billions

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

Most complete geological map reveals billions of years of impacts and volcanism

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We have been talking for years not about landing, but about colonize Mars (above all, Elon Musk), but with Artemis II making history and the Orion ship just splashed down After the first manned mission to the Moon in more than 50 years, the old moon has returned to the forefront. Four astronauts have just photograph it up close and leave us with our mouths open. But the Moon is much more than a satellite full of craters: each of those craters tells a story of billions of years. At this moment when our satellite has hit us again, we rescue geological cartography most complete overview ever published. It is the unified geological map of the moonprepared in 2020 by the United States Geological Survey combining data from the lunar reconnaissance orbiter missions (LRO) from NASA and Kaguya from the Japanese Space Agency. The good thing is that although you can see a general sample, you can also download it to have a greater level of detail, since it is at a scale of 1:5,000,000 and derived from six digitized geological maps. Visually, this world map draws attention both for the number of craters and for the shades chosen to color it. The choice of color is not casual or ornamental, but rather each color represents a type of terrain with a specific age and origin. So, at a glance you know whether you’re looking at an ancient lava plain, a recent crater, or the original crust from 4 billion years ago. Without the colors, everything would be a gray mass of craters impossible to distinguish. The moon is full of secrets and this map provides information in abundance to discover them. The unified geographic map of the moon Fragment of the unified geological map of the Moon, scale 1:5M. Via: USGS The moon has five geological eras: Pre-Nectarian, Nectaric, Imbrian, Eratosthenic and Copernican, which range from 4,000 million years ago to today. How to differentiate them on the map? Because they go from purple and orange for the oldest to green and pink for the youngest. All that is seen is the fossilized record of its turbulent youth because it has been “geologically dead” for almost 3,000 million years, but it had a turbulent past as evidenced by its orography. The moon offers a striking visual dichotomy between the highlands (in reddish tones and saturated with craters) and the seas, which are the large dark spots. Of course, they don’t have any water. They are actually basaltic lava plains that filled huge impact basins about 3,000-4,000 million years ago. It is, in short, what we see from Earth. The clear, cratered areas constitute the original crust and are much older. The most characteristic thing about the Moon to the naked eye are the craters, which are something like scars that witness the passage of time: the more softened, diffuse and even buried it appears on the map, the older it is. On the contrary, the sharper, brighter and surrounded by bright rays, the younger. “Lightning bolts” are bursts of dust and rock launched after impact and can extend for many kilometers. There is two especially spectacular craters on the map: Tycho and Copernicuswhose rays cross hundreds of kilometers and are geologically very recent. The part of the Moon that we never see from Earth and that arouses so much curiosity in us (there is a project to install a radio telescope there) is its hidden side: there are almost no blue spots there. And while the visible side is rich in lava plains, the hidden side is a highland fortress, much more rugged and with a significantly thicker crust. Map At its south pole is the basin South Pole-Aitkenthe largest known impact scar in the entire Solar System, with 2,500 km in diameter and 8 km deep. Precisely that area where there are shadow craters science hopes to find water frost. This geological imbalance between both sides suggests that the Moon is asymmetric inside, a mystery that is also on the table of the scientific community. In Xataka | The Earth’s seabed has always been a mystery: an amazing 3D map reveals it in unprecedented detail In Xataka | Astronomers have stitched together 10,000 images from the Webb telescope to make the largest map of the universe. Something doesn’t fit Cover | USGS, NASA

Saudi Arabia had billions to build the future in the desert. He has decided to sacrifice them to destroy Iran

