buying

buying Globalstar’s “candy” for $9 billion

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SpaceX has been positioned as a the great giant of telecommunications satellites thanks to Starlink. However, other seemingly more modest companies have been able to occupy the space left free by their weak points. One of them is Globalstar. For this reason, Amazon has set itself the goal of acquiring it as soon as possible. The facts. According to CNA and ReutersAmazon is currently in negotiations to acquire Globalstar for 9 billion dollars. The final transaction could be announced this week, although at the moment nothing is finalized. It would be a big step forward for the e-commerce company when it comes to telecommunications, but to achieve it will also have to reach an agreement with Apple. Starlink vs Globalstar. Starlink currently has more than 10,000 satellites in orbit. SpaceX’s plan is to initially scale up to 12,000 satellites and, if possible, in the future to exceed 40,000. With this, it is intended that Internet access will be broader and faster, by directly connecting users with satellites located in geostationary orbit, without the need to use ground stations as intermediaries. Globalstar has a similar goalalthough it has many fewer satellites. Just a few dozen. However, Globalstar has something that Starlink craves: licensed spectrum. The VIP area of ​​telecommunications. A licensed band in the radio spectrum is a specific range of frequencies that has been assigned by the competent authorities to a specific operator. For the duration of the license, only that company can transmit in that range. This means that interference is reduced to a minimum. There are no other satellites competing to send their signals. Apple enters the scene. Globalstar’s licensed spectrum is a candy highly desired by any telecommunications company. One of them, without a doubt, was Apple. In 2024, the telephone giant invested $1.5 billion in Globalstar, acquiring 20% ​​of the company. Since then they have used it, for example, to send emergency messages or to use offline maps. Given this situation, Amazon will have to negotiate directly with Apple and reach an agreement. More satellites, but worse positioned. Actually, Amazon already has its own satellite project, called Leo. It currently has 200 satellites in low orbit and many more ready to launch when the necessary permits are obtained. However, many of these permits do not arriveso Amazon has been experiencing delays in its release schedules. This has led the company to make the decision to join forces with Globalstar, as it has a much smaller train of satellites, but clearly better positioned thanks to the licensed band. If they reach an agreement, they will be able to start working at full capacity much sooner. Starlink is not going down. Despite the virtues of Globalstar and the forces it could combine with Leo, Starlink is not positioned as a losing company. The power that having the largest train of telecommunications satellites gives it is still very great. However, the space is becoming saturated and there are more and more entities concerned about what the growth of this company could entail. If your maneuver based on the brute forceperhaps there could come a time when you find yourself at a disadvantage. We will have to wait to see it. Image | Charles Boyer and Christian Wiediger In Xataka | Ukraine’s military has a problem almost as important as Russia: Starlink belongs to Elon Musk

American refrigerator or 70 cm Combi? Be careful with making mistakes when buying liters that you may not be able to use

