business

In Spain, insurers and venture capital are discovering what the business of the century really is: pets

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It’s nothing new. Statistics have long confirmed a reality that anyone can see walking around their city: in Spain there are more pets than small children. many more. And in view of how they evolve the birth rate and the animal census of company, everything indicates that this gap will widen with the passage of time. It is therefore understandable that insurers are increasingly interested in a business that promises a notable growth in the coming years: policies for dogs and cats. It makes sense if we take into account that in Spain there are not only millions of pets. It is increasingly easier to find families who dedicate hundreds of euros in your care. The number: 20 million. It is not easy to specify how many pets are there in Spain. The figures handled by public organizations, veterinarians and the industry dedicated to their care do not completely coincide, but the general image they offer is the same: we Spaniards like the company of dogs, cats, parrots, ferrets, iguanas and other animals capable of adapting to living in our homes. If we trust Anfaac, the association that represents feed manufacturers, in Spain there are more than 20 million of pets, especially dogs (6.9 million). The Spanish Association of Industry and Commerce of the Pet Sector (Aedpac) raises the number of pets to 28 million“present in 40% of the homes” in the country. Other sources point to some 30 millionwhile REIAC (Spanish Network for the Identification of Pet Animals) had registered three years ago 10.1 million of dogs and 968,000 cats. A question of censuses… and euros. Censuses show us that hundreds of thousands of dogs, cats, ferrets, reptiles, birds live in Spanish homes… but that is only part of the ‘photo’ that interests the sector. Another (equally or even more important) is how much we spend on their care. That question was answered in March by EAE Business School, which published a report on ‘pet-money’ which concludes that pets generate a business of 5,770 million euros annually in Spain, drive an economy that grows at 8.3% and support 75,000 direct jobs in 12,300 companies. These are compelling figures, but they are less surprising when you know another key provided by EAE: 49% of households Spaniards live with at least one pet, on whose care we spend on average between 500 and 1,000 euros per year. “In many cases these disbursements are comparable to spending on leisure or communications,” confirms the studywhich has detected a “cultural change” in the relationship with animals that leads a good part of Generation Z and millennials to affirm that they are an essential part of their lives. “Hundreds of millions a year”. The report from AEA Business School also probed the animal-specific insurance business and discovered two things. First, it is in full expansion. Second, that sector data show that it already moves “several hundred million euros a year.” He is not the only one who paints a promising picture for insurers willing to exploit this business niche. Fortune Business Insights calculate that the size of the global pet insurance market amounted to $25.91 billion last year and, if its forecasts are correct, this year it will rise to $30.74 billion. The organization estimates that the sector is growing at a compound annual rate of 18.63%, meaning that in less than a decade it would be in 120,560 millionwith a prominent weight from North America. A business to exploit. Despite all of the above and the fact that veterinary coverage is basically private, the pet insurance business still has a lot of room to grow in Spain. At least that’s what it suggests a study from Guidewire, which points out that only half of pet owners have a specific policy for themselves. Specifically, after interviewing more than 4,000 people from Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the firm assures that, although 74% have a pet, only 49.6% have insurance to protect them. Other analyzes on the subject considerably reduce that percentage. “This data draws attention when taking into account the regulations in force in Spain, so, since September 29, 2023, the Animal Welfare Law requires all owners of dogs, the most common pet, to take out civil liability insurance, regardless of their breed,” points out the entity. All in all, Spain is one of the countries “”with the greatest acceptance of pet insurance” and the penetration of this type of services has clearly grown in recent years. Waking up appetite. In view of all the above, it is much better understood that large insurance companies and venture capital is entering in the digital veterinary insurance niche. Their hook: to make healthcare for dogs, cats and other pets easier on the wallet. One of the most recent tests comes from Petolo, linked to Getolo GmBH and the Zurich Group. A few days ago the company announced his landing in Spain after acquiring a portfolio of more than 150,000 dogs and cats insured in Germany and France. “The Spanish market has 15.5 million dogs and cats, mostly without veterinary insurance,” says the firm, which offers several plans that allow you to recover part of the bills (between 60 and 100%, depending on the bread) for animal health care. Is it a unique case? Not at all. As explained recently Five Days There are more examples of insurers and private equity firms that seem interested in the veterinary insurance business. Another recent case is that of Reale, which has decided to reinforce its presence in the pet policy sector. entering the shareholding from Canitas. The business has also attracted entrepreneurs such as those who have promoted the startup Barkibuwhich aims at the same objective: the vein that represents private healthcare for pets. Images | Olga Kononenko (Unsplash) and Karsten Winegeart (Unsplash) In Xataka | We have been looking at Noah’s syndrome as a minority and controlled problem for years. we were wrong

