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This is the Hormuz “swarm” that threatens to break the $100 barrier

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Just enter Marine Traffic to understand the magnitude of the problem. The entire world is holding its breath before a funnel of water just a few miles wide. Through the Strait of Hormuz travels approximately 20% of the world’s daily oil supply and a vital quota of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Today, that global artery is suffering a heart attack. An unprecedented escalation in the Middle East, detonated by attacks of the United States and Israel that ended the life of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has unleashed a hail of missiles and drones. The result is a blockage de facto of the most important sea route on the planet. X-ray of a historical traffic jam. The cover image of Marine Traffic It is a veritable swarm of red icons that crowd on both sides of the strait, especially near the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Once we move the cursor over the boats, we see that they are still. According to the data of S&P Globalmaritime traffic has plummeted, between 40% and 50%. There are around 240 ships clustered waiting for instructions. Among them, as analyst Weilun Soon details in Bloombergthere are at least 40 supertankers (VLCCs), inactive giants each loaded with about 2 million barrels of crude oil. And time is against us: according to estimates by JPMorganIf this effective closure lasts more than 25 days, producers will run out of space to store crude oil and will have to stop physical production. The chaos is not only physical, it is also electronic. The data team SkyNews has documented severe interference in ship tracking systems (AIS). The signals are so distorted that some oil tankers appear located inland on radars. The fear is more than justified: the war has already spilled into the water. According to reports from the UKMTO (UK Maritime Commercial Operations) cited by Business Insiderthe tanker skylightflying the Palauan flag, was attacked near Oman. The balance has left four injured and 20 crew members urgently evacuated. Markets in panic and freight rates through the roof. The chain reaction has not been long in coming. In a quick look at the bag, we can observe the initial panic of investors: in the first hours of operations, Brent crude oil (the European benchmark) soared by 13%, reaching $82 per barrel—its highest in 14 months. Although it later relaxed to dawn this Monday around $79, the scare was already in the body. This whiplash has had winners and losers in the European stock markets. As you have detailed Guardian, While oil companies (Shell, BP) and defense companies (BAE Systems) rose sharply, airlines such as IAG or easyJet plummeted by around 10% and 7% respectively, terrified by the imminent increase in fuel costs. Moving crude oil today is a high-risk sport. The daily cost of renting a supertanker has skyrocketed by an unusual 600%, reaching $200,000 a day, as Alex Longley warns in Bloomberg. Insurance must be added to this bill: France 24 reports that premiums against war risks They are going to become between 25% and 50% more expensive for those who dare to enter ground zero. The paradox of OPEC+. The next market movement looked askance at the offices. According to the official statement from OPEC+the cartel agreed to inject an additional 206,000 barrels per day starting in April to stabilize prices. However, this measure is, in practice, a logistical mirage. As analyst John Kemp explains: in your column for Finance TimesOPEC+ has excess capacity of more than 3 million barrels per day, but almost all of that capacity is inside of the Persian Gulf countries. In other words, no matter how much extra oil Saudi Arabia or Iraq promise to pump, if the ships cannot cross the Strait of Hormuz, that oil does not exist for the rest of the world. The analysts of wood Mackenzie, collected by oil price, They have been more forceful: “If traffic is not restored quickly, the barrel will pierce the $100 barrier.” The nuances that will define the crisis. Despite the drama, the world has some escape valves that did not exist in the oil crises of the 70s: Lifesaving pipelines: As Kemp explainsSaudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can bypass the strait by exporting some of their crude oil through pipelines to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman. However, countries like Iraq and Kuwait are trapped: they are 100% dependent on Hormuz. Global shock absorbers: Analyst Javier Blas shells in Bloomberg that the shale revolution (shale oil) in the United States gives Washington unprecedented control over supply. Furthermore, China lIt has been filling to the brim for years its strategic reserves, which would soften the blow in the short term. The big beneficiary: Ironically, the blockade is excellent news for Vladimir Putin. As Blas points outa sustained rise in prices makes it easier for Russia to sell its sanctioned crude oil on the Asian black market with much juicier margins. The world holds its breath. At the moment, the global economy is paralyzed waiting for what a few ship captains decide. Maritime transport giants such as Maersk have already announced the temporary suspension of all their transits through the area, how to collect France 24. Laden ships will remain idle, “avoiding drama,” in the words of a shipping broker consulted by S&P Global. Today, the fate of global inflation is decided not on Wall Street or central banks, but in the tense waters of Oman and Iran, where a swarm of steel giants have decided to shut down their engines and pray for the storm to subside. Image | MarineTraffic Xataka | Tension in Iran is so high that the Strait of Hormuz is closed. And that will have consequences when you go to refuel.

