build

China will build the world’s largest AI network with its own chips, although they are not enough

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The Chinese Government is launching a project that seeks to invest $295 billion in five years in the deployment of a national network of data centers of artificial intelligence (AI). In the current scenario of confrontation in the technological field between the US and China, this plan is not surprising at all. However, we cannot ignore the fine print: at least 80% of the underlying technology, including AI chips, must come from domestic suppliers, such as Huawei or Cambricon. Early October 2024 the Administration sent Chinese AI companies were given a recommendation asking them to use chips produced in China as much as possible. Ten months later, this recommendation became a requirement. The Chinese government forced state-owned data centers across the country to use at least 50% Chinese integrated circuits in their servers. Now, as we have just seen, this figure rises to 80%. Be that as it may, this scenario clearly favors three companies: Huawei, Cambricon and Moore Threads. Nvidia and AMD no longer count for China Huawei invests more than 25 billion dollars annually in developing your hardware for AIso presumably it will not take long to match the performance of the GPUs produced by Nvidia or AMD. However, this company faces an enormous challenge that will probably prevent it from meeting the demand for AI chips from the Chinese market in the short term. In mid-June 2025 Jeffrey Kessler, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce, made this statement in Congress: “Our assessment indicates that Huawei’s Ascend chip production capacity by 2025 will be 200,000 units or less, and we anticipate that most or all of that production will be delivered to companies within China.” This limitation has a specific technical basis: yield per wafer The integration technologies used by the Chinese semiconductor manufacturer SMIC to produce Huawei or Cambricon chips have a very wide room for improvement. The per-wafer performance of SMIC integration technologies has a very large room for improvement SMIC already has the capacity to manufacture 6nm integrated circuits, and will soon also be able to produce 5nm semiconductors, but is limited by the performance of the deep ultraviolet lithography equipment (UVP) that you have in your possession. It is commendable that SMIC and Huawei engineers have managed to refine their integrated circuit manufacturing processes enough to be able to produce 5, 6 and 7 nm chips with ASML’s UVP equipment, but a priori it is very unlikely that with these machines they will be able to go beyond 3 nm. And it is because the technique of multiple patterningwhich is what they are using, imposes important limitations. A note: this strategy broadly consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increase resolution of the lithographic process. Its problem is that it usually has an upward impact on the cost of chips and a downward impact on production capacity. For Huawei, it is a big problem not to have the necessary technology to produce cutting-edge semiconductors comparable to those manufactured by Intel, TSMC or Samsung, which is why it is working on the development of its own equipment. extreme ultraviolet photolithography (EUV). This scenario has caused the Chinese semiconductor industry to question whether national hardware can maintain the pace demanded by the Government. SMIC co-CEO Zhao Haijun has warned that this hasty addition of capacity can leave data centers idlecomparing this situation to building highways before there is traffic. In addition, several Chinese executives in the chip sector have recognized separately that his country is five to ten years behind in the cutting edge in silicon for AI data centers. In the current situation, the decision has its logic. Another thing is whether China can comply with it. Image | Cambricon Technologies More information | Tom’s Hardware In Xataka | NVIDIA has to deal with the absolute distrust of several US legislators. Your plan in China is in danger In Xataka | The US wants to end Chinese AI chips sold abroad. And China knows how to defend itself

It took an engineer 17 years to build the Lamborghini Countach of his dreams from the basement of his house. The problem was getting it out.