This business security system is almost half the price and includes VPN

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For years, we have been seeing how companies of all types are being hacked or attempted. No one is completely safe, both ourselves in our daily lives and if we have a business. In fact, in this last area, things become more delicate: The safety of employees and customers comes into play in addition to our own. If you’re looking for a security tool for your business that you can install and manage yourself, then you might be interested Kaspersky Small Office Security Premium: its price starts from the offer of the 96 euros (it used to cost 138 euros), but if we use the code ‘KSOSP’, we will receive an additional 15% discount. Kaspersky Small Office Security Premium – 1 year The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Security for your company, now with remote assistance Let’s start with the basics. This is not the first time we have talked to you about Kaspersky’s security tool for businesses, Small Office Security. However, what we are referring to right now is its Premium version, just released a couple of weeks ago. This includes everything from the first version, so it is a tool that stands out in two different ways: First, it is very easy to use and manage; Second, it is also safe and complete. What can you do? Small Office Security Premium, available for Android, iOS, Windows and macOS, has a system that will protect your company’s computers from malicious files and suspicious websites and even threats through email. Added to this is protection against ransomware and vulnerability analysis. Another interesting point is that this cocktail a VPN is addedwhich will allow you or your employees to work from anywhere safely if you use an unknown WiFi (for example, from a coffee shop or from the airport). The price we mentioned above includes protection for three mobile phones, computers, three password managers and three VPNs. If you have more employees or want more licenses, simply upgrade your subscription. All this is already in the basic version of this tool, but, How does the Premium version improve? To all of the above, we add: installation support, remote support and virus checking and removal by experts. Additionally, your employees will receive safety training. If you are interested, you can choose to subscribe annually, bi-annually or for three years. Any of these three plans has a 30 day trial period so you can try if it convinces you and, if not, you can request a refund without problems. With this Premium version, which is now on sale and is almost the same price, we have all the virtues of this tool (security and ease when installing it), but with remote support from experts in case we need it. Something like a safety net, never better said. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Kaspersky In Xataka | Best antivirus for computer: the best paid alternatives to protect your PC In Xataka | Password managers: which ones are the best to protect and remember all the ones you have

The advanced chip business is growing so fast that it cannot keep up

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ASML, the Netherlands-based company that makes the most advanced integrated circuit production machines, had planned to hire 600 new employees in Taiwan this year. Finally she was forced to revise upwards your hiring plan. In 2026 they will arrive at their facilities on this Asian island 1,000 new additions. Grace Wang, the vice president and general manager of ASML in Taiwan, has declared that this change has been brought about by the insatiable demand for chips for artificial intelligence (AI). ASML does not manufacture semiconductors, but its equipment extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) are being used by TSMC, SK Hynix, Samsung, Intel and Micron to produce the advanced integrated circuits that data centers demand. Especially CPU, GPU and HBM type DRAM memories (High Bandwidth Memory or high bandwidth memory). In fact, this company alone occupies the first link in the global chip manufacturing chain because it is the only one that produces EUV lithography machines. Be that as it may, Grace Wang’s declaration of intent responds to an unappealable reality: Taiwan is the industrial heart of this Dutch company. ASML manufactures components on this island and assembles UVE lithography equipment which it subsequently delivers to its local customers. These operations are also carried out in the Netherlands, but there are two compelling reasons why Taiwan is enormously relevant to ASML’s business: its best customer and its biggest focus on its global customers reside there. TSMC is ASML’s largest customer A determining factor that is promoting ASML’s expansion in Taiwan is its close relationship with TSMC, the largest manufacturer of integrated circuits of the planet. The operations of this company on the island currently generate 8.3 billion eurosa quarter of ASML’s global revenue. And much of that money comes from the coffers of TSMC, which is building new advanced semiconductor production plants in Taiwan, Japan, Germany and the US. ASML is building a facility in New Taipei that costs about $954 million. However, ASML’s Taiwan branch is not just hiring more staff (it currently has 4,500 employees on this island); is also building a new facility in New Taipei that costs about 954 million dollars. Their plan is for this plant to begin operating before the end of 2026 and to house about 2,000 employees in its initial phase. We still don’t know for sure what this factory will do, but it will probably combine component production, EUV machine assembly, and technical support to customers, primarily TSMC. ASML’s infrastructure in Taiwan is distributed between two cities with very specialized functions. Linkou is responsible for reconditioning chip manufacturing equipment, producing grating manipulators for deep ultraviolet (DVP) machines, and cleaning UVE collectors. Tainan, however, serves as a large global customer service center. And in a few months, as we have just seen, the New Taipei plant will be ready. The future of ASML is promising even though US sanctions They prevent it from selling its most sophisticated machines to its Chinese customers. Image | ASML More information | DigiTimes Asia In Xataka | The chip of the future comes from Japan: it is 1,000 times faster than current semiconductors and does not heat up