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The cranes have stopped roaring in the Tabuk desert. There where it should rise a colossal artificial lake at 2,600 meters high and a science fiction metropolis valued in billionsToday the priority is to look at the sky looking for the trail of ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) had promised the world a glass and petrodollar utopia called NEOM, a monument to his own ego designed to whitewash the regime’s image. However, the harsh reality of the Middle East has ended up imposing itself on the renders in 3D. A crossroads in the gulf. We are looking at what is now, for all intents and purposes, a Third Gulf War, and Saudi Arabia has reached a historic crossroads. Caught in the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, the Saudi monarchy faces an existential dilemma: save its economy and its megalomaniac pharaonic project, or take advantage of the chaos to dismantle, once and for all, the regime in Tehran. And judging by the shadow movements of its leaders, Riyadh seems willing to let its economic utopia bleed if it means it can win this war. Facing the gallery. Behind closed doors, Saudi Arabia’s message is one of absolute containment. In recent communicationsthe Saudi government has insisted that it has “always supported a peaceful resolution” and that its only priority is defending its population and infrastructure from daily attacks. This is what an analysis by Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed has defined as “strategic patience”: a tactic in which Riyadh avoids direct confrontation to protect its investments, while subtly encouraging the weakening of its regional rival. The reality is more complex. However, the leaks tell a very different story. As revealed The New York TimesBased on sources informed by US officials, MBS has been privately pressuring US President Donald Trump not to stop the war. The crown prince sees the current US-Israeli military campaign as a “historic opportunity” to destroy Iran’s hardline government. The talks have reached the point where MBS would have advocated for ground operations and even the military takeover of Kharg Island, the Iranian oil heart. The diplomatic board is abuzz. Mohamed bin Salmán’s phone does not stop ringing, as he urgently needs to shield his vital infrastructure from attacks and, to do so, he relies on the Western umbrella. As detailed ReutersBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally telephoned MBS to condemn the Iranian offensive and confirm the deployment of more British defensive military equipment. London’s goal is to protect the kingdom and try to ensure that the sea trade route does not completely collapse. But while MBS is piling up shields and secretly pressuring Trump not to relax the blow against Iran, other regional allies are desperately trying to put out the fire before it devastates the entire Gulf. As revealed by the agency AnadoluPakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif contacted the crown prince to underline the “urgent need” for a de-escalation. Islamabad’s move is not a toast to the sun: Pakistan has emerged as the great shadow mediator, to the point of offering to host direct talks between the United States and Iran based on a 15-point American peace plan. The sacrifice of Vision 2030. “It’s the last thing he wanted. He wants stability and order, he doesn’t want missiles or drones flying.” This is how forceful an expert seemed consulted by him Financial Times. The diplomatic “detente” that Saudi Arabia had signed with Iran in 2023 has been shattered. Iranian retaliatory attacks have hit the giant Ras Tanura refinery, the Shaybah field and the Prince Sultan air base. The cost of this war for MBS’s dreams is already incalculable. Formula 1 had to cancel its April races. In the entertainment sector, the CEO of Savvy Games Group recognized that the war escalation It will “cool the perception” of Saudi Arabia as a safe destination for investment of 38 billion in eSports. The biggest collateral victim: NEOM. The artificial lake project Trojenaawarded for $4.7 billion to an Italian construction company, is already facing leaks about delays of between three and four years. The 2029 Winter Games have been postponed indefinitely and the extra costs suffocate an already deficient budget. The war and instability in the Red Sea discourage foreign investment, vital for these science fiction cities to go from render to reality. The reality of the Saudi coffers is critical. As revealed The New York TimesEven before the conflict broke out, the crown prince was already facing serious financial challenges. The 2030 deadline is approaching and the government assumes budget deficit forecasts for the coming years, suffocated by excessive spending on megaprojects and vast investments in artificial intelligence that are straining the country’s resources to the limit. And a prolonged war threatens to blow everything up, since MBS’s success depends on a single factor that is currently non-existent: a safe environment for investors and tourists. Holding the pulse. To withstand the challenge, Saudi Arabia has had to resort to an engineering work born of fear in the 80s. With the Strait of Hormuz strangled by the Iranian threat, Riyadh has activated its logistical “antidote.” State oil company Aramco is pumping against the clock through the East-West Pipeline, a 1,200 kilometer pipeline that crosses the desert to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The objective is to move up to 7 million barrels a day by land, avoiding Tehran’s missiles. The landscape in Yanbu is like something out of a movie: an “army” of at least 25 supertankers (VLCC) crowds on the coast to evacuate some 50 million barrels. However, there are no magic solutions. The port has a physical funnel (it can only load between 4 and 4.5 million barrels per day) and, in addition, ships must cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait, exposing themselves to the Houthi rebels. Added to this is that the pipeline only moves crude oil, leaving markets such as Europe without their vital supplies of refined products such as diesel, exacerbating the global energy … Read more

The Earth turned on its great geological engine billions of years earlier than we estimate. We know it from a microscopic crystal