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I don’t know about you, but when I go to the grocery store, it often feels like I’m preparing for a catastrophe. Many of us live at home and I don’t like going shopping every other day, so I try to put in the cart what I need for at least a week. What’s happening? Then you need space at home to store it.. I have plenty of cabinets and drawers, but my kitchen refrigerator doesn’t have as much space as I would like. Even though I don’t have a kitchenettethis whole situation has made me consider more than once about jumping into an American refrigerator (you know, the ones with two doors with a left-right distribution). But, Is it really worth it compared to a wide combi? Let’s see which one can fit best in your kitchen and your needs. Bespoke AI American Refrigerator 178cm 659L Class E Inox RS70F65QETEF The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Choosing an American refrigerator If you start browsing stores looking for an American refrigerator, you will see that they all have a very large capacity measured in liters. This is something that cannot take us by surprise, although it has a certain “trick”, since it adds the space of the refrigerator to the freezer. What not many people notice is that, although these refrigerators are very large, the reality is that they are also narrow. And that’s where it comes in the pizza box test. There’s not much science to it, it’s just what you think: since the shelves are narrower, a pizza box does not fit horizontally. This is the most visual example, but you can take it to other everyday things that you are more likely to keep in your refrigerator. There we can include food trays, cakes, large tupperware or even watermelons if they are large. Now, what you lose in width you gain in height. This is ideal if you are one of those who practices batch cooking and you cook in one sitting for several days, so you can stack the tupperware without any problem. In addition, you can also take advantage of the more vertical distribution of the refrigerator to your advantage, placing the things you use most at the top and the things you use least at the bottom. More things to keep in mind about these refrigerators. First, the best thing they have: the freezer. The left-right distribution means that we have plenty of room to freeze things of all kinds and have them very well organized. Not only that, but its more vertical distribution also means that we can have a lot of space at eye level and not have to bend down every time we want to check what we have frozen. All this has a price (and never better said), since American refrigerators have higher energy consumption. There is also the issue of the water and/or ice dispenser that these types of refrigerators normally come with. It depends on the model, but there are those that need a water intake to make this workalthough there are others that have a tank that we can fill without the need for installation. And, speaking of installation, be careful with American refrigerators: they are deeper. This can make them stand out from the line of the furniture, something that aesthetically does not look very good. Choose a wide combi The vast majority of vans in stores are about 60 centimeters wide. We would not put one of these to compete in capacity with an American, but things change if we add 10 centimeters to the formula. It seems like very little difference, but from 70 centimeters wide, the combi gains a lot more capacity. And, of course, without taking up as much space in the kitchen as an American refrigerator. These pass the pizza box test without breaking a sweat, since its shelves are much wider. Now, the extra total capacity they gain is not enough to beat the American refrigerators. Not through the refrigerator, but through the freezer. There they clearly lose out, so if you have a freezer full of food, it may not be worth it to go for a combi. There is also the issue of consumption. It will depend a lot on the model we choose, but as a general rule, one of these wide combis It will consume less energy than an American refrigerator. It will not be a consumption figure large enough for us to rule out the Americans, but it will be something to take into account. The good and the bad of both options, face to face American refrigerator wide combi THE GOOD 🟢 Plenty of space to freeze and stack tupperware in the fridge You can have frozen products at eye level so you don’t have to bend down all the time Much more horizontal capacity for large containers and takes up less space Less electricity consumption THE BAD 🔴 Uses more light and has less horizontal space to store large things The “aisles” of the refrigerator are narrow, so if you put something bulky you won’t see what’s behind it Your freezer doesn’t do much, so you may have to juggle if you freeze a lot of food. Ideal for: Kitchens with a lot of space and for large families who need a huge freezer Smaller kitchens and for storing very wide trays or containers without a problem In summary: 👉 Choose an American refrigerator if: You have plenty of space and if you prioritize maximum capacity in your freezer. 👉 Choose a wide van Yeah: You prefer to have wide shelves and you want a large refrigerator, but not gigantic. Recommended models American refrigerator: Bespoke AI RS70F65QETEF As an American refrigerator option, we have this one from Samsung. Here we are talking about a refrigerator with a total capacity of 659 litersdivided into 239 liters for the freezer and 420 liters for the refrigerator. The refrigerators from this … Read more

buying it will cost 100 euros more in Europe very soon

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That one is very far away PlayStation 5 launch price that many of us had in our heads when this generation began. We are talking about the end of 2020, when the console arrived in stores for 499.99 euros in its version with a disc reader and 399.99 euros in the digital edition. Since then, several things have happened that have marked its trajectory, but there is one that is especially striking: instead of becoming cheaper with the passage of time, something more common in mature generations, Getting a PS5 has been becoming more and more expensive. That journey takes us directly to the announcement that Sony has made todayMarch 27, 2026, in which it confirms a new price increase for its consoles in Europe with effect from April 2. The company recognizes that this is a sensitive decision for users, but frames it in a context of “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.” According to Isabelle Tomatis, vice president of global marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, after evaluating the situation they have concluded that this adjustment is “necessary.” A generation that has become more expensive With that announcement already on the table, what really interests us is how much it now costs to enter the Sony ecosystem in Europe. As we say, to starting April 2, 2026these are the recommended prices that the company has set for its consoles in this market: PS5: 649.99 euros. PS5 Digital Edition: 599.99 euros. PS5 Pro: 899.99 euros. To fully understand the current moment, it is worth looking back and seeing that this is not the first time that Sony has revised the price of its console upwards in Europe. The first movement arrived in August 2022, when the PS5 with reader went up up to 549.99 euros and the digital version up to 449.99 euros. Another adjustment was added to this adjustment in April 2025, focused on the Digital Edition, which reached 499.99 euros. What we see now, therefore, is not an isolated case, but another episode within a trajectory of upward prices that has been consolidated over time. In this scenario there is an important nuance that should not be lost sight of: the PS5 Pro He plays in another league within this story. The console was launched in Spain in November 2024 with a recommended price of 799.99 euros in its 2 TB version without a disc reader, and until now it had not undergone adjustments. The increase announced now places it at 899.99 euros in Europe, which represents its first increase since the launch. If we put all the pieces together, what remains is an unusual photograph for a console that has been on the market for several years. Far from getting cheaper over time, the PS5 has been chaining reviews of rising price around the worldincluding the one now announced by Sony. This pattern, conditioned by economic factors that the company mentions in its statement, changes the rules for the consumer. Today, getting a PS5 is more expensive than ever. Images | Sony | Xataka In Xataka | Almost 20 years later, Sony continues to release updates for the PS3: there is a clear reason behind it