the shadow business that moves VTCs in Spain

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Before the boom of Uber and Cabify, the acronym VTC They were an enigma. Now they have become almost a popular nickname. In Madrid, it is enough to see the sticker of the red flag with stars of the autonomous community on a car to think “it is a VTC”. The urban center is littered with this type of vehicles. But the VTCs, which respond to “transport vehicles with driver“, existed for decades. They were cars intended for luxury transportation, the typical car that was rented with a driver. These actors are still in the market and operate in the tourism sector or as transportation for companies, but they are a minority. Apps changed everything. Cabify, Uber and Bolt have taken VTCs out of their niche to bring them to a mass audience. Thanks to the immediacy they allow, these cars with drivers have become so close to the taxi figure that they now constitute direct competition. But unlike taxi drivers, who tend to be small self-employed, a large part of the VTCs are in the hands of large companies. And they do not correspond exactly to the apps. “There are three large groups, which are Moove Cars, Auro and Vecttor,” says José María Cazallas, Secretary of Organization of the Free Transport Union, which represents around 80% of the workers in the VTC sector and also has significant representation in the taxi sector. “These three groups come together more or less around the 60% of licenses VTC in Madrid.” They are different entities from the applications that the user knows, although Cabify and Uber have participation in these companies. VTCs vs taxis The rise of VTCs in Spain cannot be understood without taxis and the framework in which they traditionally operated. “The model of one license for each taxi driver was followed. It was a very interventionist model. I’m talking about the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the 90s, in which they tried to distribute the business,” explains Alejandro Román, professor in the Department of Law at the University of Seville and author of the book The legal regime for the transport of passengers on demand in tourist vehicles (Taxis and VTC). Román affirms that for a long time the granting of licenses was contaminated by the clientelism. In times where well-paid work was scarce and there were many arduous jobs, a taxi license was a safe option. “These people had a guaranteed job, with a guaranteed profitability, because they had no competition,” says the professor from the University of Seville. “The number of operators in the market was calculated so that all license holders could live reasonably well.” (Unsplash) In a limited market, which barely issued new licenses, these became a scarce commodity. Their buying and selling occurred at astronomical prices. But the panorama changed completely with the arrival of Cabify and Uber. License prices fellalthough later it has come back. Now, in a look on Wallapop you can see taxi licenses for sale for between 180,000 and 210,000 euros for Madrid. In Barcelona they have a similar price, slightly less than 200,000, although some advertisements exceed them. It depends on the schedule for which the license is scheduled or if the car is included. The history of VTC licenses is different: their price has not stopped growing and they have reached almost the same level. Again taking Wallapop as a quick barometer, you can see that a VTC license in Madrid is available for around 180,000 euros. In Barcelona, ​​where the sector faces regulatory uncertainty, the price is much lower, around 75,000 euros. But the most important change that Cabify, Uber and Bolt have brought is technological mediation. “In the VTC the model is different. What happens is that over time it has become increasingly closer to the taxi model,” says Román. The VTCs could not take clients on the street or at taxi stops, while the contracting of their services had to be done in advance. This is established by law to guarantee a market reserve for taxis, which in return are obliged to perform certain public functions, such as not rejecting clients or providing transportation support in situations of health emergencies. “With the arrival of applications, this required pre-contracting is diluted. The technology itself makes it immediate. Because you open the application, you pre-contract the VTC, but you can start using it five minutes later,” concludes Román. In practice, the two models provide the same type of transportation service, although they have different regulations. A sector of large companies The similarity of the service they provide, however, differs in their back room. The exploitation of VTCs is dominated by large companies with hundreds or thousands of licenses in their name. These companies are intertwined with some of the platforms. “Cabify is the owner of Vecttor. And Moove Cars and the Auro Group are owned by Uber,” says Cazallas, from the Free Transport Union. “While the number of licenses that each taxi driver can have is limited, in the case of VTCs there is no limitation on the number of licenses per owner. That is why a market of large companies that request many licenses has emerged,” emphasizes Román. And the number continues to increase. Cabify has deployed in Madrid 800 new licensespart of a package of 8,500 requested in 2018 taking advantage of a legal loophole. (Unsplash) The Estonian platform Bolt, the only one of the three that does not have its own fleet and claims to work with freelancers and small businesses, criticized the granting of these licenses as a form of market concentration. According to their calculations, the addition of 8,500 licenses to the Cabify/Vecttor fleet would put 70% of the active VTCs in the autonomous community under the control of a single company. One of the main figures behind Vecttor has been the Sevillian businessman Rosauro Varofounder of PepePhone. He built a VTC company that accumulated 2,000 licenses for later sell it to Cabifybecoming part of its shareholders. … Read more