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There are motor fans. And then there’s Ken Imhoff. And this engineer from Wisconsin was not satisfied with having a poster of the Lamborghini Countach on his wall or with saving for years to buy one. He decided to make it himselfby hand, in the basement of his house. It took him 17 years. a movie. It all started in 1990, when Imhoff saw ‘Cannonball Run‘ (1981), directed by Hal Needham and featuring a Lamborghini Countach LP 400 S. Imhoff was amazed enough to make a decision that, seen from the outside, sounds crazy: build his own Lamborghini from scratch. How to build a Lamborghini in a basement. Imhoff began the project by erecting a wooden structure that served as a mold to shape the body panels. To work the aluminum he used an English wheel, a forming tool that allows you to create complex curves in sheet metal. He had to learn the hard way that welding too much at once causes deformations in the metal, so he perfected the technique with short, controlled welding points. The chassis is made of steel tube and the body is entirely made of aluminum. The model he used as a reference was the 1982 Countach LP 5000S. Details. To make the result as faithful as possible to the original, Imhoff incorporated authentic Lamborghini parts, such as the taillights, position lights, windshield and emblems. He even had replicas of the original wheels made from scratch. Where he did have to improvise was in the engine. And without the possibility of fitting an Italian V12, he opted for a Ford 351 Cleveland block, with forged pistons, polished cylinder heads and a more aggressive camshaft. The result was 514 horsepower at 6,800 rpm, according to collect CarBuzz. The transmission is a ZF five-speed and the suspension comes from a C4 Corvette. The whole thing weighs about 1,220 kilos, significantly less than a production Countach. The finish, almost at the level of a professional workshop. The body was painted in pearlescent metallic gray, a finish that has its own because it is usually more sensitive to any imperfection. The painting process was done in a professional paint booth, piece by piece (33 in total) because there was no way to get the booth into the basement. Each panel came out of the basement, was painted and carefully brought back down. Final sanding was done with 1,500 and 2,000 grit sandpaper, followed by three passes of the polisher. Just like point YouTube channel Wonder World, the shine achieved was difficult to distinguish from that of a factory car, according to those who saw it. Getting it out was an issue.. After 17 years working in the basement, Imhoff was faced with the task of removing the completed car from there. And one may wonder… Why wasn’t the project done outside or in the garage of his house? Well, according to Wonder World, Imhoff decided to do it there because the winters in his town are extremely cold, so he preferred to spend time in the basement, which is warmer. To get it out, they dug a dirt ramp outside, removed part of the basement wall and, with the help of a backhoe and some chains, pulled the car out by pulling it up the ramp over an improvised metal structure. It was the first time in 17 years that Imhoff was able to see his work in sunlight. On sale. Years after removing it from the basement, Imhoff noticed that the car was beginning to show signs of corrosion and concluded that he was not taking the proper care of it. “I’m doing you a disservice” and “actually it probably belongs to someone who may appreciate it more than I do,” counted Imhoff in words collected by the channel. So he put it up for sale on eBay with a starting price of $75,000. The bid reached 77,600, but the reserve price was not reached, so it did not end up selling on that occasion. Imhoff had invested around $65,000 in the project over almost two decades, as he confirmed. Ultimately, the car ended up selling to a Florida buyer for approximately $89,000, according to Wonder World. Since then, the car has continued to increase in value, as the Lambocars site public in 2023 that the current owner asked for $229,000 for it. It may seem absurd to have spent so much time building something and for the outcome to have been this. However, Imhoff ended up being honest with himself and decided that the value was not in having it, but in having built it and fulfilling his dream. In Xataka | This Aston Martin DB9 was sold for $57,000, but the craziest thing is not its price: it is the two flamethrowers it hides

A scientist wants to build a space shield against solar storms. Your secret weapon: lithium and barium