In the midst of the RAM crisis, Intel counterattacks with ZAM. It is the chip to break South Korean hegemony

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Few would have guessed not so many years ago the Intel transformation. The company that will dominate consumer processors and servers for generations has been through a real ordeal through the desert under the rule of AMD. However, they have returned for their rights and not only –rescue through– have positioned themselves to be the great American foundry, but are looking to take a bite out of the gigantic South Korean RAM memory industry thanks to its new memory: ZAM memory. And its weapon is three-dimensionality. Z for ‘zolution’. Do you remember when, in math class, you drew the first cube? The X axis is east-west. The Y axis is north-south. What the square needed to become a cube is the Z axis, the one up and down. That’s what engineers SAIMEMORYthe company resulting from the collaboration between the Japanese SoftBank and Intel, have applied traditional DRAM memory with a single objective: to assault the enormous market for high-bandwidth memory, or HBMwhich dominates data centers. Puff pastry. A few months ago we told you that the two companies They had embarked on a joint path to stand up to the dominance of Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron in the creation of high-performance memory. lHBM memory is preferred for data centers because it has a beastly bandwidth that allows a greater number of simultaneous operations. It’s like a huge highway. However, it has limitations: it is expensive to produce, requires a lot of energy, and gets hot enough to require expensive dissipation systems. Conventional DRAM memory was not an alternative, but Intel and SoftBank began to ‘play around’ with stacked DRAM memory. It is like a puff of RAM memory (simplifying things a lot), whose main limitation came when connecting each of those thin layers of memory so that the final product had the same capabilities as that highway that is HBM memory. ZAM. After a few months of research, a few days ago at the Intel Connection in Japan, SAIMEMORY and Intel presented the ZAM prototype. According to the companiesa ZAM module can have a capacity of up to 512 GB, it is easy to produce because it consists of designing vertically stacked chips and most importantly: it can reduce energy consumption by 40% to 50% compared to conventional HBMs. If HBMs are expensive and take time to produce, ZAMs are cheaper, can be the solution to alleviate restrictions in the supply chain and, in addition, would lower the energy consumption of data centers (which is one of the problems they have), and are also easier to cool. At the moment, the company’s research points to a theoretical limit of 20 layers, but current designs move around 16 layers, so performance may be better if this current limitation can be overcome. Real alternative. Intel’s ambition is total, since they point out that their DRAM module joining technology allows them to offer two to three times the capacity of HBM modules while being up to 60% cheaper to produce. It all seems like a plus and doesn’t seem like bad technology when established giants in HBM memory creation like Samsung are also researching how to overcome the limitations of connections in stacked DRAM memory. The prototype | Photo by PCWatch Ambition. And, almost as important as the presentation of the ZAM prototype, is the alliance itself. Intel has been away from the memory market for many years. He tried it in the 80s and, again, years later with his Optane technology -that died miserably without making the slightest gap in the market. On the other hand, SoftBank represents a Japan that had the lead in this sector in the 1980s, but was overshadowed by emerging South Korean companies. In fact, Intel’s memories were eaten by the Japanese… and the Japanese by the South Koreans. SAIMEMORY has behind it not only those sharks, but other Japanese companies such as Fujitsu, Shinko Electric Industries, PowerChip Semiconductor Manufacturing or the University of Tokyo. And if ZAM memory works on a commercial level, it will not only be good news to alleviate the memory production chains (perhaps this will also alleviate the domestic market totally destroyed for the data center needs), but will mark the birth of a new and ambitious player who seeks to break the hegemony of the trident he currently leads. We will see it, of course, in a few years, since SAIMEMORY plans complete prototypes in fiscal year 2027 and begin commercialization in 2029. Image | Samsung, Maxence Pira In Xataka | The CEO of Nothing is clear that we do not need a high-end mobile phone every year. A mix of RAM crisis and common sense