His pieces now support a million-dollar business.

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He Airbus A380 It was born to be many things at once: a demonstration of European industrial muscle, a response to the growth of air traffic and a different way of imagining great long-haul trips. For years we saw it as the double-decker that promised to change the economics of denser routes, but the market ended up moving in another direction. The interesting thing is that his story did not end with the closure of the production line in 2021. Now, some of its value is showing up where it was least expected: on planes that no longer fly. The explanation begins in a very specific tension in the market. In April 2025, VAS Aero Services noted that delays in deliveries of Boeing 777Xdelayed until at least 2026, were increasing dependence on the A380 to meet the demand for large long-haul aircraft. The company then estimated that there could be up to 175 units of the model in operation worldwide, a figure that helps understand the pressure on the inventory of certified used parts. The question is not just how many A380s remain in service, but how such a dedicated fleet is maintained when the aircraft is no longer in production and the supply chain increasingly relies on certified used material. The focus is on that market, where recovered parts can re-enter service after the corresponding processes. This detail changes the reading of the retired aircraft: it stops being only an asset at the end of its useful life and begins to function as a source of components for other operators. In a limited fleet, each recoverable item carries more weight. The business is also in the planes that no longer fly In practice, this economy of the retired A380 involves converting a complete aircraft into a parts catalogue. Airbus has selected the aforementioned VAS Aero Services to manage the disassembly and redistribution of certified used material from several units that are decommissioned. The plan announced by the company involves working together with Tarmac Aerosave in Tarbes, France, and placing the recovered parts in Europe to serve the market. EMEA. The firm, an independent subsidiary of Satairan Airbus Services company, acts here as a bridge between retiring aircraft and operators in need of spare parts. The VAS information does not put a total figure on the resulting catalogue, but it does point to especially relevant elements: the engines of these aircraft will be offered for rent and can also be used as a source of used parts in demand. Simple Flying adds two pieces of information that help understand the size of the business: a set of superjumbo landing gear weighs about 5,443 kg and can fetch several million dollars on the secondary market, while a Rolls-Royce Trent 900one of the engines used in the A380, can be sold in service condition for about 10 million dollars. As we can see, each retired aircraft becomes more than just scrap. The company itself expresses it in quite clear terms. Tommy Hughes, CEO of VAS, assures that they early identified the A380 platform as a “growth opportunity in the aftermarket” and that they continue to invest in A380 aircraft at the end of their useful life to make critical components available to the global market of large aircraft operators. In the same communication, the manager adds that the time has come for a program focused on retiring the A380 at the end of its life and “monetizing the residual value of its parts in serviceable condition.” The paradox is powerful because it returns the A380 to an unexpected place. The plane that was born to redefine great long-haul travel ended up being too big for many of the airlines that had to support it, but its retired units still retain value in an industry that needs keep existing fleet operational. We are not facing a complete vindication of the program, nor before a second youth without nuances. We are looking at something more concrete and perhaps more revealing: even one of Airbus’ biggest setbacks can continue to generate business when dismantled piece by piece. Images | Airbus | Engine Alliance In Xataka | Boeing is losing ground to Airbus on all fronts. Including Italy’s air tankers