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For a long time, textbooks They have painted the primitive Earth like a ball of infernal and static magma, being a “lid” of inert rock where life or complex geological movement was impossible. Specifically, it was thought that the plate tectonicsthe engine that shapes the continents and recycles our planet’s nutrients, had taken much longer to start. However, we were wrong. How he did it. Science, in a recent article, has just put on the table the definitive evidence that indicates that the Earth began to move much earlier than we believed: at least 3.3 billion years ago, and most likely, more than 4 billion ago. And the key is not in the gigantic mountains under our feet, but in small fragments of glass smaller than a grain of sand. And if we want to travel in geological time, you have to go to jack hillsin Western Australia, where the oldest known fragments of terrestrial rock are found. The protagonists of this story are zircon crystals, extremely resistant minerals that act as authentic geological hard drives. The interesting thing is that, when they form, they trap isotopes and tiny amounts of other elements inside that tell us exactly what the environment was like at the time of their crystallization. The results. According to detailed analysis that collects Natureand supported by key works such as those published in the prestigious magazine PNASthese S-type zircons hide unmistakable geochemical signatures. Specifically, they reveal that, instead of a static and dead Earth’s crust, subduction processes already existed. That is, the oceanic crust was already colliding and sinking under other plates, melting back into the Earth’s mantle. A double life. But researchers have not limited themselves to looking at a specific era, but have traced the proportions of trace elements such as uranium, niobium or scandium in different zircons from Australia, Greenland and South Africa. Here they observed that during the Eoarchean, the Earth did not have a single geological behavior. Instead, it had two tectonic regimes. The first of these, known as a ‘stagnant lid’ with areas of crust dominated by plumes of oceanic magma that simply pushed upwards. On the other hand, it also had the ‘moving lid’ zone, which were active zones where volcanic arcs were already forming and there was subduction, very similar to modern plate tectonics, recycling the Earth’s crust. But there is more. As if that were not enough, other published studies in Science and Geology have contributed even more pieces to the puzzle, such as the transform faults in the Pilbara Craton of Australia that show horizontal movements 3,000 million years ago, and even inclusions of fresh water in zircons from more than 4,000 million years ago, which suggests that there were already emerging continents interacting with the atmosphere and the water cycle. It changes everything. Knowing that plate tectonics started so early is not a mere geological whim, since tectonics is the Earth’s thermostat: it regulates the carbon cycle, releases fundamental gases into the atmosphere and creates the necessary environments for the chemical breeding ground. In this way, if more than 4,000 million years ago our planet was already recycling its crust, having primitive continents and fresh water, it means that the conditions for life to emerge occurred much earlier than what science books dictated. Once again, the Earth shows us that, from its most remote beginnings, it has always been a living world. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | There are scientists deliberately causing earthquakes in the Alps and they have a good reason for it

painful rules cost billions in productivity

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Although in Asian countries like Japan, South Korea or Taiwan the cancellations due to painful rules They have been around for a few yearsthey are still rare bird. Without going any further, Spain is a pioneer in the EU (Italy tried it in 2017but it did not come to fruition) and the measure came not without controversy before and after approval. Because periods and pain are managed privately, but they have a profound impact on people’s health… and also on the economy. How much does a period cost at work?. A recent study published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues How the rule affects Australia’s economy makes its importance clear: 14 billion Australian dollars a year alone in lost productivity (about 8.54 billion euros at the exchange rate). And the calculations are conservative in that they do not include health or treatment costs. The rule, in figures. The first menstruation arrives at approximately 12 years of age and since then it occurs more or less regularly every 21 – 34 days until menopause arrives, around the age of 45 – 55. We are talking about between 400 and 600 periods throughout life (except interruptions in the form of hormonal contraceptives or pregnancy). The rule, in discomfort. And if we leave the quantitative and go to the qualitative, for the majority it means a period of discomfort in the form of menstrual pain and bleeding. in the studio They speak of 90% of women under 25 years of age with dysmenorrhea, more intense pain during the first two days. Likewise, it is also quite common to experience fatigue, dizziness, lower back pain and headaches. He heavy menstrual bleeding It results in blood loss that causes a feeling of tiredness or fatigue (among other things, due to loss of iron). The study quantifies between 20 and 25% of those surveyed. The study. To carry out the research, they interviewed 1,796 Australian women with paid jobs of different age ranges (from 18 years old) to find out how common menstrual pain and other symptoms are and what the impact was on their work productivity in terms of presenteeism and absenteeism. Or what is the same: go to work but be at half speed or directly miss work. It hurts me. They came to a conclusion: those with periods between the ages of 35 and 44 suffered a noticeably greater loss of productivity than the younger ones. However, 97% had suffered menstrual pain in the last three months and 1 in 4 said they always had pain. Worldwide, menstrual pain is around 71% and only in Spainthe Spanish Contraception Society reports that almost half have to take medication for pain. From here, they calculated the range of economic impact: 7,176 Australian dollars per person per year, for a total of 14,005 million dollars. Why is it important. Because it provides economic data that is sufficiently impactful so that the management of menstrual symptoms at work is not managed individually and in isolation, falling on those affected, but rather from a collective and institutional level. As resume The research team itself “highlights the strong economic case for governments and companies to adopt policies that help people manage menstrual symptoms.” That is, with laws and policies that standardize and regulate to homogenize and streamline individual procedures in companies, but also with dialogues within the company to introduce changes in working conditions aimed at improving the productivity, health and well-being of the workforce. Among the measures proposed by the team, the modalities of teleworking or hybrid work or the schedule flexibility. In Xataka | The majority of medical discharges that are investigated are fraud. The nuance is that they are only investigated if there are signs of fraud In Xataka | Period pain in adolescence is not “normal”: massive study links it to increased risk of chronic pain in adulthood Cover | Annika Gordon