break China’s monopoly on rare earths

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If in the 20th century the powers fought over oil wells, in 2026 the battle will be fought on the periodic table. Lithium, cobalt, gallium and rare earths have become the new barrels of crude oil, essential for manufacturing everything from the battery of an electric car to the guidance system of a hypersonic missile. In this scenario, Donald Trump’s administration has encountered an inescapable geological reality: the rhetoric of “America First” has a physical limit. To win the technology race of the 21st century, Washington needs its neighbors. In an unprecedented diplomatic and economic maneuver, the United States has launched an offensive to recruit Mexico, Argentina and a bloc of global allies, with the declared objective of shielding themselves from the vulnerability posed by China’s almost absolute dominance over critical minerals. The peak of strategic anxiety. The epicenter of this Copernican turn was the State Department in Washington, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance They served as hosts at the “Ministerial Meeting on Critical Minerals”. The call was no less: 55 international delegations sat at the table, under an urgent premise that the free market has failed. The American diagnosis is severe. China controls 90% of rare earth processing capacity and has begun to use that monopoly as a geopolitical weapon, imposing licensing requirements and restricting exports to pressure American industry. “The international market for critical minerals is failing,” said Vice President Vancearguing that Beijing floods the market with low prices to ruin Western competition and then raise prices at will. Project Vault and the lapse. To counter this, the White House has presented tools that rewrite the rules of global capitalism. Trump announced the creation of a strategic mineral reserve valued at 12 billion dollars (10 billion in Ex-Im Bank loans and almost 1.67 billion in private capital). Like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve created in the 1970s, this “vault” —call Project Vault— will accumulate stock to protect giants such as General Motors, Stellantis and Google from future supply crises. But the White House mentality has gone from business to war, literally. In a Freudian slip or statement of intent, the Trump administration’s official documents on these investments list the Pentagon under its 19th-century name: Department of War (War Department). Under this anachronistic headingWashington is already financing mining projects in Alaska and North Carolina, making it clear that resource extraction is no longer a matter of the market, but of pure and simple national defense. The FORGE alliance and “price floors”. To support this scheme, has been launched he Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE), initially chaired by South Korea, to coordinate a “preferential trade zone.” The revolutionary idea here is floor prices: if China pulls down global prices, the members of the bloc external tariffs will apply to maintain high internal value, thus guaranteeing the profitability of mining investments in allied countries. However, the market has reacted with skepticism to this interventionism. Paradoxically, after the announcement, the shares of American mining companies such as MP Materials and USA Rare Earth plummeted between 6% and 9%. According to analysts cited by Reutersthe fear is that the Trump administration will withdraw direct subsidies for individual projects to focus on this complex global price engineering, leaving local companies exposed to regulatory uncertainty. This entire American strategy draws a two-speed map of the world. On the one hand, there is the technological “VIP club”: the United States, Japan and the European Union will sign a binding trilateral agreement in 30 days to coordinate their industries. On the other hand, there are the suppliers of raw materials: Latin America. Argentina and the delivery of Lithium. In the south, Javier Milei’s administration has decided to unconditionally align its resources with Washington’s interests. Argentina, the world’s fifth largest producer of lithium, signed a framework agreement that ties it to the American supply chain, using RIGI as bait (Incentive Regime for Large Investments). For the White House, Argentina is the key piece to deal a blow to Beijing. At the moment, more than 70% of Argentine lithium travels to China, a flow that the US is determined to cut off and redirect towards its own factories. The operation is already underway. While diplomacy was signing papers, money was moving: the giant Glencore has agreed with the Orion consortium (backed by the US) to acquire assets, demonstrating how Western capital is beginning to take positions on the ground. Secretary Marco Rubio He did not hide his enthusiasm for this total provision: “Argentina is going to be a key partner for the world,” he stated, highlighting not only the extraction, but the country’s capacity to process the materials that the US needs. In practice, this makes the South American country a primary link in American national security. Mexico: The treasure map and the threat of the “Menú”. The situation in Mexico is one of forced pragmatism under threat. With the T-MEC review scheduled for July, the Mexican government accepted an “Action Plan” 60 days that goes far beyond commerce. The agreement opens the door to something that strikes a chord with national sovereignty: the US Geological Survey will collaborate in the “geological mapping” of Mexican territory to locate deposits, an x-ray of the neighbor’s resources carried out from Washington to “provide transparency.” The Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, justified the transfer with a phrase of brutal realism: “If you are not at the table participating, you are on the menu.” But for many, Mexico is already being devoured. The “Cambiémosla Ya” collective has issued a fierce alertdenouncing that this plan is a “return to neoliberalism” that subordinates national sovereignty to the industrial needs of the north. They warn that the rush to comply with Washington’s quotas will cause “the dispossession, displacement and destruction of communities”, relaxing regulations to turn the territory into a sacrifice zone for the US energy transition. Passport for rocks, walls for people. The backdrop of this great mineral alliance reveals a contradiction that defines the current era. While … Read more

break SK Hynix’s monopoly on AI

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Samsung Electronics will imminently begin manufacturing HBM4 memories in February, the next generation of high-speed chips that power AI accelerators. It has already passed qualification tests from both NVIDIA and AMD, according to industry sources cited by Reuters and Korea Economic Daily. The first deliveries will go to NVIDIA for its platform Vera Rubinwhose CEO, Jensen Huang, has confirmed that it is already in production with a launch planned for the second half of 2026. Why is it important. This move is set to change the balance of power in the AI ​​memory market, where SK Hynix has been the dominant supplier to NVIDIA. Demand for HBM chips has skyrocketed with the rise of generative AI, and that has made them one of the most critical bottlenecks in the tech industry. For NVIDIA, diversifying supply reduces the risk of relying on a single supplier when demand for its accelerators far exceeds its capacity. For Samsung, regaining ground means accessing revenues worth tens of billions annually at a critical time: need this boost because precisely SK Hynix has eroded part of its business. Between the lines. Samsung has played a risky card: adopting a sixth-generation (1c) 10-nanometer DRAM manufacturing process before anyone else, despite suffering from very low initial yields. Also has integrated a 4 nanometer logic chipmore advanced than that of SK Hynix. The bet is paying off: Samsung’s HBM4 chips reached speeds of 10.7 gigabits per second in NVIDIA tests, surpassing the 10 Gbps threshold. SK Hynix recorded 8.3 Gbps and Micron around 8 Gbps, according to a technical source cited by Korean Herald. The change in qualification criteria has favored Samsung. Nvidia and AMD have tightened speed requirements but relaxed thermal limits because they prioritize raw performance. This comes after accelerators like Google’s TPUs have demonstrated performance comparable to NVIDIA GPUs. Yes, but. SK Hynix is ​​already working to avoid losing ground: it has redesigned its HBM4 chips and is awaiting the results of new qualifications that will give it an advantage. In February it will begin deploying wafers in its new M15X plant in Cheongju to produce HBM chips. In addition, SK Hynix closed all HBM supply agreements with its largest customers in October for 2026. Samsung arrives later, trying to grab whatever share it can, thanks to all manufacturers operating at the limit of their capacity. The geopolitical background. South Korea concentrates more than 70% of global HBM chip productiona component so critical to AI that it determines who can train the most advanced models and who cannot. China, despite its enormous investments in semiconductors, is still a few years behind in this technology due to Western restrictions on advanced lithography equipment. South Korean dominance in HBM It is one of the most valuable advantages that the Western technological bloc maintains. And now what. Both companies have to publish their quarterly results this Thursday. And it is to be hoped that they will take the opportunity to provide more details about HBM4 orders and real demand. Those numbers will say a lot about who is winning this battle for the most valuable component of the AI ​​era. In Xataka | There is an unexpected victim of the rise in RAM memory prices: the very modern connected cars Featured image | Samsung