There was a time when Nvidia was a gaming company. That business is now pocket change for the owner and lady of AI

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In 1993, Nvidia was founded with the goal of creating graphics chips for video games. For almost three decades Nvidia has been basically that: a semiconductor company for gaming that yes, I had ambition in the field of professional computing. But things change: Nvidia’s gaming business has generated $6.4 billion the first fiscal quarter of 2027and although it is a healthy business, for Nvidia it is something else: It’s almost pocket change. Gaming no longer (almost) matters. In any other company in the sector, this income (29% more than last year) would already be extraordinary, but at Nvidia they are almost a footnote, because gaming represents less than 8% of the company’s total income. The other $75.2 billion came from the data center business, which grew 92% from the previous year. AI has made Nvidia’s original business almost irrelevant in relative terms. Stratospheric numbers. Nvidia has earned $81.6 billion in the first fiscal quarter of 2027. It is an absolutely colossal figure that should be put into perspective: it is so large like GDP from Croatia, Panama or Uruguay. The company led by Jensen Huang has managed to grow 85% in revenue since a year ago, almost double. The surprising thing is that it has also done so when it seems increasingly difficult to grow at this rate. The graph shows year-over-year growth in revenue in percentage. In 2026 the trend is bullish again. Source: FT. This is non-stop. The company exceeded Wall Street expectations, which projected revenues of 78.86 billion, but Nvidia also states that its forecast for the next quarter is to earn 91 billion dollars, 12% more than the current one. It’s true that growth is slowing in percentage terms, which is normal at this point, but in absolute terms the company continues to add billions of dollars of additional revenue each quarter. Data center numbers. Those $75.2 billion in data center business aren’t just GPU sales for hyperscalers. It also includes the company’s networking solutions business, which has grown no less than 199% year-on-year to $14.4 billion: it has tripled. The reason is logical: the demand for interconnection infrastructure for the large clusters that are being created everywhere is enormous, and Nvidia provides an ideal solution for those who buy its AI chips. Beware I, Anthropic is coming. On the call with investors, Jensen Huang gave a singular fact: Anthropic has made virtually no use of Nvidia solutions to train and serve its AI models, but that is going to change. The company’s CEO highlighted that the computing capacity they are going to deploy for Anthropic this year and next is going to be “quite significant.” Or what is the same: they are going to continue selling like hotcakes even if the competition tightens. Nvidia is also an investor in startups. Nvidia’s strategy is also being curious on a financial level, because it is not content with growing its business, it is betting on AI startups. It has invested more than 26,000 million in investments in this type of companies, and that does not include the recent agreements with OpenAI or in listed companies like corning. Beware II, China is coming. All these numbers, attention, are being achieved without the help of the Asian giant. In December, the Trump administration authorized Nvidia chip exports to China (with a 25% government fee). Theoretically that should make Nvidia generate notable income thanks to said authorization. Huang explained that at the moment these revenues are zero and that there is some uncertainty about whether China will finally allow its chips to be imported. In the second fiscal quarter of 2027, income from China is not assumed, but if that market finally opens, we will have even more extraordinary numbers. Buying back shares. Nvidia has returned about $20 billion to shareholders this quarter between buybacks and dividends. The board of directors has approved investing $80 billion more in share buybacks, thus multiplying by four what had previously been authorized. That’s a clear sign of Nvidia’s confidence in its future, which will also benefit shareholders: the dividend has passed from $0.01 per share to $0.25 per share. Previously, Nvidia offered specific data on gaming revenue. From now on, stop doing so to put that division within the Edge Computing category. Gaming no longer appears in the accounts. Typically Nvidia’s financial reports divided revenue into data centers, networking, gaming, professional visualization, automotive, and a few other fields. Now that Nvidia is a fully AI-focused company, it has changed its revenue pooling structure. Everything related to gaming, PCs, consoles, workstations, robots, cars and other devices is part of the “Edge Computing” category. Gaming, we insist, no longer (almost) matters. In Xataka | For the first time in 30 years, Nvidia will not present new GPUs for gamers in 2026. They earn much more with AI