that buying a yacht is as cheap as a car

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The man who turned JD.com into the Amazon’s biggest Chinese rivalhas just announced his next project. This time it’s not about packages or deliveries in 24 hours: this time it’s about yachts. Yes, those luxury boats that until now only the richest could afford among the rich. However, his plan is not make yachts for millionaires. That can do any. The challenge is to manufacture yachts that any minimally wealthy family can afford. Their goal is to manufacture yachts at the same price as a car. The “Chinese Jeff Bezos.” Richard Liu is popularly known as the “Chinese Jeff Bezos” for having converted your company JD.com into an online commerce giant with its own logistics capable of overshadowing the almighty Amazon. According to ForbesLiu has an estimated net worth of around $5.5 billion, placing her as one of the China’s biggest fortunes. Liu wants to replicate that philosophy of scale and efficiency that he has honed at JD.com in a completely different sector: boat manufacturing. For this purpose, Sea Expandary has been created. a new company which will not be managed directly by him since he will have his own independent CEO. The planned initial investment is around 5 billion yuan (about $723 million), and the goal is so ambitious that it is hard to believe: that any salaried worker can have his own yacht, just as happened with the car decades ago. Price is what changes the rules of the game. The most striking fact of the proposal is the target price for the boats they manufacture. As I collected Asian outlet SCMP, Liu has stated that: “I hope that one day we can build yachts priced at 100,000 yuan (US$14,502), so that they can enter homes like cars do. Yachts must be difficult for ordinary wage workers and ordinary consumers.” To put that figure in context, according to boat insurance portal Admiral Marine, a small entry-level yacht can easily cost between $50,000 and $200,000. The ambition is that this boat will have enough space on board for a family and that its price will not be an obstacle for Chinese households to buy one. Making boats is complex. Building ships is not an easy task. The nautical sector continues to be one of the most artisanal and labor-intensive, with long production cycles and greater flexibility must be applied in the customization of finishes and uses. To reach that price, Sea Expandary would have to radically industrialize the process, limit the variants it offers to its customers and optimize the supply chain. Furthermore, the new company not only aims to be cheap, but also sustainable. Liu has announced that all Sea Expandary yachts will operate with what he has called new energy technologies that focus on the electrification of engines and renewable energy generation systems. This is a positioning that fits well with the industrial policies that China has been promoting in the renewable energy sector that is already is applying in cars. It’s a good business. The yacht market in China is in full boiling. According to the market outlook By the end of 2025 there were 9,850 vessels registered in the country, and more than half of the total fleet had been registered in the last three years. The Chinese Ministry of Transport said that growth is expected to continue over the next five years. The global yacht market, for its part, exceeded $9.83 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $14.98 billion in 2035, with compound annual growth of more than 4.3%. China is late to this sector compared to Europe or the US. However, China arrives with a more than proven competitive advantage: its industrial-scale production capacity, lower manufacturing costs and the support of public policies. Liu knows this, and he said it bluntly: “Only by doing this can we truly compete with the world’s leading yacht manufacturers in Europe and the United States.” In Xataka | The ultra-rich trade land for a superyacht during the summer: These are some of these floating mansions Image | Flickr (Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2018), Pershing

Meta has been buying chips from NVIDIA and AMD for years. Now it also makes its own so as not to fall short