Tesla turns on the mega-refinery in Texas with which it wants to break China’s game

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The map of global power is no longer drawn only with oil wellsbut with the critical mineral pathways. In a move that redefines the auto industry and energy geopolitics, Tesla has announced that its lithium refinery in Texas is already an operational reality. It is not just another factory; It is the West’s first major attempt to wrest the keys to 21st century mobility from China. The advertisement. tesla sent a strong message through its official channels: its lithium refinery is now operational. According to Elon Musk himselfthis milestone “marks the beginning of energy independence for North America.” The facility, located in Robstown, near Corpus Christi Harbornot only seeks to ensure the supply of components, but also to reduce logistics emissions and generate regionalized employment. As detailed by Spectrum Newsthe plant has met the ambitious deadlines set since it was launched the first stone in May 2023. What was then a project of more than 1,000 million dollars, today is, according to Musk’s wordsthe largest and most advanced facility of its kind on the continent. A look towards China. To understand the magnitude of this step, you have to look at the Asian giant. Tesla is replicating the successful strategy of the Chinese giant BYD: absolute vertical integration. It’s no longer just about designing software or assembling chassis; it’s about controlling the entire value chainfrom when the mineral comes out of the ground until it becomes a battery cell. The capacity of this plant is massive. According to the specialized media DiscoverAlertthe refinery has a capacity of 50 GWh per year, which translates into enough lithium to manufacture approximately one million battery packs per year. By eliminating intermediaries, Tesla not only ensures its production rate, but also shields itself from the frailties of global logistics and geopolitical tensions. Texas alchemy. The real revolution of this plant is not only its size, but its chemistry. As Jason Bevan explainsmanager of Tesla, the plant uses a pioneering process in the United States: alkaline leaching to directly convert spodumene mineral into lithium hydroxide suitable for batteries. Unlike traditional refining—which often relies on aggressive acids and generates hazardous waste such as sodium sulfate—Tesla’s method is acid-free (acid free). As the refinery staff explains in the official video released by the brandthis process eliminates toxic byproducts. Instead, it generates a mixture of sand and limestone known as “anhydrite.” This byproduct, far from being waste, is being integrated into the circular economy. tesla confirmed from the beginning of the project that this material would be used in the production of construction materials (concrete), turning a traditional waste stream into a useful resource. Is it possible to break away from China’s shadow? Despite the optimism in Texas, the reality of the global market remains overwhelmingly favorable to Asia. How we have developed in XatakaChina currently controls the refining of 19 of the 20 strategic minerals evaluated by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Their dominance is almost total, since they process 95% of the graphite and 98% of the rare earths on the planet. Furthermore, the Chinese advantage is not coincidental, but the result of decades of investment under the “Made in China 2025” plan. While Tesla has managed to build its refinery in a record time of 19 months, the IEA warns that, on average, a mine takes up to 17 years to be operational. However, the United States has begun to play its cards with unprecedented aggressiveness. According to OilPricethe US administration has moved from traditional lending to direct involvement, acquiring stakes in mining companies such as Lithium Americas. This paradigm shift seeks to close the gap with China through public-private collaboration that includes massive projects such as Thacker Pass in Nevada, which is expected to be the largest lithium supply in the Western Hemisphere by 2027. The mining ecosystem: from Nevada to Texas. Until now, lithium production in the United States was almost negligible. According to a CNBC report, the Silver Peak plant in Nevada, owned by Albemarle, has been the only active source in the country for decades. Their method, based on solar evaporation in giant pools covering 13,000 acres, is a slow process that requires 18 to 24 months to concentrate the mineral. The arrival of Tesla and other players such as American Lithium (which recently expanded its assets in Nevada according to their own corporate statements) is transforming the sector. While Albemarle focuses in the extraction of underground brinesTesla focuses on the refining of hard rock (spodumene), creating a diversified ecosystem that seeks to feed the growing demand for electric vehicles. A change of era. The success of the Texas refinery will not be measured only by the tons of lithium hydroxide it produces, but by its ability to demonstrate that the West can compete on costs and sustainability without depending on Chinese infrastructure. Tesla isn’t just making electric cars; is building the foundations of industrial sovereignty. This project is the first concrete step to reduce a dependency that until recently was considered inevitable. Time will tell if 19 months of Texan engineering can beat two decades of Chinese strategy, but, for now, Tesla already has one of the keys. Image | tesla Xataka | Tesla urgently needs to make its electric cars cheaper. And their plan is to produce batteries in Germany