Saudi Arabia already knows the real price of Neom and it is not measured in billions, but in barrels of oil at $90

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Saudi Arabia is mired in a paradox that revolves around barrels of oil. Years ago the kingdom launched an ambitious program to reduce its dependence on ‘black gold’, a key element in its accounts and public treasury. Under the name of ‘Vision 2030’ basically proposed to diversify its economy with a rosary of projects which included large urban developments such as Oxagon, Trojena or the famous The Line. The problem is that the swings in the price of crude oil (the same one from which he wants to get away) is complicating the things. So much so that the kingdom has already been forced to moderate its expectations. What has happened? We told you a few days ago: Saudi Arabia has had to rethink the Neom megaprojects, the program with which the kingdom wants to promote works such as Trojena or The Line, a futuristic city 170 km long, 500 m high and 200 meters wide built from scratch in the middle of the desert. According to Financial TimesNeom’s president, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is now considering a “much smaller” scale. In fact, there is already talk of a drastic cut in The Line and changes also in Trojena. Is it a novelty? Half. Despite the efforts of Saudi Arabia for showing how the works were progressing, the international press has been warning for some time the difficulties (technical, but especially financial) that the kingdom has encountered to carry out its projects. own FT posted a few months ago a report in which he talked about how Neom’s dream is “unraveling.” His last article It goes further however and helps to understand the context. The cuts come after Neom officials commissioned an audit of the project. And although its final conclusions are not yet known, they seem to be strong enough that there are already architects working on the redesign of The Line. Their goal: to turn it into a “modest” project that can take advantage of the infrastructure built in recent years. There is talk of a change in concept, of a Neom that (without giving up the diversification of the Saudi economy) stops focusing on the “cities of the future” to focus on something much more concrete: data centers. The kingdom insists in any case that Neom is a bet that “aims to span generations” and its discourse (at least the public) is far from being defeatist. What is the problem? Beyond the scale and enormous ambition of the projects (only The Line involves building a 170 km city), Riyadh has encountered a perfect storm. Not even her years of waste (or precisely because of them) have prevented her from being forced to rethink some milestones in her initial schedule. The clearest example Trojena leaves it. There, in its ambitious ski resort, the 2029 edition of the Winter Games was going to be held. A few days ago, however, the Asian Olympic Council and its Saudi counterpart announced that the appointment will have to be postponed indefinitely. Financial Times remember that in the medium term the kingdom also has important commitments that will require it to step on the accelerator. The first will arrive with the international fair Expo 2030. The second, with the 2034 World Cup. Click on the image to go to the tweet. And what does the oil look like? If something they usually repeat analysts trying to explain the development of Vision 2030 (and more specifically Neom) is how the price of crude oil is influencing it. The reason is very simple. Although the financing of Vision 2030 does not fall directly into the budget of Saudi Arabia, its implementation does depend on large projects funded by the State. And it receives a large part of its income through oil. Saudi Arabia is the main exporter of crude oil on the planet, which explains that in 2024 this will represent 60% of public income. In general, oil and natural gas accounted for more than 20% of its entire GDP that year. A few months ago Arab Gulg States Institute (AGSI) I remembered that the weight of the oil business in the Government’s tax revenue is today much lower than a decade ago, when it reached 88%, but it has still accounted for close to 63% in recent years. Not only that. Its technicians recognize that the health of Aramco (the Saudi national oil company) is “vital for the health” of the public coffers and the country. Why is it important? By a simple rule of three. The implementation of Vision 2030 depends largely on the Saudi kingdom and its PIF (the Public Investment Fund), sovereign in nature and chaired by Mohammed bin Salman. And the money they receive is closely linked to the progress of the global oil business. In April of last year, in a complicated context, marked by fear of the trade war and differences within OPEC, Reuters warned of how the fall in the price of crude oil would be reflected in Aramco’s dividends… and these, in turn, in the money that would enter the coffers of the Government and the PIF. “The Government and the PIF will receive 32 billion dollars and 6 billion dollars less, respectively,” collected the chronicle signed by Yousef Saba. Already at that time there were experts who pointed out that this snip would take its toll on some of the projects that the kingdom had in its hands. “Saudi Arabia is likely to depend on debt financing and will have to delay or reduce some planned contract awards,” insisted Karen Young of Columbia University, recalling the nation’s deficit. Is there more? Yes. A key fact that in recent months have slipped several analysts and in which affected these days Brad Setser, CFR researcher, following the latest news about Neom and The Line. It is not just a matter of the price of oil rising or falling in the market, it is that Saudi Arabia needs the barrel of Brent to remain at certain … Read more