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Meta has not thrown in the towel with its MTIA (Meta Training and Inference Accelerators) chips. And although they didn’t have it all on their sidestopping depending on NVIDIA is a very juicy candy to jump to conclusions. For that very reason, They have presented a roadmap of four new chips with which the company intends to accelerate both its content recommendation systems and its generative AI capabilities. The first chip is now operational; The other three will arrive before the end of 2027. Below are all the details. Dependence. For years, Meta has relied almost entirely on NVIDIA and AMD to power its data centers. The development of our own silicon is complicated, but if it is achieved, it can be a very successful financial and strategic bet in these times. According to statements According to its vice president of engineering, Yee Jiun Song, designing its own chips allows the company to “eliminate what we don’t need,” which directly translates into cost reduction. Added to this is greater independence from possible price variations or supply restrictions. Which is exactly what you have announced. The four new chips are the MTIA 300, 400, 450 and 500. Each one has a different use: The MTIA 300 is already in production and is intended to train the algorithms that decide what content Facebook and Instagram users see. The MTIA 400 (known internally as Iris) has completed laboratory testing and is en route to data centers. Meta claims that it offers performance “competitive with leading commercial products,” according to its official statement. The MTIA 450 (Arke) will double the high-bandwidth memory compared to the 400 and is scheduled for early 2027. The MTIA 500 (Astrid), the most advanced, will arrive in mid-2027 and will incorporate, according to the company, improvements in low-precision data processing. The chips are manufactured by TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor producer, and have been developed in collaboration with Broadcom on the RISC-V open architecture. The rhythm is the most striking thing. What’s unusual is not just that Meta makes its own chips, but the speed at which it plans to do so. The usual cycle in the industry is one or two years between generations. Meta aims to release new versions every six months. “The pace of AI evolution is so fast that we always want to have the most advanced chip available when we need it,” counted Song. This accelerated cadence is possible, according to the company, thanks to a modular design that allows components to be reused between generations. ANDthis does not replace NVIDIA. It is important not to lose sight of the context. Meta remains one of the largest buyers of GPUs on the market. just a few weeks ago signed multi-million dollar agreements with NVIDIA and AMD to supply chips for the next few years, and has also reached an agreement to rent computing capacity on Google chips, as share Wired. MTIA chips are designed for specific and internal tasks (inference and recommendation systems), not for training large language models, so this strategy is complementary to your chip plans with NVIDIA or AMD. Nor should we forget that Meta recently had to abandon its most ambitious training chip, known internally as Olympus, after the project became complicated in the design phase, according to counted The Information. Susan Li, CFO of Meta, confirmed at a Morgan Stanley event that the company still has the goal of developing processors capable of training models, but without giving more details. And now what. The real test of this bet will come when the chips are deployed at scale. The challenge at the moment is to guarantee HBM memory supply before a RAM crisis that is affecting the entire technology sector. Song himself recognized to CNBC that the company “is absolutely concerned” about it, although it stated that they have assured supply for their current plans. In the long term, we will see if Meta can achieve something similar to what Google did with its TPUs. Cover image | Mariia Shalabaieva and Goal In Xataka | OpenClaw has caused a real media earthquake in China. The Government has prevented its officials from using it

Why does your refrigerator dry out food and when is it worth buying a ‘low frost’ one?

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Nowadays most refrigerators are “No Frost”, but… what does this really mean? Perhaps what you have heard the most is that they do not make frost, but they also have other peculiarities with respect to the more traditional models. For this same reason, today we are going to review the differences between both types of refrigeratorswith the advantages and disadvantages in each case. How a No Frost refrigerator works No Frost refrigerators use fans that constantly remove the coldwhich prevents water vapor from condensing on its walls. Since there is a constant, dry air flow, moisture does not accumulate in the form of ice, which prevents us from having to remove it ourselves. In addition, many models have a system that allows you to eliminate small traces of ice if they appear. This No Frost system has some especially interesting advantages beyond not forming frost. By having a constant air flow, this cold air reaches all corners of the refrigerator equally, homogeneously, which allows all foods to be preserved better for longer. Now, it’s not all advantages. When using a No Frost refrigerator, it is advisable that we take into account that your air system is dryand by reaching all corners evenly it can dry out food, especially fresh items such as fruit, sausages or vegetables. We must also pay special attention to another point: No Frost refrigerators consume a little more because they have a resistance that heats up to melt the ice automatically. For this reason, we recommend looking at the annual consumption in kWh, and not only at the letter of energy efficiency. How a cycle refrigerator works Cyclic refrigerators (also called Low Frost either Less Frost by some brands) are the traditional ones, the traditional ones. They work through a refrigerant gas that travels throughout its circuit until it reaches the desired temperature, at which point the air flow stops. It does not work using fans, so they can generate less noise than No Frost. As the cold of these refrigerators is humid and they do not have a fan that constantly stirs the air, plaques of frost can form on the walls, which forces us to remove them manually so as not to compromise their efficiency and durability. Additionally, if too much frost forms, the refrigerator motor may have to work harder, which means possible increase in electricity bill. The good thing about these refrigerators is that by having a system that generates humid cold, food is usually better hydrated, preserving it better for longer. This occurs especially in fresh foods such as vegetables, which hold up better without drying out. The good of both worlds We can also find refrigerators that bring together the best of both worlds: hybrid refrigerators. In this case, they come with both systems, but separate: the No Frost system in the freezer and the cyclic system in the refrigerator. This prevents frost from forming in the freezer and allows the fresh food in the refrigerator to stay moist for longer. In other words: mixed models come with a No Frost freezer which prevents us from having to chip away at the ice that forms every so often and they also have a cyclical or dynamic refrigerator that prevent fresh foods, such as lettuce, from drying out. The good and the bad of both options, face to face No Frost Cyclic (traditional) THE GOOD 🟢 You do not need to remove the ice manually, the temperature is more homogeneous on all shelves and the food tends to cool faster thanks to the fan air system. They keep food fresh for longer and are usually quieter and cheaper. THE BAD 🔴 Their dry air can dry out fresh foods and they tend to be noisier due to the operation of the fan. Plus, they tend to be more expensive. They can form frost on your walls and can cause uneven temperatures on different shelves. Ideal for: Storing a lot of food in the freezer without the ice blocking the drawers or for families that open and close the freezer constantly, thus recovering the optimal temperature in a short time. Eat a lot of fruits or vegetables without losing moisture in a short time or if you want a refrigerator that makes little noise. We do the math to see which one can compensate you more. Each of the refrigerators has its advantages or disadvantages, so to see everything much clearer we are going to give a couple of practical examples. If you are looking for a refrigerator that allows you to use it without further ado, without worrying about removing frost every few months, a refrigerator with a No Frost system will compensate you much more. Actual use: Let’s say you usually freeze a lot of food. The accounts: No Frost refrigerators allow you to better recover the temperature by opening and closing the freezer many times. In addition, you avoid emptying it to defrost the ice every few months. So? It is a choice that lies in both the comfort and the usefulness of the freezer: fresh foods dry out more, but in exchange we have a freezer that better maintains its ideal temperature. If you opt for these refrigerators, at least have one or more drawers with humidity control, generally called VitaFresh or BioFresh. Although there are fewer of them in stores today, refrigerators that are cycled or have a traditional system can be very attractive, both for the preservation of certain foods and for other characteristics. Actual use: You don’t usually freeze a lot of food and you usually eat a lot of it fresh. The accounts: Having a cycle refrigerator allows fresh food to last better. In addition, by not using a fan constantly, they tend to make less noise. So? It is ideal if you consume more fresh foods than frozen foods or if you have the refrigerator next to, for example, the living room and you are looking for as little noise as possible. … Read more