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Predict the arrival of very strong solar storms It is important for many reasons. Not only to keep an eye out and not get lost the most beautiful auroras. Also because these could affect satellites or terrestrial communications systems, so it is important to take precautions. The problem is that, no matter how much prevention methods have improved, we cannot do much more than be prepared for what is coming. Today there are no ways to stop these solar storms. However, a scientist from Boston University has announced that it is working on a method to strengthen the Earth’s natural shield against this type of phenomena. A stronger shield. The scientist in question is called Brian Walsh and is working in what he himself has called a wall against solar storms. Its objective is to send six ships to strategic points in a geostationary orbit, so that they release chemical elements capable of strengthening the magnetic field. These should be elements such as lithium or barium, since they are easily converted into positively charged ions when solar ultraviolet radiation hits them. At that point, the cargo released by the ships is converted to plasma. Precisely, what reaches Earth with solar storms is also plasma. However, there is a big difference. The one that comes from the sun consists of charged particles that move at very high speed, with great energy. On the other hand, what would be released into the magnetosphere would be cold, static plasma, which acts as a kind of wall, preventing this high-speed plasma from passing through the magnetosphere. A good shield when the activity is not too intense. The Earth has a great shield against solar storms. Generally, our magnetic field prevents these charged particles from the Sun from crossing into our atmosphere. This is because the magnetic field generally acts as a kind of rail on which the plasma circulates. The electrically charged particles are retained on these rails, but do not cross to the other side. They can only reach the atmosphere at the poles, where the inclination of the magnetic field lines acts as a kind of funnel. Even so, the charged particles that come from the surface of the Sun may already arrive somewhat weakened there. They interact with the gases in the atmosphere, exciting the atoms and causing the release of the light that makes up the auroras. But there are usually not very detrimental effects on communications. On the other hand, if the solar storm is very intense, the particles may be able to deform the rails of the magnetic field, filtering at the poles, but also in other places in the magnetosphere. Historical consequences. The consequences of these types of events have been seen numerous times throughout history. The most dramatic case was possibly that of Carrington eventwhich took place in 1859. It is considered the most powerful solar storm that has been recorded in history with consequences on Earth. Because of this large release of plasma from the Sun, auroras were seen in places as far from the poles as Hawaii and Cuba, but there were also less noticeable consequences, such as the burning of telegraph lines in many parts of the world. Another very notorious and dangerous case took place during the Vietnam War, in 1972, when a solar storm caused the accidental detonation of several magnetic underwater mines. And much more recent is the Gannon Storm, which in 2024 affected the GPS systems of planting tractors in several locations in the United Statescausing losses of 500 million dollars among farmers. But the situation could be worse. It is estimated that a major storm like Carrington’s could occur once a century. There hasn’t been one this big since then, so it could happen in the not too distant future. And today we depend much more on technologies than then. It is estimated that the losses could be more than 2 billion dollars. A natural process. This artificial wall that Walsh wants to create is inspired by a process that occurs naturally. And the thing is that, from time to time, small fragments of the Earth’s atmosphere break off and join the magnetic field, reinforcing it before the arrival of charged particles from the Sun. Lithium and barium would do something similar, artificially. Simulations only: For now, Brian Walsh has only made simulations of his invention, he has not tested it in space by any means. He himself recognizes that it is a complex process, so it must be done perfectly so that it causes more benefits than problems. Releasing ionizable elements at random could be harmful if not done in the right place. In addition, ways must be found to put ships in the correct place in their orbit before the storm arrives, so it is important to speed up the process while improving prediction methods. Handicaps. Although it may seem like a lot of mass is required to carry out this procedure, Walsh insists that the payload needs fall within current launch capabilities. However, he recognizes that it is an expensive process. Therefore, it would be necessary to look for ways to optimize it so that the necessary investment is not so large. For example, you want to work on pulsed release so that ionizable material is not wasted. In short, this method of controlling space weather is not at all something that will be used imminently, but it is clear that in the future we will need something like this. If not this method, another, but we greatly need something that protects us from the harshest elements of the Sun. Image | NASA | Walsh et al. In Xataka | A sunspot 17 times larger than Earth caused red auroras across half the world. It is a very rare event

35 billion dollars to build the largest airport in the world

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

Two architects fled the chaos of New Delhi to build a mud house in the Himalayas. Now it’s an Airbnb

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“Book only if you are comfortable hiking for 1.5 km in a forest with a backpack and want to experience raw nature and slow life with beautiful views.” This is one of the most striking Airbnb properties in Rishikesh, India. The house is the work of two brother architects who fled the savage capitalism of the city to end up creating the most coveted refuge on the mountain and a symbol of the gentrification of spirituality. Two brothers in search of peace. In Business Insider They tell the story of Raghav and Ansh Kumar, two architect brothers from New Delhi who worked for a German architecture firm. The brothers felt trapped in a relentless routine, with endless days, and a work culture that glorified burnout. During the pandemic, they made a radical turn and decided to leave the city and go to the mountains, specifically to Rishikesh, the city known as “the gate of the Himalayas” since from it come the pilgrims starting the Char Dam route. Build with your hands. One of the reasons for this change in life had to do with the disconnection caused by being locked in an office, away from the construction process, so it occurred to them to return to the most analog process possible. They drew the plans for the house intuitively using sticks directly on the ground and to build it they used the traditional technique with coba mixture of mud, straw and water, all materials extracted from the same area. For the construction they had four full-time workers, but they also had the help of more than 100 volunteers who signed up through the Workaway exchange platform. The walls are 45 centimeters thick and were increasing about 15-30 centimeters a day. In total, it took 18 months to build it. The irony. The brothers wanted to escape the “architecture of money, efficiency and productivity” and capitalist corporate exhaustion, but they ended up building a spiritual refuge to monetize on Airbnb for $140 a night, a fairly high price for the average in the area (we have found entire houses for 50 euros a night). Added to this is the paradox of materials: local communities and the government itself usually reject these mud houses as they are considered a symbol of poverty, preferring cement as a sign of progress and prosperity. That the brothers are charging tourists a premium price to sleep between the same mud walls that locals are trying to escape heightens the irony to the maximum. Essentially, they have fled the corporate hamster wheel to package and sell their “disconnection” to the same stressed workers they intended to distance themselves from. Spiritual gentrification. The adventure of these brothers does not occur in a vacuum, but is part of a wave of gentrification that is transforming the region. As we said, Rishikesh is historically known as a pilgrimage destination and the yoga capital of the world, but today it has become a objective for real estate investors and expatriates seeking to acquire second homes or open lucrative businesses that exploit precisely that aura of spirituality. The government is aggressively urbanizing the mountainous area to sustain this new wave of tourism and digital nomads. Recently, they have promoted and modernized infrastructure including widening roads, building multi-storey car parks to combat traffic congestion, and setting up commercial operating bases for sports such as rafting. Image | Airbnb In Xataka | The “tourist cages” arrive in Valencia: holiday gentrification in Spain goes up a gear