a stock of billions of dollars

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These are not easy times for the alcohol industry. And not only for the crossfire of the trade war, ups and downs of prices or the apparent loss of interest of Generation Z for drinking. As customers demand less whiskey, cognac and tequila, the giants of the sector have found themselves with a growing stock that some estimates already put at 22 billion dollars. Thousands and thousands of bottles that threaten to strain the finances of large manufacturers and (even worse) unleash a price war that clouds their future. “The accumulation of inventories is unprecedented,” warn. A huge “lake of liquor”. So recently described Financial Times the panorama that the large distillate manufacturers have encountered, giants of the sector that have their warehouses full of bottles that cannot be disposed of. To be exact, the newspaper claims that five of the titans of the industry that are listed (Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Campari, Brown Forman and Rémy Cointreau) have a stock of aged spirits valued at 22 billion. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Breaking schemes. If the figure seems high, it is because it is. Those $22 billion mark the highest level of stock in more than a decade and there are already those who warn that they paint a delicate picture. “The accumulation is unprecedented,” recognize FT Trevor Stirling, analyst at Bernstein. The most extreme case would be that of the French cognac manufacturer Rémy Cointreau, which according to the newspaper accumulates aged stocks worth 1.8 billion euros. Almost double its annual income and close to its global market capitalization. Is there more data? Yes. In recent years the percentage of mature stock over total net sales has increased clearly at Rémy, but also at Brown-Forman, Campari, Diageo and Pernord Ricard. For example, in the case of the British multinational Diageo, this ratio has clearly increased in just a few years: if in the fiscal year of 2022 it represented 34%, it is now 34%. 43%. The problem is not just the big manufacturers of Scotch whiskey, cognac and tequila. Data from the Tequila Regulatory Council show that at the end of 2023 the Mexican industry had a stock of 525 million liters of that popular distilled beverage. The figure (sum of the product in barrels or pending bottling) is almost equivalent to the country’s annual production. “Much more new liquor is distilled than is sold, and the stock begins to accumulate,” duck Bernstein. A ticking bomb. The accumulation of stock is not worrying only because of what it suggests to us about the past and current sales pace. It is especially so because of its implications for the future. With more barrels and bottles gathering dust in the warehouses of the big manufacturers there are those who already fear that a price war would break out, a pulse in the market that would aggravate the situation. For now, FT recalls that there are manufacturers who have chosen to hit the brakes in their factories. This is the case of Diageo, which has production suspended of whiskey in various factories, or from the bourbon producer Jim Bean (Suntory), which has done something similar with its main Kentucky distillery. The problem: often the aged drinks sector works for several years, so pausing its production today can compromise the supply in five years or a decade. What is the reason? To understand the current stock of the industry, it is necessary to understand several keys. For example, the fluctuations in demand in recent years and the forecasts with which manufacturers have worked. At the beginning of the pandemic, the sector registered an increase of distillate consumption in the US, which led to an increase in production. After the health crisis and with inflation as a backdrop, however, the market returned to normal. What’s more, the industry had to deal with new challenges that a priori have little to do with its business. The first is the trade war unleashed last year, a scenario in which the alcohol industry was not foreign. In fact, if Jim Bean considered suspending production at his main distillery it was precisely due to the increase in stock and the uncertainty generated by tariffs. Another key factor is that alcohol consumption (at least of certain types of alcohol) appears to be moderating as more people focus on their physical health and take weight loss medications, such as Wegovy or Ozempic. It is nothing exceptional if you take into account that in 2023 a study Walmart already warned that consumption of Ozempic was reducing food sales. The big question. Beyond these current factors, a key question for the industry hovers: Are we consuming less alcohol in general? Do we drink less than our parents and grandparents? And will the new generations on whom the sector will have to rely on in a couple of decades drink less? There is data that suggests this. The Our World in Data platform has developed a graph on per capita consumption that reflects that almost all the countries analyzed consume less alcohol than a few decades ago. It is not the only study that points in that direction. Another recent one from Gallup confirms that in the US consumption has fallen to its lowest level since at least 1930 and OECD tables They also show that many of their countries (not all) have seen how the intake of liters per person per year decreased between 2013 and 2023. There are those who already warns that the trend does not look like it will stop, fully affecting to the accounts of the distillate industry. Images | Paolo Bendandi (Unsplash), OECD and Our World in Data In Xataka | There is an age at which we should stop drinking alcohol forever. Neuroscience is clear why