Railway experts explain how and why a rail can break

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Regarding the train accident in Adamuz (Córdoba) and its causes, there are very few things that can be taken for granted at this time. Almost the only certainty is that it will take months to know what caused the derailment of an Iryo train on a straight line and, everything indicates, the subsequent impact of a Renfe Alvia train seconds later. Despite this and despite the fact that Angrois railway accident (Santiago de Compostela) has already made it clear to us that these investigations entail a great effort of time and resources, information that points to one cause or another continues to be published. Among this information that, for the moment, remains conjecture, the idea of ​​a fracture of the road has become relevant following the publication of an image in which three researchers are seen next to a broken rail. in the diary The Country This hypothesis is pointed out as the fact that focuses the investigation. ABC He claims that it is the cause of the derailment. RTVE He points out that investigators want to confirm if it was the cause or consequence of the train leaving the tracks. The image, published by several media, is being used on social networks to defend that this is the real reason for the accident, accompanying video information in which strong vibrations from the trains in motion are observed. The latter, in fact, has been taken into account to lower the maximum speed to 230 km/h in a four points of the line between Madrid and Barcelona by Adif in what is considered the first really drastic measure after the accident in Andalusia. But what causes a fracture in the road and what are the implications? Is it related to the vibrations of the trains we travel on? A fracture in the road The first thing to make clear is that in this article we try to explain how the bill can occur on a track, what its implications are and if it has any relationship with the vibrations we feel on trains. However, until now there are no official sources that confirm that the original cause of the Adamuz accident is this. The investigations continue and probably It will take months to know all the details. The General Council of Industrial Engineers reminds us of the same thing, who emphasizes that “it cannot be stated without data whether the breakage is a cause or consequence. The investigation must be based on records, tests and metallurgical analysis. Not on images after the accident.” With this in mind, they point out that “a stress fracture is a progressive break of the lane that is not produced by a single sudden event, but by the accumulation of tensions over time. Simply put, the rail supports millions of load cycles. If there is a weak area (defect, welding, microcrack), each train passage does not break the rail, but it degrades it. “There comes a time when the resistant section is insufficient and the rail suddenly fractures.” From this entity they clarified to us that the vibrations we feel when we are traveling are not enough to derail a train. For this, one of the following scenarios must occur: Serious lane breakage. Severe loss of track geometry (alignment, grading, width). Structural failures in train elements (axles, bogies). Major obstacles on the road. Very unfavorable combinations of speed, geometry and undetected defects. And they emphasize that “usual vibrations are expected in the design of both the train and the infrastructure. “High-speed rail systems work with very wide safety margins.” “The usual vibrations are foreseen in the design of both the train and the infrastructure. High-speed railway systems work with very wide safety margins” This is confirmed to us from SEMAF (Spanish Union of Railway Machinists), who point out that imperfections in the track multiply when driving on them. “It is steel on steel,” they remember, and emphasize that the vibrations are a consequence of very small perfections in the track or the wheels that generate damage to their opposite. If the damage is on the track, it generates another imperfection in the wheel that multiplies it with each step cycle, generating the discomfort we feel on board. The General Council of Engineers emphasizes that “it is not usually a safety problem. It is usually a comfort or maintenance problem (wheel or rail) and many vibrations are corrected by re-profiling wheels or rails, without touching the structure of the line.” That is, when we feel these vibrations repeatedly and repeatedly It is not that we are passing through broken or fractured paths.. But it is possible that over time they end up being damaged to the point of suffering a stress fracture if appropriate measures are not taken. Maintenance is essential In this case, The road had been renovated last May with an investment that has reached 700 million euros. We cannot yet know if this was the origin of the accident, but the General Council of Industrial Engineers points to three possible causes that could cause the breakage of a track: Rail manufacturing defects: Non-metallic inclusions. Internal microcracks. Steel segregations. They are rare, but possible, and that is why periodic ultrasonic tests are carried out. Defective welds (especially aluminothermal): a poorly executed weld can generate residual stresses, poor alignment and/or internal microcracks. It is not common, but it is a known cause in railway engineering. Fatigue from repeated loads: Each axis introduces vertical, lateral and longitudinal loads. At high speed, dynamic effects multiply those loads. If the rail is already “touched”, fatigue accelerates the breakage. Thermal stresses on track without joints (the usual one today): The lane is “blocked.” Heat generates compression. The cold generates traction. A combination of low temperature, residual stresses and previous defect can promote brittle fracture. It must be taken into account that “the rail is one of the most demanding structural elements that exist. It is not rigid on its own, it is part of a flexible system. The steel … Read more