Tourism has turned Norway into the latest theme park. And the business of hunting the northern lights in a risky sport

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It happened a few years ago in Icelandwhen the authorities saw forced to close temporarily access to a natural canyon after thousands of visitors hiked it off marked trails, damaging vegetation and eroding the terrain in a matter of weeks. What had been an almost unknown corner for years suddenly became in a viral phenomenonleaving an unexpected impression: a remote landscape transformed into an overflowing place in a very short time. Now it’s your turn to Norway. From quiet city to saturated destination. What was for years a peaceful northern town has transformed into a global phenomenon: Tromsø has gone from a medium-sized university town to receive massive waves of visitors attracted by this new hype in the form of northern lights. The growth, driven largely by social media, has local capacity overwhelmed to the point that, in high season, tourists far exceed to residents. We are talking about collapsed streets, strained services and constant pressure on infrastructure that reflect how tourism has turned the environment into something very different from what it was. The rise of a business without control. The problem arises because, at the same time, it has emerged a parallel industry of unregulated guides that operate outside the law, taking advantage of the low barrier to entry and high demand. With a car, a mobile phone and access to aurora tracking apps, these operators offer improvised routes that compete with legal services, eroding both the local economy and the quality of the experience. In fact, they counted in the New York Times that the authorities estimate that a significant part of these activities escapes official control, generating income that does not revert to the community and multiplying the problems. Mass tourism turned into operational chaos. The result is a scenario where the search for auroras has become unpredictablewith convoys of vehicles traveling on roads, constant route changes and a general feeling of disorder. Specialized police teams patrol the city and its accesses looking for these activities illegal, but clandestine operators adapt quickly, sharing information and using tactics to avoid controls. This constant game between surveillance and evasion has turned the activity into something much more complex than a simple tourist excursion. Failed experiences and feeling of being scammed. As a result, for many visitors, the promise of a unique experience is has translated into frustrationdeceptions or unexpected situations, with stories of tours that are not completed, guides who disappear and keep the money or even police interventions in the middle of the tour. The contrast between the idyllic image of the destination and the reality experienced by some tourists has begun to leave its mark in reputation of the place. What should be a memorable natural experience sometimes becomes a chaotic and unreliable process. A destination converted into an extreme theme park. All of this has led to a deeper transformation: one where the northern lights are no longer just a natural phenomenon, but the center of an intensive industry which works almost like an outdoor theme park. The pressure to capture that perfect moment has turned the activity into a constant race against time, weather and competition, raising the risk and tension with each outing. Thus, what was once pure contemplation now comes closer and closer to an experience extreme where improvisation and business weigh as much as nature itself. The impact on those who live from the phenomenon. They remembered in the Times that for legal and experienced operators, the situation has changed radically, facing unfair competition that reduces prices and deteriorates standards. What should be a season of celebration has turned into a struggle to maintain viability of the business in a saturated environment. Another one, as already it happened in iceland and its volcanoes or more recently on Everesta change that reflects a broader reality: when tourism grows out of control, even the most spectacular destinations can end up trapped in your own success. Image | PXHere In Xataka | Touristification has made Mercadona find itself with a rival in Barcelona: 24-hour supermarkets In Xataka | There is something worse than Everest turning into a mountain literally full of shit: scam rescues

The most opaque business in Silicon Valley has just published its best results. This is exactly what Palantir sells