Star Catcher has raised $88 million to build the first space power grid. Their plan is to recharge satellites with lasers

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As the pace of space launches increases and missions beyond Earth become more abundant and varied, it is important to look for new ways to obtain energy so that these ships can travel to their destinations. Fuel is not infinite, so there comes a point where it runs out. Therefore, there are three main proposals. One is to resupply the ships directly in orbit. Another option is to resort to nuclear energy. In fact, There are already several agencies working on it. Finally, there is the option of solar energy. Unfortunately, this has some limitations, but the American company Star Catcher wants to solve them through the world’s first energy network located in space. A good economic injection. Star Catcher just announced which has received 65 million dollars in a series A financing round. With what they already had in their coffers, the company has 88 million dollars. Enough to date its first release to the end of this year. Different ways to “squeeze” the Sun. The solar energy we are used to is obtained through plates with photovoltaic cells installed directly on the Earth. However, there are already companies that want to bring it directly from the Sun, even at night. Its goal is to use mirrors that reflect sunlight at will anywhere on Earth, whatever the time and whether the weather is good or not. The problem is that these companies They are being criticized a lot for posing risks such as great light pollution. On the other hand, what Star Catcher wants to do is slightly different. They will also take solar energy directly into space, but they will not direct it to Earth, but to the spacecraft that need it. It will be like a kind of space solar power plant. Optical beaming. Star Catcher will be based on a phenomenon known as optical beaming. This consists of extracting solar energy and using it to power a multispectral optical laser, with which it will be redirected to satellites from which it can be distributed at will to the ships that need it. To do this, they hope to be able to put a constellation of 200 satellites into low Earth orbit. Previous records. Last year, this company broke the world record for wireless electricity transmission by delivering 1.1 kW of power to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Now, they want to transmit directly to space. It also has limitations. Although this company does not have the same limitations as those that want to redirect sunlight to Earth, it involves placing an immense number of satellites in orbit, with the risk that this entails. Many experts warn that, in the same way that could happen with Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation, this type of infrastructure increases the risk of Kessler syndrome. That is, it could happen that one or more fragments of space debris collide with them, deteriorating and launching pieces into space that would become more space debris, which in turn would collide with more satellites or more debris. Thus, a very dangerous domino effect would be generated for satellites, ships and space stations that are in space at that time. Even more risks. On the other hand, the launches of the ships that will place the satellites into orbit are also a great source of pollution. In fact, recently has been published a study that warns of the large amount of polluting substances that these types of launches leave in the upper layers of the atmosphere, where, otherwise, the pollution would be residual. In short, this company will bring us great advances, but it will have to maneuver carefully so as not to bring even more problems. Image | Star Catcher In Xataka | Starlink’s dominance in space begins to move: another company already has permission for a constellation of 4,000 satellites