China aims to break records with the largest ice park in the world. And he has already begun to lift it block by block

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At the end of November, in Harbin, the image is repeated every winter, with a scale that has not stopped growing in recent editions: cranes, machinery and workers begin to raise structures on a surface that weeks later will become walls, towers and slides made of ice. According to official dataconstruction is advanced this year thanks to the ice stored during the previous season and preserved for more than ten months. This material allows work to begin even before the river freezes completely again, with the aim of preparing an area that this winter will have 1.2 million square meters. Harbin Ice-Snow World It has grown from a local celebration to a seasonal theme park that rises again each winter. It functions as an enclosure with defined entrances, circulation areas, walkable structures and spaces to stay for hours, especially when it gets dark and the lighting changes the perception of the place. It is not just a setting for photographs, but a park designed to be walked, used and visited for a few weeks, while weather conditions allow it. When ice stops being landscape and becomes infrastructure Upon entering the venue, the experience is more similar to that of a theme park than a temporary exhibition. You can walk between buildings, climb platforms, slide down ramps or access areas prepared for snow activities. The architectural elements are not presented as immobile pieces, but as part of the route. For this edition, those responsible have announced spaces intended for ice fishing, cross-country skiing and collective snow gamesas well as an additional stage that will complement the cultural activities of the already usual Dream Stage. The proposal does not focus solely on showing structures, but on facilitating their use within a planned and temporary environment. Before erecting ice structures, Harbin already celebrated winter through local practices. Hand-carved ice lanterns began to be used in the city in the middle of the last century and gave rise to the first Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, held on January 5, 1985. indicate official pages. The jump to the current format came in 1999, when Harbin Ice-Snow World was created as an independent venue, with specific access and design. Since then, the evolution has been constant: more surface area, greater volume of materials, presence of machinery and planned construction processes. The park, under construction in November 2025 Harbin has turned winter into a source of economic activity. According to data released by Xinhuathe city received 90.36 million visitors during the last season, with estimated income of 137.22 billion yuan (almost 17 million euros), an increase of 16.6% compared to the previous year. Ice-Snow World does not explain these figures on its own, but it acts as one of the main focuses of attraction and as an element that concentrates tourist services, accommodation, restaurants and transportation during the weeks in which it remains open. The construction mobilizes technical profiles, operators and specialists in structure and lighting, while the opening requires personnel for visitor service, security, maintenance and tourist support. Many of these roles are temporary, but require prior coordination and planning. When comparing Harbin to other major winter events, such as the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan or Quebec Winter Carnival in Canadathe difference is not only in size, but in structure. Sapporo distributes its sculptures in various urban spaces and Quebec combines culture, parades and outdoor activities, but neither of them functions as a theme park concentrated in a single venue, as occurs in Harbin. Harbin uses hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of ice and snow, according to official data, and builds walkable structures that are part of the route and not just the landscape. It is not so much a festival as a temporary recreational facility. Harbin Ice-Snow World has been integrated into the city’s tourism calendar as a seasonal facility. It is built every year, it opens for a few weeks and It is dismantled when temperatures no longer guarantee stability. This temporary nature does not prevent its planning: the prior storage of ice, the mobilization of workers and the associated services indicate that it is an organized activity and not simply a one-off event. The park functions as a generator of temporary employment, concentrates the winter tourism offer and channels activities that are subsequently complemented by the interior ice and snow enclosure, designed to operate all year round as an extension of the exterior park. There is no pretension of permanence, but of repetition adjusted to the climatic conditions. This repetition has allowed the consolidation of technical, logistical and tourist processes linked to winter as a seasonal economic resource. Images | The Harbin International Ice and Snow festival | Harbin Government In Xataka | Someone wants to build a 144 meter high skyscraper in the middle of the port of Malaga. The reason: luxury tourism

Microsoft had the deal of the century on its hands. A break of a year and a half was given to one of his rivals on a platter