A plan with 1,000 companies and billions at stake

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For decades, when there was talk of technological innovation, there was an inevitable destination: Silicon Valley. From that strip of northern California advances were promoted that marked the lives of millions of people worldwide. There were companies that today are part of our day to day, such as Apple, Google, Nvidia, Adobe or Netflix, and there a cultural imaginary was also forged that made Silicon Valley synonymous with synonym of modernity. The term not only defines a place, it is also a brand What have we seen in series, movies and even the way we think about technology. Today, however, other regions of the planet begin to claim their space, with the ambition to balance, or at least approach, to the symbolic and economic weight of that Californian cradle of innovation. And in that struggle, one of the most striking movements comes from China. Shanghai has put A project that seeks to transform Zhangjiang, into Pudong, in what we could interpret as its own Silicon Valley of artificial intelligence. The goal is as specific as huge: create an ecosystem with 1,000 new companies from here to 2030, reach an industrial volume of 100,000 million yuanes, one 12,000 million euros to change, and raise an innovation center with global influence, According to the Xinhua state agency. They are figures that impose respect. If the announcement came from any other part of the world, it could sound more to aspiration than tangible plan. Because gathering a thousand artificial intelligence startups In just five yearsmoving more than 10,000 million euros in such a short time and also pretending world influence is not precisely a simple task. But we talk about China, a country that in recent years has proven to be able to turn its ads into realities. The transformation of its technological industry is evident. China is no longer limited to being the world factory That supplies the devices we use every day, also innova. And he does it hard. There are cases like Deepseek in the field of artificial intelligence or Unitree Robotics In Robotics, companies that have climbed positions until they become international referents. China is no longer limited to being the world factory. There is another key element: resilience against external restrictions. The United States has imposed severe limits to Chinese access to the most advanced technology, From nvidia leading chips Until the Lithography Machinery of Advanced Nodes of ASML. And, despite this, China has managed to respond. Huawei’s example, who managed to develop a 5G chip in full technological fencehe surprised his own and strangers in Washington and showed the country’s ability to advance even under pressure. This context feeds an inevitable question: can Zhangjiang become the Silicon Valley of artificial intelligence? For now there are no definitive answers. What we do have is a plan with clear goals. If it will end up being a new Silicon Valley or not, only time will say it. But the movement is already underway and deserves to be followed closely. Shanghai’s commitment to convert Zhangjiang into a magnet of companies, talent and capital To land the promise, it is convenient to go down to the facts: on September 16 it was inaugurated in the heart of Zhangjiang Science City the call Zhangjiang Artificial Intelligence Innovation Townthe starting point from which to understand what the project is, where it unfolds and what goals has been set for the next few years. It is not about lifting a technology park from scratch, but to integrate existing spaces such as Moli Community, a residential and innovative area, AI Island, a park specialized in artificial intelligence, or the Moli Twin Towers. The idea is clear: that this concentration works as an innovation engine, test terrain for new applications and fertile space for startups and large companies. In official words, ambition is to build a place of “low cost of innovation and high intelligence density”, With an eye on attracting talent and accelerating the implementation of artificial intelligence in specific scenarios. The project is displayed by a planned surface of 2 square kilometers, According to China News. The heart of the area brings together more than 700,000 square meters of industrial spaces and is based on 1,000,000 square meters of facilities. Less than 3 kilometers are added 7,000 homes aimed at talent. The sources that we have consulted do not clarify whether these figures correspond to new work or existing resources. The plan has set two clear horizons. By 2027, the goal is to have gathered more than 500 new artificial intelligence companies, complete the registration of 100 large models and have consolidated between three and five companies with a vocation of global leadership. The second milestone arrives in 2030, with the aim of reaching the 1,000 new companies and an industrial volume of 100,000 million yuan. The inauguration of September 16 marked the beginning of that road. The premiere was not symbolic. At the inauguration The first twenty companies were presented. They do not reach a desert, because since July 28, when the concept of the initiative was announced, more than forty companies had already joined. To attract companies and talent, Pudong has launched what he calls the “Ten high quality measures”From Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town. The menu includes rentals from 1 yuan (0.12 euros) per square meter and day, free accommodation between one and two weeks for equipment in the initial phase, low -cost youth apartments with a Maximum 2,000 yuan (239 euros) per month for three years, and a system of coupons that cover up to 100 percent in computing services, models or linguistic corpus, with stops of one million yuan per category. To this are added support for “AI demonstration scenarios” of up to 10 million yuan (1.2 million euros), among other incentives. Capital is also part of the design. The inauguration announced the Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town Link Fund, a fund of 2,000 million yuan created by Hillhouse Venture and the Pudong Public Investment Group. Its function is to … Read more

