. That’s where James Webb comes into play, since he has an instrument called NirCAMwhose specialty is precisely that. Furthermore, thanks to the size of its mirrors, with an area 7 times larger than that of Hubble’s mirrors, much more light can be captured and more precise images obtained. Lifting the cosmic veil. The James Webb also has the ability to look through clouds of gas and dust that normally surround younger stars and planets. It’s something Hubble can’t do either, so many more structures are revealed that were invisible to its predecessor. What Hubble didn’t see. Unlike James Webb, Hubble is specialized in detecting mostly the visible and ultraviolet spectrum of light. For this reason, the oldest structures in the Universe have gone unnoticed. By comparing the James Webb cosmic map with the more precise one made with Hubble, it has been seen that what previously seemed like a single structure is actually many. The sharpness of certain structures that seemed very diffuse has also been increased. In short, the resolution has increased. Distances are better measured and some structures are better distinguished from others. We can all see it. The catalog that has just been created contains 164,000 galaxies and a video that shows the movement they have experienced for 13.7 billion years. It is the furthest journey that has been made in the universe with one of these maps. And the best thing is that all this information is open access. Therefore, anyone can access it. Scientists who wish to do so will be able to study it, in search of data that may have gone unnoticed by researchers at the University of California. In short, teamwork is sought. Just as James Webb works as a team with Hubble and soon he will also do it with Romanscientists on Earth should do the same. Image | Image taken by James Webb that is not part of the map (NASA) In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

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