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With its early deal with OpenAI, Microsoft was leading the AI ​​race in 2023. A year later it froze its expansion. Now Oracle serves OpenAI models and competitors share what Nadella’s company rejected. Why is it important. This isn’t just about lost data centers. Microsoft has assigned contracts with OpenAI valued at $420 billion to Oracle, equivalent to $150 billion in gross profit over five years. That would have increased its annual profitability by 18%. This means that in addition to losing growth, Microsoft also financed the entry of a rival into the most profitable business of the decade, according to analysis by Semianalysis. The facts. In 2023, Microsoft multiplied its investment in OpenAI tenfold to $10 billion and broke ground on the largest data centers ever built. Represented more than 60% of all infrastructure leases cloud among the greats. In 2024 it stopped everything in its tracks. It canceled 3.5 gigawatts of planned capacity — enough to power 2.5 million homes — and projects in a dozen countries. Its share of contracts fell below 25%. Between the lines. The company has used the argument of financial prudence: it did not want OpenAI to represent 50% of Azure’s revenue with lower margins than the traditional business. But the reality is simpler: he couldn’t keep up: OpenAI demanded a speed that Microsoft couldn’t match. Yes, but. The company has returned to the market with some urgency. The problem is that the options have been running out. Now rents capacity to neoclouds —specialized companies that build infrastructure—to resell it to third parties. It is a business with worse margins. The company that refused to build now pays commissions for having miscalculated. The money trail. Oracle is not the only winner. CoreWeave, Google, Amazon, Nscale and SB Energy have signed large contracts with OpenAI. In 2025, the story of OpenAI has been the story of its diversification away from Microsoft, although it is true that What seemed like a bad divorce ended in a separation of assets with forced smiles. The world’s most valuable AI lab had to fragment its infrastructure across multiple vendors because its original partner couldn’t—or wouldn’t—scale. In applications, Microsoft’s historical dominance with GitHub Copilot is also eroding. There are startups that have built more integrated code editors and scaled beyond Copilot. Microsoft has been forced to add the models of its rival Anthropic on GitHub Copilotwith a brutal cost for their margins. The company that had exclusive access to OpenAI now depends on its competitor to keep its code editor relevant. And now what. Microsoft has until 2032 before its agreement with OpenAI expires. It has Copilot with 100 million users. You have Office 365, Azure, and a business ecosystem that no one else can match. But the “great pause” of 2024 will take years to heal. The company has bet that the future of AI will be enterprise – with security and localization requirements – and not centralized in remote megacenters. You may be right. But 18 months of technology advantage is worth billions. And Microsoft just gave them away to its rivals. In Xataka | OpenAI has to pay debts of $400 billion in 2026. Nobody has the slightest idea how it is going to pay them Featured image | Simon Ray in Unsplash

Neobanks break 25% market share in Spain. Traditional banking is losing young customers

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They are no longer an anecdote, they are a main actor. For the first time, neobanks have exceeded 25% of the market share among individuals in Spain. A new report echoed by some media, places the penetration of these entities in 27.2%. It is a significant jump from the 21.8% they registered in 2024. The data confirms a clear trend: traditional banking is losing the battle for the young customer, although it continues to retain the main business. Image: Revolut What is a neobank. Unlike traditional bankingneobanks operate 100% digitally, without physical branches. Their model is based on a very light cost structure that allows them to offer commission-free services all managed from a mobile app. The Bank of Spain itself defines them as entities that offer banking intermediation services in a completely digital way. The assault on the young public. Neobanks entered the Spanish market attacking a very specific niche: young people and travelers. a study from Adyen and OpinionWay reveals that practically all Spaniards (93%) reject paying banking fees abroad. This has caused 59% of millennials and 55% of Gen Z to trust them more than traditional banks when traveling. Part of the “win” in innovation and reputation It’s not just in the product, but in the marketing. They understood that an app was not enough to attract the new generations; You had to be where they are: social networks and platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Revolut has been the most aggressive, renewing for a third year its alliance with Ibai Llanos and sponsoring its “Evening of the Year.” It seems that traditional banking has reacted to this trend, and has used the same weapons: now, Banco Santander has signed the YouTuber Plex. With almost 15 million followers on their networks, He is the protagonist of the last campaign. The Revolut surprise. This growth is not uniform; It is led by the well-known Revolut. A report from the CNMC was devastating: in 2024, Revolut led the acquisition of new accounts in Spain with 19.8% of the total, surpassing giants such as BBVA and Santander. The CNMC was blunt and recognized that “neobanks and fintechs pose a real competitive threat.” Figures. That leadership in recruitment now translates into real money. According to data from Expansion and El Mundo, the total neobank customer base in Spain exceeded five million in 2024. Revolut quadrupled its deposits in a single yeargoing from 739 million euros to 3,127 million. Meanwhile, its competitor N26 (with one million clients) suffered a 9% decline in deposits since December. Image: BBVA Fintech in traditional banks. The reactionary stance of some entities has led them to a strategy: launch their own neobanks to compete in the same field. Imagin stands out, promoted by CaixaBank. Your numbers They do not leave many doubts: they can boast 3.5 million clients and a 48% market share in the 18 to 34 year old segment among the main neobanks. But very few trust them with their payroll.. Despite the good penetration figures, traditional banking continues to dominate the main relationship with the customer. According to a report by Inmark, banks such as CaixaBank, Santander and BBVA account for almost 84% of the business market. Among individuals, only 4.2% use a neobank as their main entity. However, the goal of neobanks is stop being a complement. They are ripening to attack the core business of banking: Revolut has already announced its plans to offer mortgages in Spain and yes it has materialized installment payment services. The official view: necessary competence. The rise of fintech is a trend validated by official organizations. The Bank of Spain, in its 2025 Observatoryconfirms a 50% growth in the number of entities since 2020 and a 249% increase in their total assets since 2018. At the European level, the president of the Single Resolution Board recently warned that the Revolut model reinforces the need for a deposit guarantee fund mutualized in the EU. For its part, the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) and your report It is important to understand why they succeed: The traditional banking sector is highly concentrated. Spain (HHI of 1,331) has a higher index than Germany (323) or France (567). This lack of competition is one of the reasons why traditional banks do not remunerate deposits. It is the neobanks who break this dynamic. The Spanish banking sector is four times more concentrated than the German one, according to the CNMC. Neobanks have not grown by chance: they have taken advantage of the void that traditional banking left by not competing Now, there are always stones on the road. The CNMC points out that Spaniards have a “relatively high level of distrust” in online banking – only 23% feel “very comfortable” compared to the 41% average in the eurozone – and “below” average financial education. This paints a battlefield for the coming years. The growth of neobanks shows that they have won the usability war: they are easier to use and have masterfully conquered the young public. However, CNMC data reveal that traditional banking still has the most important defensive moat: customer trust and inertia. Cover image | Composition with images of CardMapr.nl and Revolut In Xataka | There are more and more millionaires in the world and that is a problem: luxury products are no longer exclusive