Generation Z has found the remedy to streaming subscription fatigue: buying DVDs again

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Sales of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD stopped their decline in 2025. They only fell 9% compared to declines of more than 20% in the previous two years. What is the reason for this slowdown? To an unexpected factor, an unforeseen audience: young people from Generation Z who are filling video stores, promoting labels boutique like Criterion and Arrow and turning the physical format into a gesture of resistance against the massification of streaming. Plummet. For more than a decade, the physical format market in home video followed a downward trajectory that seemed irreversible. Between 2019 and 2023 it was reduced by 40% in the United States alone, and the disappearance of chains such as blockbuster it reinforced the feeling that the album was an exhausted medium. In 2024, DVD and Blu-ray sales were below a billion dollars for the first time. Gasping. However, in 2025 a different phenomenon has been detected: the physical disk market generated 870 million dollarsthat is, it only decreased by 9.3% compared to the previous year. What’s more: in the 4K UHD segment (which allows high-quality viewing at home), US consumer spending grew 12% year-on-year. All this in an extremely unfavorable context: with the unstoppable growth of streaming (19.8% in 2025), the physical format represents only 1.4% of total home entertainment. Fed up with streaming. The overdose of supply in streaming is ultimately causing a tiredness effect. According to recent studies47% of American consumers say they pay too much for their insurance services streamingand 41% consider that the available content does not justify the price. The average number of subscriptions per household has been four for a couple of years, an amount that could be at its critical point. DVD solution. Added to this saturation is a problem that film fans know well: the platforms are unreliable and the catalogs change without prior notice. Movies and series disappear for reasons ranging from the completion of exploitation contracts to tax reasons. In a ‘Los Angeles Times’ piece that has investigated this interest Of the youngest to recover physical formats, some young people under thirty spoke about how they became interested in cinema during the pandemic, describing DVD collecting as an act of rebellion against the fragmentation of streaming. Blockbuster, meeting point. That same article talks about renovated versions of old video stores as meeting points for these new collectors. Of course, it is something that mainly concerns the United States, where such specific types of businesses make sense: Vidiots, in Los Angeles, also functions as a movie theater, and is registering its highest revenue peaks since its opening, with an average of 170 daily rentals. Also from there is Cinefile, which has 500 paying members. Visiting the video store functions as a social activity that streaming cannot offer and the community dimension is key to understanding why the phenomenon exceeds pure nostalgia. And you don’t have to go to such specialized stores: Barnes & Noble, one of the few large chains in the country that maintains a space dedicated to the physical format after the withdrawal of Best Buy and Target, speaks of a double-digit percentage growth during the last year. And they point out that the demographic profile of their buyers is increasingly younger. Stamps boutique. The situation experienced by domestic editions is completely unprecedented in the history of the medium: while the major studios reduce their commitment to the physical format, independent labels are experiencing a moment of expansion. Criterion Collection speaks of “significant year-over-year increases” in sales. The cult film specialist Vinegar Syndrome also experiments similar trends. Of course, sales are incomparably lower than the good times of the physical format, but we are not talking about residual phenomena either. In Spain alone, for example, there are half a dozen labels specialized in reissues of films that cannot be found in streaming (El 79, Cameo, Gabita Barbieri, Trashorama…) that survive crises and recessions alluding to a loyal audience and a cinema that cannot be seen any other way. The inevitable comparison. It is inevitable to think of an analogy with the vinyl recoverythe cassette and the VHS that the previous generations, Millennials and Gen-Xers, have carried out. This has been going on since the mid-2010s, in a mix of nostalgia, vindication of the physical and endless discussions about audio and video qualities. Two decades latervinyl is facing its eighteenth consecutive year of growth, with $1.4 billion in sales (the highest figure since 1984) and 44 million units in stores, surpassing the CD for the third consecutive year. The key difference is that vinyl has an industrial infrastructure that supports it: record companies that prioritize the format, active manufacturers and a distribution chain. The physical video, on the other hand, loses player manufacturers and the big studios prioritize streaming about the disc editions. Video game consoles, eternal support of the format, already have institutionalized versions of their hardware without disc readers. At the moment, the recovery of DVD and Blu-Ray is an isolated phenomenon. But those who we keep listening to cassettes We know better than to look over our shoulders at a format that seems dead. Header | Photo of Lance Anderson in Unsplash In Xataka | Despite streaming, I still buy Blu-Rays and DVDs. But the reason has nothing to do with image quality.