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Palantir has published some quarterly results that have surprised even its most optimistic analysts: revenues of $1.63 billion in the first quarter, 85% more than a year before. The company has also raised its annual forecast to almost 7,660 million. These are numbers that place Palantir in another league. And yet, many people don’t know exactly what they do. That is not an accident when it comes to this company, with such a specific type of activity. The context. Palantir has been building data analysis software for more than twenty years for governments and institutions that prefer not to make the headlines: the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon, the United States immigration services… The company was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, the investor who also put money into Facebook and which today orbits in the power constellation. Trumpian, and by Alex Karp, its CEO, a notably eccentric figure with a PhD in Social Theory from Frankfurt. The combination of American intelligence money (In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital fund, was one of its first investors) and German university campus philosophy perfectly defines the moral ambiguity in which the company lives. In detailand. Palantir’s business has two legs. The first, and the one that is growing the most, is the American government: 687 million dollars in this quarter alone, 84% more than the previous year. The second leg is the commercial business with private companies, which has grown even faster (133%) to 595 million. But to understand how Palantir makes money you have to understand what it sells: Palantir Gotham It is its star product for governments and defense. It integrates dispersed data sources (satellite images, interceptions, movement logs, social networks, intelligence databases, etc.) and turns them into a coherent map that an analyst can interrogate. That is, it transforms oceans of noise into manageable information environments on which to make decisions. The screenshot that heads this article is an example. Palantir Foundry It is the business version. It does the same thing but for large companies: it unites data from different departments, cleans the information and allows automated workflows to be built on it. Maven AI It is their most recent and most controversial product. It is a command and control system that analyzes battlefield data and identifies targets in real time. The Pentagon is in the process of making it an official program of the American army, which would guarantee succulent long-term contracts. Between the lines. CEO Alex Karp This week he addressed his shareholders to explain to them that “the United States remains the constant core of the business. And that business is exploding.” Palantir’s rise is directly linked to increased defense spending, escalating geopolitical conflicts, and the growing use of AI in military contexts. In other words: when the world becomes more dangerous, Palantir makes more. Its business model is, to some extent, a barometer of global tension. Yes, but. Palantir Stock fell 1.5% in the aftermarket despite the good results, and they have accumulated a drop of around 18% so far this year. Investors have two questions without clear answers. The first: is 85% growth sustainable? The second, the most uncomfortable: what happens if the administration changes, if defense priorities change or if Congress tightens spending? A company whose main engine is a single client (the US government) has a concentration of risk that does not appear in the metrics they boast about. The money trail. The perennial debate about Palantir is not the financial one but the ethical one. The company has been at the center of some controversies for its work with ICE (the American immigration service) in identifying undocumented people, and for the role that its tools have played in military operations in different parts of the world. Karp does not shy away from these questions: he openly argues that the West needs companies willing to do this work, and that those who refuse simply leave the field open to others. It is an argument that its investors accept without many questions. And the results, for now, prove them right. In Xataka | AI is crucial for the US military. So he’s naming OpenAI and Palantir leaders as lieutenant generals Featured image | Palantir, Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

The business of AI is not AI, it is renting its infrastructure

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We have been a few years since the AI ​​boom and doubts about its profitability continue to loom large. We are witnessing a change in strategy by numerous AI companies such as Claude or Github that points in a clear direction: the end of the free model. Chatbots and other AI tools cost more money than they generate, what really makes money is something else and that thing is having data centers. The real business of AI. The results of the big technology companies for the first quarter of 2026 have just been published and they make something very clear: the real business of AI is not the AI ​​tools, it is being the one who rents the data centers to those AI companies. Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all posted strong revenues, largely driven by their cloud divisions. For its part, Meta has managed to raise revenue forecasts thanks to its advertising business. In other words, none of them are making money directly from their AI tools. In figures. These are the most notable data for each company in this first quarter: Alphabet: has been the big winner, entering $109.9 billion22% more year-on-year and well above forecasts. Google Cloud grows 63% year-on-year with revenues of $20 billion. amazon: Amazon’s total turnover stands at $181.5 billion, of which 37,600 come from Amazon Web Serviceswhich represents an increase of 28% year-on-year and exceeds analysts’ forecasts. Microsoft: has entered $82.9 billion18% more than last year. Regarding Azure, the year-on-year growth is 40%. Goal: Revenues for this first quarter exceed analysts’ forecasts and reach $56.3 billion, which represents a 33% year-on-year increase driven by the advertising business in its family of apps. More wood. Big tech companies are making a lot of money, but they are also spending a lot. We recently talked about how the capex (capital expenditure) of big tech companies by 2026 was already 25% of all world military spendingabout $650 billion combined. Well, if that already seemed crazy to us, Alphabet and Meta have announced that they are going to raise it even more. In the case of Alphabet, 5,000 million more than expected (they said 185,000 and now 190,000), while Meta increases to 10,000 million (it was 135,000 and now 145,000). The reason, of course, is to continue funding AI infrastructure. Amazon and Microsoft have not said anything about increasing spending, which was already very high, with 200,000 and 140,000 million respectively. The market response. During the after hours, Meta was the most affected, with a 6% drop in the stock market. Microsoft was also punished with a 2% drop. In the case of Meta, the reaction of investors is what we have already seen in previous earnings conferences, mainly due to distrust regarding the increase in investment and doubts about whether this AI boom is sustainable in the long term. Instead, investors rewarded Alphabet with a 6% rise and Amazon with 4%. Its commitment to AI is also stratospheric, but it is translating into more visible cloud revenue growth. The strategic gap. There is a clear advantage between those who master more pieces of the AI ​​chain (own chips, cloud, models and applications) and those who depend most on third parties. Here, Amazon and Alphabet are the best positioned companies and it is reflected very clearly in the results. Furthermore, as mentioned in the Wall Street Journalwidespread shortages of both chips and electricity are accelerating the formation of this fork. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Google is the big technology company that is doing the best thanks to AI: so it is going to spend another million