An iPhone that is the entrance door of the AI ​​for billions of people

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You unlock the iPhone and look for something on the Internet. And who serves you, of course, is Google. It looks something harmless, almost “normal”, but behind there is much more than it seems, because that alliance has allowed two things. The first, that Apple becomes (still) richer. And the second, that Google maintains its dominant position in the field of search engines. The reason is simple: there is More than 1.4 billion iPhone In assets everyone, to which iPad and Macs must be added. All those devices They are the door to the Internet For hundreds of millions of people, that Google is the default search engine in all of them has been key for the company to be where it is. The iPhone, for better or worse, has helped decide who won the battle of the Internet. And it will also help decide who wins the AI. And the chatbot became mobile Because now we use the AI ​​in our browser or in mobile apps, but little by little we will do it directly, interacting with the voice and using the assistant of the pre -installed AI on our device. In the case of Android mobiles it is evident that Gemini will be absolute protagonist. It is the same as Google already pre -installed its search engine on these devices as an integral part of the experience. That, by the way, can end up being very expensive to the company, which He has lost the antitrust judgment in the United States. A sentence is expected in an imminent way, and among the possible consequences it could be Google’s “fragmentation”that could even be seen Sell ​​Chrome. But what will happen to the iPhone? What will the mobiles and Apple devices boost? Here the answer has more crumb, because the situation of the company in the field of artificial intelligence is complex … Not to say worrying. The company’s artificial intelligence platform, Apple Intelligencehe is light years from his rivals. Its benefits are very limited and these heights were expected to have arrived the supervitaminated version of Siri. Instead what we have are More and more delays of a company that despite having more resources that almost none still does not find its way in this segment. It would be normal to think that the iPhone took advantage of their own AI. They are likely to do so and that both Apple Intelligence and Siri They improve (very) notable, but what is also likely that the iPhone does not depend exclusively on Apple Intelligence. In fact everything points to a scenario in which we will have not an AI for everything, but three different: Local Apple Intelligence: A small AI model that will be executed locally and privately for simple consultations and for very specific functions, such as summarizing texts or helping to write emails. It is something that Apple Intelligence already offers. Apple Intelligence in the Cloud: For more complex consultations, Apple will also offer its own infrastructure such as Google or Microsoft, but with a difference: a clear approach to privacy. The call “Private Cloud Compute“It is a technological solution that theoretically guarantees that our conversations with Apple’s chatbot will be absolutely private. External suppliers: But if users want other options, they can also have them. Apple already announced in 2024 that users could access chatgpt proactively To enjoy AI functions, but that supplier will not probably be the only one. In fact, since February it is also possible GEMINI use As an alternative, and Apple has reached different agreements in China chewing that There you can use models like qwenfrom Alibaba. Precisely that third point, that of external suppliers, is the one that reminds us of what has happened with Internet search engines. The potential Apple agreements with one or the other supplier can define their success or failure – and that of its competitors. If Apple reaches an agreement with Openai so that ChatgPT is “the iphone default”, this chatbot will gain even more relevance, but the same could happen with Gemini or any other model. Precisely this situation has been the one that has detonated The new demand that Elon Musk He has made against Apple. The tycoon accuses the company to conspire illegally to eliminate competitiveness in the AI ​​market, something that according to him is being a clear obstacle to the success of Xai and Grok. That demand reminds what Epic Games already made Years ago against Apple’s App Store. That case It ended up causing that Apple opened the door –in its particular way– at third -party stores already methods of alternative payments and that Fortnite will star in a triumphal return To that store. It remains to be seen if Musk’s demand achieves a similar effect, but a priori seems difficult because Everything is yet to decide In the AI ​​and There are no clear winners. But if there is any, surely the iPhone has ended up helping to create it directly or indirectly. In Xataka | Google will fall below 50% advertising fee in 2025. From the monopoly to survival in the Tiktok era