that of buying a plane ticket before it costs an arm and a leg

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If you were planning to buy a plane ticket, we have a warning: it is better that you do it as soon as possible. That’s what the price of jet fuel indicates. The cost of oil for this type of use has skyrocketed since a new war broke out in the Middle East. Following the US and Israeli attacks and Iran’s response, the supply chain has become so stressed and strained that it does not bode well for the future. 2$25.44. It is the figure that has set the record and that tells us about the nervousness that is beginning to be experienced with the supply of fuel for airplanes. Those $225.44 was the price that barrels of jet fuel reached last Wednesday in Asia, they point out in Reuters. That figure was an anomaly that ended up rebounding but it gives an idea of ​​how the market is working. “It’s absolute chaos,” June Goh, an oil market analyst at commodities company Sparta, told Reuters. Financial Times. “We never expected that jet fuel could be twice the price of crude oil,” he explained. years ago. Specifically, four. Since 2022, the price of jet fuel has not been so expensive in the case of Europe and two years if we talk about Asia and the United States. The problem is not so much that “equality” in price. The problem is that it seems that we have already put on the tie and now it is time to tighten the knot. Because it is calculated that 40% of jet fuel that reaches Europe does so through the Strait of Hormuz, currently collapsed between vessels seeking to avoid an enclave over which missiles, drones and fighters fly over in search of targets to bomb. Why is this happening? Jet fuel is more delicate than fuel intended for passenger cars, so it can only be processed in refineries. Europe has reduced its refineries in recent years, something that It already affected the rise in diesel prices in the early stages of the Ukrainian War. And Asian refiners are seeing crude oil supplies disrupted by fighting in Iran and nearby countries. In Saudi Arabia, some refineries have had to suspend operations due to the attacks, according to Barron’s. From China, furthermore, They are already limiting fuel exports outside the country to prioritize the internal market. And it is calculated that 13% of the oil that China buys abroad comes from Iran. That is to say, there is less oil reaching the refineries and some oil companies are considering taking enormous detours to avoid the dangers of Hormuz. Right now, it’s not just that oil is having more trouble getting there. The thing is there are deposits closing because there are no means to transport them to the refineries. In OilPrice They point out that Iran has already had to stop deposits because there is no outlet for its production. And Kuwait could be the next to enter the same situation, according to Financial Times. And most of the oil to be refined in Europe comes from Kuwait. And dwarf tanks. Another pressing problem is that the tanks that hold airplane fuel are small because they require very specific conditions, according to Goh of Sparta. This causes the need for replacement to be high and, therefore, the price of fuel affects this market more. Therefore, the perfect storm is forming. There is oil that does not leave the fields, countries limiting exports, companies looking for solutions to save the Strait of Hormuz and a storage space sensitive to any break in the supply chain. There are already notices. To all of the above we must add that part of this fuel is staying in the Middle East to try to provide service to all the planes that are looking for a space to take off from airports that, right now, are chaos. According to Financial Timesqueues to refuel are causing delays and some companies are choosing to refuel before reaching their destination so as not to do so in the busiest places. The most affected in Europe, everything indicates, will be the low-cost companies, which are the ones that play the hardest with their profit margins. In Bloomberg They report that WizzAir already points out that this increase in prices will make it lose 50 million euros. This means that in their forecasts for 2026 they would go from earning 25 million euros at the end of the year to losing it. Photo | Nicholas Susilo In Xataka | An airline has completed the first transatlantic flight using sustainable fuel. The problem: there is not enough