Spain has become the first European country to break the gas. The only problem is that the invoice says something else

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At first glance it seems a contradiction: we produce more solar and wind energy than ever, and yet The invoice continues. Sometimes it seems that everything returns to the same thing: gas. And, in part, it is true. The gas continues to enter every night to sustain the electrical system when the sun falls. But behind that reality there is another less visible: Spain is getting the structural link between electricity and fossil fuels. Reducing the power of gas. According to an Ember analysisthe influence of gas and coal in electric prices has been reduced by 75% since 2019. In the first half of 2025, the gas only determined the price of light 19% of the time, compared to 75% of six years ago. The result is overwhelming: the wholesale price of electricity in Spain was 32 % lower than the European average. While Germany or Italy have barely reduced the influence of gas by 12%and 13%, respectively, Spain has done it in 75%. It is a much faster jump than in any other large European electric market. Spain stopped the power of gas and coal, becoming one of the cheapest markets in Europe This fall reflects a deep transformation of the system. The country has made renewable energy – more cheap and stable – progressively replace gas and coal in pricing. So why don’t you notice the invoice? The answer, as we will see, has to do with the network, the storage and a blackout that changed the rules of the game. An exponential growth. Since 2019, Spain added more than 40 GW Of new wind and solar capacity, which has allowed the renewables to cover 46 % of the electrical demand in the first half of 2025. In that same period, the generation with gas and coal fell to 20 %, compared to more than 40 % that still register Germany and Italy. This transformation has had a direct effect on the market: gas and coal are barely marked the price of light. “Spain has broken the dire bond between electricity and fossil fuels”, summarize Chris RossloweEmber analyst. However, this technical achievement does not mean that the system is free of shadows. The imperceptible success. Here comes the less encouraging part. The problem is not only how much it costs to generate electricity, but how the system remains stable. After the blackout of April 28, 2025, Ree adopted an “reinforced” operational modeactivating more combined gas cycles to stabilize the network. That strategy avoided new cuts, but had a high cost. The use of gas for network services – as voltage control or frequency regulation – doubled in May 2025 compared to the previous year. These services went from representing 14% of the final price before the blackout at 57% that month, According to Ember. In addition, the missing renewable energy (Curtailment) It tripled after the blackout, moving from 1.8% in the two years prior to 7.2% between May and July 2025. In practice, a part of the clean energy generated is lost because the system cannot manage it. A power with bottlenecks. Despite being a renewable power, Spain only invests 30 cents in electrical networks for each euro allocated to renewables, compared to the 70 cents on average in Europe, As the report explains. And although it is the fourth largest electrical market of the continent, it occupies the 13th position in battery capacity, with just 120 MW installed. In some points of the network, Ree has recognized losses of up to 30% of the renewable generation due to lack of infrastructure. This imbalance prevents the clean energy from fully taking advantage of and forces to resort to gas as support. As we have pointed out in Xatakathe system is still vulnerable and rigid: only one in ten new facilities manages to access the network. After the blackout. The blackout marked a before and after. Although European experts have published A factual report, the official report is not expected until the end of the year. Following that episode, the government approved Royal Decree-Law 7/2025with measures to reinforce the network, encourage storage and make access to hybrid facilities. Although the text was rejected by Congress on July 22, part of its measures are being applied by other ways. Among them, As Ember points outthe incorporation of eight synchronous compensators – devices that stabilize the tension without using fossil fuels – and the impulse of 2,600 MW of new batteries, of which 340 MW already have permission. The Executive also plans to launch capacity auctions before 2026 to keep gas plants operational while structural solutions are displayed. But the message of the sector is clear: it will take time, investment and brave political decisions. The European Energy Laboratory. The Spanish case has become a mirror for the rest of the continent. It has shown that growing in solar and wind reduces the wholesale price and gas dependence, but also that without network and storage investment the benefits do not reach the consumer. In Brussels and in neighboring markets, Spain’s example is closely followed as a transition model: a country that has reduced its fossil dependence without sacrificing competitiveness, but still fights to transfer that advantage to the citizen. In Rosslowe’s words: “Spain has shown the way, but to keep it you need to invest in clean flexibility and modern networks.” Electricity is already cheaper to produce. It is also necessary to pay. Image | Freepik Xataka | In his career for the total domain of the solar panels, a rival has come out: the Spanish Perovskita

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