Openai has invested billions in chips. His only problem is that he has forgotten something important: cables

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While Openai designs increasingly complex models and promises cities size data centers, a much more terrestrial reality threatens to stop the advance: the electrical infrastructure is not ready for what is coming. At the beginning of the year. Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO) promised, together with Oracle and SoftBank, an investment of 500,000 million dollars in AI infrastructure Under the name Stargate. The announcement, Made at the White House with President Trumphe talked about building 10 gigawatts of data centers on American soil by 2029. However, the start has been slower than expected. According to The Wall Street Journalnot a single formal contract with SoftBank has not been signed, and the first center, in Ohio, is still in the evaluation phase. Meanwhile, Openai has advanced on his own, expanding his alliance with Oracle to develop 4.5 more gigawatts, adding more than 5 GW under construction, As the company itself has reported. A big problem behind. This does not only affect Openai, rather the entire AI sector since no investment or quantity of GPUS can solve the true bottleneck of the sector alone: the electricity grid. As Le Monde explainedtraining models such as GPT-4 consumes dozens of gigawatts -hora, but the real challenge is in the “inference”, that is, in daily use. Each consultation to a model like Chatgpt implies complex calculations that consume energy every second. From the International Energy Agency (IEA), It was warned That the global electricity consumption of data centers could double before 2030, exceeding 945 TWH, more than all Japan today. And there the paradox appears: we can generate more energy, but we have no how to move it. In other words, high voltage lines, transformers, substations, adequate land, permits, technicians are missing. It’s like wanting to fill a city with bottled water, but without having pipes. The project continues. In a last statementOpenai has affirmed that its expansion with Oracle is already creating tens of thousands of jobs in Texas and that the objective of the 10 gigawatts is on its way to being surpassed thanks to new alliances. The Stargate I site, in Abilene, has already begun to operate with NVIDIA GB200 chips. However, As the Wall Street Journal has detailed, Disagreements with SoftBank persist on where to build, how to finance and how to connect data centers to electrical networks that are already saturated. Sam Altman recognized the challenge in an internal memorandum cited by axios: “The thirst for computer science is beginning to tension the supply chain and demands some real creativity.” Other paths: atomic energy. Faced with these limitations, technological giants are looking for solutions outside the traditional electrical system. The answer, for many, is in a surprising return: nuclear energy. Goal has signed a 20 -year contract with Constellation Energy to supply part of its data centers from a nuclear plant in Illinois. Google and Amazon They have also opted for small modular reactors (SMR). Microsoft, meanwhile, will reopen a closed nuclear power plant since 2019exclusively to support your AI infrastructure. Nvidia has not been left behind. In 2024, it invested 650 million dollars in Terrapower, the company founded by Bill Gates that is building the first Natriat reactor, a fourth generation machine that, According to their developersIt will generate electricity by half of the cost of a conventional reactor. The project, which takes place in Wyoming, has a Spanish participation: the public company sees the reactor cover. Without cables, there is no ia. Meanwhile, the number of users continues to grow. Chatgpt reached 800 million active users in April, According to Altman cited in axios. Each of them generates requests, questions, images, instructions, and all that consumes energy. According to Le Mondetasks as simple as writing an email can be more than 7% of a complete mobile phone charge. And generating an image consumes even more. Elon Musk says his company XAI already operates with 230,000 GPUS, and expects 550,000 more. The AI does not rest, but the cables that feed do not supply. Artificial intelligence promises to change the world, but before it will have to face something more basic than any algorithm: the physical laws of electrical systems. There is no needless. There are no servers without energy. And there is no energy without cables. Image | Pexels Xataka | The AI is opening the doors of a radical revolution on the Internet: that we can all create apps without knowing

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