It is proof that “buying to rent” in Spain is today very profitable

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For years, renting in Spain represented more than just a quick, flexible and (relatively) commitment-free way to find housing. It was also the springboard for those who wanted to take the leap and become owners of their own home, the ‘anteroom’ through which one passed while gathering the stability and sufficient level of savings to buy an apartment. Not anymore. In the crazy market of 2026 rent has become a kind of limbo from which many families are unable to leavetrapped in an apparent contradiction: renting is much more expensive than getting a mortgage, but also more ‘accessible’. And that makes buying to rent increasingly attractive. What has happened? That the roles that until not so long ago seemed established in the Spanish real estate market are becoming blurred. We mentioned it before. For a long time, renting was more than just a quick and flexible way to find housing. It also served as a springboard for those who wanted to become owners. You rented, you saved and (after visiting the bank) you bought. The problem is that after price escalation of recent years and the deep imbalance between supply and demand, right now renting is much more expensive than mortgage. And there are signs that suggest that gap it is becoming entrenchedmaking it increasingly difficult for those who now live as tenants to take the leap, sign a loan and become owners of their own homes. CCAA Mortgage installment (4th Q 2025) Vari. Quarterly % Salary fee/cost Andalusia €709.5 -1.2% 34.6% Aragon €603.4 -7.6% 27% Asturias €632.3 +10.7% 27.9% Balearics €1,298.3 -7.8% 55% Canary Islands €740.8 +8.1% 38.6% Cantabria €660.3 +5.4% 31.5% Castile-La Mancha €554.8 +0.8% 26.9% Castile and León €540.9 +1.3% 25.7% Catalonia €866.5 +1.4% 34.1% Valencian C. €647.2 +4.3% 30.6% Estremadura €452.5 +2.2% 23.4% Galicia €635.7 +5% 30.6% Madrid €1,250.3 +2.7% 43.7% Murcia Region €504.4 -2.2% 24.8% Navarre €701.8 -0.4% 28% the Basque Country €838.4 +3% 31.8% Rioja €523.1 +1.8% 24.2% SPAIN €796.6 +1.3% 33.8% What does the data say? It is not easy to take a general ‘photograph’ of what is happening in Spain because the real estate market varies greatly from one region to another. Even between nearby cities. All in all, there are some interesting clues. In 2018 it was already possible to find ‘top’ areas in which rents exceeded mortgage payments. Today that is the general trend in most of the country. In 2022 an iAhorro study estimated that the monthly cost of a mortgage loan was 394 euros less than that of renting a home. In the middle of last year the same entity published another report which already placed this gap at €430, the difference between the average of rents (1,153) and loans (722). Those responsible for the study they warned at that time that the burdens of those who live on rent and those who do so with mortgages were following opposite directions. Tenants suffered the consequences of a broken market in which prices do not stop growing. In the second case (that of bank loans), iAhorro detected a decrease in payments, favored by the rate drop. Are there more current indicators? Yes. The SER has just published a new comparison which shows that, with ups and downs, that gap remains unchanged. According to the data it manages, the average cost of a mortgage was €796 per month at the end of 2025, while that of rent is around €1,184. That is, the gap between the two is around 400 euros. If we take as a reference the average for all of 2025 for mortgages (€769), the difference is even greater, €415. What does that mean? That on average people who live in a home they own and pay a mortgage to the bank spend about €4,800 less per year (12 monthly payments) than those who live in rented homes. The difference is even greater in highly stressed markets, such as the Balearic Islands or Catalonia. CCAA Average Rental Price 2025 Balearic Islands €1,643 Madrid €1,584 Catalonia €1,439 the Basque Country €1.1331 Canary Islands €1,113 Valencian C. €1,033 Navarre €1,028 Andalusia €933 Cantabria €811 Asturias €789 Aragon €778 Murcia €775 Galicia €766 Castile and León €734 Rioja €730 Castile-La Mancha €707 Estremadura €582 Spain €1,184 Where do the figures come from? The credit information is provided by the College of Registrars, which in its latest real estate statistics provides data on mortgage payments for the last quarter of 2025. What do your tables show? That at the end of last year the monthly payment in Spain stood at 796.6 euros, 1.3% more than the previous quarter. That is the average indicator at the state level, but things change when we analyze each region of Spain. The cheapest is Murcia, where the fee barely exceeds 500 euros. The most expensive are, by far, the Balearic Islands (1,298.3 euros) and Madrid (1,250.3). Lease data is based on Insurance rental observatorywhich indicates that in 2025 the average house price stood at €1,184. Once again, this is a state indicator that hides deep differences between autonomous communities. For example, the 1,643 euros paid on average by tenants in the Balearic Islands, 1,584 by those from Madrid or 1,439 by Catalans have little to do with the 707 in Castilla-La Mancha or 582 in Extremadura. Why this gap? Because although statistics show that both mortgages and rentals have become more expensive in the last year, the latter have done so more quickly. According to the College of Registrars, credit fees have increased 4.2%. In the case of income, Rental Insurance estimates an increase of almost 6%although there are other reports (this one from Idealista) which ensure that the interannual variation has been greater and exceeds 8%. The result is that tenants are forced to spend more time each time most of your income to housing, surpassing even 40%far above what is recommended. Why don’t they mortgage themselves? Because although right now it is more convenient to pay a bank than a landlord, not everyone … Read more