build it himself at home

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Getting a yacht is usually a common whim among billionaires. Entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have not hesitated to spend part of their fortune to navigate different parts of the world with comforts, style and, above all, luxury. The first commissioned the construction of ‘koru‘ to the Dutch firm Oceanco, the second decided to skip this step and bought ‘Launchpad’ from a Russian oligarch. An American named Clyde Stires followed a completely different path to get the yacht he wanted, a catamaran 27.86 meters in length and 12.41 meters in width, equipped to receive a dozen guests. Stires tells in a video published on YouTube who was not a millionaire, but who decided to channel all the resources at his disposal, combined with great determination, to build the yacht of his dreams. From building custom vehicles to building your own yacht Stires was born in Missouri, although at the age of 12 he moved with his family to California. Since he was little, he spent a lot of time with his father, who taught him to use different cutting tools. With this knowledge as a basis, he began to learn on his own how to fix and build everyday objects such as toys. Much later, in the 1970s, he found inspiration in the vehicle manufacturer Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. After that, he began building motorcycle tricycles whose designs won over stars like Elvis Presley and Johnny Graham. His passion for what he did only increased. Years later he found himself transforming a double-decker bus into a caravan. He had previously bought his first boat in Taiwan, and decided that “he wanted to get back on the water,” so he got rid of almost everything he owned to start the project of his life, building a yacht. The vehicles that Clyde Stires manufactured Stires realize that analyzed every part of the project before starting. Since he did not have sufficient financial resources, he could not afford to build the ship in a shipyard. The costs of doing so would simply be unaffordable. Nor could I do it anywhere in the United States, since the climatic conditions could accelerate the deterioration of the ship under construction. So he decided to move to an ideal place to start the project. The caravan project He was in California, so he looked for a house in Perris, an old railroad town characterized by its dry, sunny climate. After making several sketches, calculations and reduced-scale versions, he got to work in 1987. In the video we can see how the boat is gaining size over time. This undoubtedly caught the attention of the locals, as someone points out in the YouTube comment below. The “skeleton” of the yacht “I lived in Canyon Lake and I drove past this every day on my way to work, it was very close to Highway 74. Suddenly, this huge ship started appearing, getting bigger every day. It was amazing to see. I had to stop and ask what was going on with that boat. He was always alone working in construction. He was very kind and told me that he was building a boat to sail around the world. So what you were wondering was: how is this ship going to get to the ocean?” The construction of the ship forced Stires to perfect all his techniques. This included everything from welding for the rolling process to installing the wiring, hydraulics and motors. It took Stires years to complete the deck lining, install all the equipment and paint the boat. Once it was finished, he was faced with the difficult task of taking it to the sea, and the only alternative was to cut it up and move it in pieces. The ship, called Kaleidoscope, was reassembled and launched in 1994. That milestone for the project was just the beginning of a series of surprising episodes that would come years later. The American says that his ship was “stolen by a cartel” when he was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Although after much effort, the authorities managed to recover the ship, the process of returning it to the United States was so complex that he decided to sell it. The years have passed and the yacht that once belonged to Stires is sailing again. Since its sale, it has been part of the fleet of a boat rental company. Kaleidoscope is presented as a yacht with “all the comforts for the most luxurious sailing experience.” Its new owners also call it a “limousine of the sea” and use it for private excursions or event celebrations. Images | Clyde Stires In Xataka | Yachts are now a product for the rich: a Chinese millionaire wants you to be able to buy them for $14,000 In Xataka | Roman Abramovich’s superyacht is a ruin even moored in port: 1,000 liters of diesel a day just for the air conditioning

A US company claims it can build a cutting-edge lithography machine. ASML says not even remotely