It doesn’t cure anything and your business is diluted in Spain

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The homeopathy has received a hard blow today from the Spanish health authorities, and more specifically the AEMPS itself, by pointing out in a devastating report that homeopathy has no effectiveness proven when it comes to treating different ailments, despite the fact that they promise something completely different. Something that can mean a great fall for a business that has invoiced millions of euros and all thanks to the scientific evidence that is increasingly clear regarding the null effects that these ‘treatments’ have. A lot of weight behind. The history of homeopathy in Spain has been written for years based on regulatory purges, but the latest Health analysis leaves no room for doubt. Based on 64 systematic reviews From scientific studies published since 2009, the national body has ruled that these products They provide no real benefitdifferent diseases such as, for example, depression, autoimmune diseases or even dermatological diseases. And as we see, it is not something new, since the scientific community has been warning for years that the supposed improvements reported by some patients with homeopathy are explained by three factors: the placebo effect, the evolution of the disease itself and the unreliability of the studies on which its operation was based. A tug of war. In fact, science tells us that, when clinical trials are carried out with great rigor and with the appropriate research methods, the difference between administering a homeopathic product and a simple sugar cube is statistically null. But the mental effect of taking a pill that promises an almost miraculous effect when it comes to curing an illness plays an important role in making us think that it really improves us. The real danger. A priori, taking a homeopathic product does not have too many dangers for the patient, since they do almost nothing in the body. But the problem is that the use of homeopathy encourages the abandonment or delay of medical treatments with proven evidence, such as, for example, an antidepressant in major depression. Failure to follow the most appropriate treatment has fatal consequences, especially if we are talking about serious diseases where time is a super important factor. Furthermore, the AEMPS and various medical reviews have documented very serious adverse effects due to this lack of real medical care, such as abortions or deaths. Although the most serious may be in the field of oncology, where the use of these alternative therapies such as seawater has been shown to directly increase the risk of mortality as patients reject conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy. A free fall. Today, this market moves around 30 million euros annually in our country, representing 0.5% of total pharmaceutical sales. Here the great giant of the sector is Boiron, which controls 90% of the market and is seeing its empire falter, since, although its products are still present in thousands of pharmacies, sales they haven’t stopped fallinggoing from billing 20.6 million euros in 2016 to only 14.6 million in 2024. Recalls from the market. The purge in pharmacies has been relentless, since following EU directives that require efficiency tests to authorize medications, the AEMPS has already withdrawn 66 injectable products in 2019 and another 314 in 2024. But as of today the Ministry of Health has recalled more than 1,000 homeopathic products. The 976 that have managed to survive and remain registered have done so under a “simplified registry.” This is an ‘escape system’ in the law, since here they are considered harmless products, but they are strictly prohibited from including any therapeutic indication or promise of cure on their packaging. In this way, no homeopathic product can have the promise of curing a disease in Spain. In Xataka | Millions of Spaniards consume benzodiazepines to sleep at night. They don’t know it’s poisoned candy

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