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Substrate is not just another startup. It was founded in 2022 by brothers James and Oliver Proud, and is backed by Peter Thiel (he co-founded PayPal and is one of the largest investors in Silicon Valley). Despite having existed for only four years, it has raised more than 100 million dollars and has been valued at more than 1 billion. This very successful start-up is based on a promise: the Proud brothers claim that they can build photolithography equipment as advanced as the most sophisticated they have. the Dutch company ASML. Currently this firm from the Netherlands is the only one capable of manufacturing the machines extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) that are used to produce cutting-edge semiconductors, which has placed it in an effective monopoly position in the global semiconductor industry. In the current scenario of confrontation with China, the US is interested in having a national company capable of manufacturing cutting-edge lithography equipment. This is Substrate’s trump card. However, we have reasonable grounds for reluctantly taking up the promise of the Proud brothers. “No one is coming for us” Christophe Fouquet, the general director of ASML, assures that no company on the planet is in a position to compete with them. During a conversation with Connie Loizos, an editor at TechCrunch, Fouquet has argued that “the challenges of lithography are many. Being able to make an image is a starting point, but that image must be produced in large quantities, at very low cost, at high speed and with nanometric precision.” It makes sense. “We had to solve only one problem: obtaining extreme ultraviolet light. And that alone took us 20 years” “I always say that the only reason ASML was able to build an EUV machine is because 80% of it already existed from prior knowledge and products developed over time. We had to solve just one problem: getting the extreme ultraviolet light. And that alone took us 20 years. When starting from scratch, the challenge is enormous. I have heard many statements. And I have seen some images. But we got our first image with EUV technology 30 years ago, and even then we need 20 more years of hard work to turn it into a manufacturing system,” points out the head of ASML. It is clear that Christophe Fouquet trusts his technology. And in your product. However, the starting point of Substrate is different from that of ASML. This American startup uses a particle accelerator as a light source for an X-ray lithography tool instead of using extreme ultraviolet light like ASML. According to the Proud brothers Their technology allows them to manufacture a silicon wafer at an order of magnitude lower cost than with ASML’s EUV approach. Be that as it may, there is another fundamental difference between the ASML and Substrate strategies. And instead of supplying machines to chip manufacturers, as ASML does, Substrate wants to establish its own network of semiconductor production plants equipped with its photolithography machines. Furthermore, its plan is very ambitious: it aims to produce cutting-edge integrated circuits on a large scale in 2028. It sounds daring, no doubt, but time, as always, will put everything in its place. Image | ASML More information | TechCrunch In Xataka | TSMC has made the chip industry’s most intriguing decision: not to use ASML’s most advanced machines

They did not need kings or nobles to build them

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Four thousand years ago, on the central plains of China, a community of about five hundred people built something that has taken us millennia to discover: a network of ceramic pipes. Longshan period buried under its streets. They are not the oldest pipes in human history (that honor corresponds to the Temple of Bel in Nippur and in Eshnunna in Mesopotamia), but those of China. Finding such an ancient and complete drainage network is a milestone from an architectural point of view, but the discovery goes one step further: demonstrates that preparedness for natural disasters is truly a lifelong experience. Because the pipelines at the Pingliangtai oilfield were built monsoon-proof. The discovery. The paper published in Nature Water describes the results of excavation and a geoarchaeological study of water management infrastructure, which reveal the operation and maintenance of a well-planned and regulated two-level rainwater drainage system. On the first level there were individual domestic ditches that collected water from each home and on the second a network of ceramic pipes buried under the roads and next to the walls, responsible for channeling the water outside the urban center. The operation is surprisingly modern: each segment of pipe measured between 20 and 30 centimeters in diameter and between 30 and 40 centimeters in length and were assembled together thanks to a recess at one end, so that once joined they allowed water to be transported over long distances. Why is it important. The relevance of the finding has two dimensions, the technical and the social: The Pingliangtai pipe network is the oldest and most complete urban drainage discovered to date in China, making it a reference for understanding Neolithic water engineering in East Asia. Calls into question “hydraulic despotism” theorized by Karl Wittfogel: Historically this type of infrastructure has been associated with centralized states with ruling elites capable of undertaking it, but in Pingliangtai there is no evidence of noble palaces or great social inequalities, which suggests that this sewage network was created through community cooperation. Context. The Longshan period spanned approximately 2600 to 2000 BC About 4,000 years ago, the central plains region of China suffered from an extremely variable monsoon climate: the summer monsoons could download 45 centimeters of rain per month in the region, as evidenced by geological evidence of episodes of catastrophic rains. These seasonal floods constituted a threat to permanent settlements, so in that transition period between the late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age, towns began to build defensive walls, not only against enemies, but against water. Pingliangtai was a perfectly square walled city that housed about 500 people and had protective walls and a moat around it. It is located on the plain of the Upper Huai River, in the vast plain of Huanghuaihai, precisely in that region of China. The drainage system was the technical solution to an existential problem: how to inhabit a flood-prone area without the adobe homes dissolving with each storm. With “up to date” maintenance. The dating of the pipes indicates that they are between 3,900 and 4,100 years old and the ditches showed signs of various repairs and even reconstructions, which shows that there was maintenance. The quality of the ceramic indicates advanced knowledge in clay firing, essential to guarantee the durability and impermeability of the system. And be careful, because the research team found the pipe segments in situ, assembled and structurally intact after 4,000 years, quite an achievement. Given that the slope exists, the design is coherent and the tubes still fit, the hydraulic logic is still intact. Bottom line: if water was introduced into those fragments, it would work. What the discovery reveals about the city and society. What most attracts the attention of the research team from Peking University and the Institute of Archeology at University College London is that the Pingliangtai settlement point to a horizontal and highly organized society. All the houses were uniformly small and not even the cemetery left any clues of social hierarchy, something different regarding the excavations in other nearby cities. Unlike Mesopotamia or Egypt, where these constructions were commissioned by kings, the design of the houses and the distribution of pipes suggest that decisions were made communally. Thus, water management in Pingliangtai gravitated toward shared collective interest in response to frequent environmental contingencies. Additionally, it displays a long-term prevention and maintenance mindset, as the system required constant cleaning to prevent sediment blockages. In Xataka | What we see in Petra is a city “carved in stone”: what it really hides is an amazing water system In Xataka | China has been selling its largest waterfall to tourists for years as a wonder of nature. It is actually fed with a tube Cover | Yanpeng Cao

In 2004 Madrid decided to build its own Guggenheim. Now it has a monster that not even Richard Gere wants as a Buddhist center

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Many cities have pursued the idea that a single building could change everything, attract tourism and redefine their identity almost overnight. The obsession has a very specific origin: the impact it had the Guggenheim Museum in the economy and image of Bilbao, converted into a global case study. In 1997, its inauguration marked a before and after and fueled an urban fever that led to replicate that model in places where the context did not always accompany. A Guggenheim in the suburbs. At the beginning of the 2000s, in the midst of a real estate boom and with the Bilbao effect still resonating, Alcorcón decided to aspire to his own cultural icona complex that was to place the city on the international art map. The idea was ambitious to the point of excess: a macrocenter cwith nine interconnected buildings which included an auditorium, conservatory, conference center and even a permanent circus, all conceived as a kind of Madrid Guggenheim. The problem here was not a lack of imagination, of course, but the scale of a project designed for an economic reality that was about to disappear. A half giant. The works They started in 2007 with budgets that were already high, but soon they began to chain modifications, cost overruns and difficult decisions to justify, such as the demolition of a practically new library or the incorporation of such peculiar facilities as, attention, stables for animals. When the 2008 crisis hit squarely, the project was stopped with around 70% executed and more than 100 million of euros invested, leaving behind a huge structure, partially completed and without a clear function. What should have been a cultural emblem became an empty mass, one too big to abandon completely and too expensive to finish. The hidden cost of an impossible project. Beyond the initial investment, CREAA had profound economic consequences for the municipality. The reason? It had been financed through a public company that ended up accumulating a gigantic debt. The estimates spoke of tens of millions additional costs to complete it and several million annually just to keep it running, which turned it into a structural problem rather than an opportunity. In fact, even its design played against: a complex so integrated that turning on a single zone meant activating practically the entire system, skyrocketing costs and making any reasonable partial use unfeasible. Nobody wants the “Guggenheim” of Alcorcón. Over the years, the building became a kind of failed promise that was passed from hand to hand without finding real lace. Projects of all types and colors were considered, from an NBA campus to a sports university, passing through a large Buddhist center promoted by Richard Gerebut none came to fruition and most of those interested declined the opportunity. Even more recent initiatives, such as the creation of a great audiovisual hubhave ended up running aground when faced with the real costs of adapting facilities designed for a completely different context. The idea that that complex could become an international benchmark has been diluted with each failed attempt. From cultural icon to symbol of excess. Over time, CREAA has gone from being an emblematic project to becoming another example of that appellant excessive planning in Spain, a construction that aspired to change the identity of a city, but ended up conditioning its public narrative. The image of that large iron and concrete structure, partially finished and unused for years, has weighed more than any original intention, fueling the debate about the limits of public spending on large-scale cultural projects. A partial ending to an unfinished story. However, in recent years, some spaces have begun to find usefulnesssuch as the installation of a state victim care center or the partial reopening of certain areas, but the whole is still far from fulfilling the vision with which it was conceived. More than a decade later, the complex begins to reactivate in a fragmented way, adapting to much more pragmatic needs than those from which it was born. The result, as in other phantom “moles” of the Peninsula, is a persistent reminder of a time when it was thought that it was enough to build big to transform a city, without foreseeing that the real challenge would really come later. Image | Juan Lupión, Zarateman In Xataka | The biggest disaster in sports history dates back to the Roman Empire: the tragedy of the Fidenae “VIP boxes” In Xataka | In 1995, South Korea suffered one of the great architectural disasters of the century. The culprit: the air conditioning

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