after buying EA it is the turn of a mobile giant

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The Saudi Sovereign Fund, through Savvy Games Group, continues to expand its gaming empire. After announce the purchase of Electronic Arts for $50 billionis now negotiating to acquire Moonton Technology for a price that could reach 7 billion, consolidating its dominance in the lucrative mobile gaming market. The purchase. Just four months after announcing the purchase of EA, Saudi Arabia returns to the negotiating table. This time the target is Moonton Technology, the developer of ‘Mobile Legends: Bang Bang‘, one of the most successful mobile MOBAs on the planet. Savvy Games Group, subsidiary of the Saudi Sovereign Fund, is finalizing an operation valued between 6,000 and 7,000 million dollars to acquire the studio, currently owned by ByteDancethe parent company of TikTok. The strategy. The figure may seem modest compared to EA’s mega purchase, but it accurately reflects the strategic value of the Asian mobile market. Mobile Legends has accumulated more than a billion global downloads and dominates Southeast Asia, where it has managed to capitalize on a massive player base despite having faced multiple Riot Games legal lawsuits for violation of the intellectual property of ‘League of Legends’. The sentences forced Moonton to pay million-dollar compensation, but did not stop its growth in territories where access to consoles and PCs is limited. Why the mobile? Observers who believe that the mobile market is not what it was in the days of ‘Angry Birds’ are wrong: The sector generated more revenue in 2025 than PC and consoles combinedwith the model free-to-play demonstrating enormous profitability. ‘Monopoly GO‘, developed by Scopely (also Saudi owned since 2023), has generated approximately 6 billion dollars since its launch. A single application whose billing alone covers the price of Moonton. This equation explains why the kingdom looks with such interest towards mobile gaming: the relationship between initial investment and potential return far exceeds that of traditional AAA blockbusters. Controlling cell phones. With Moonton under its control, Saudi Arabia would manage three of the most lucrative mobile developers in the world (along with Scopely and the division gaming of Niantic), positioning itself as a dominant player in a segment where until now the Chinese Tencent exercised almost absolute hegemony. The operation could be closed during this first quarter of 2026, consolidating a movement that began as economic diversification and evolves towards something much more ambitious: the vertical control of entire segments of the video game industry. And more than mobile phones. The Saudi Sovereign Fund’s investment catalog in the video game industry draws a control map that encompasses SNK (‘The King of Fighters’, ‘Metal Slug’), Scopely (‘Monopoly GO’, ‘Star Trek Fleet Command’), Niantic’s gaming division (‘Peridot’, ‘Monster Hunter Now’) and ESL FaceIt Group (the largest organizer of esports competitions in the world). Five companies that alone generate billions annually and, above all, cover completely different markets. The power of actions. But the true dimension of Saudi power is revealed when its shareholding is analyzed. The fund maintains between 5% and 10% of shares at Nintendo, Koei Tecmo, Embracer Group, Nexon, Capcom, Take-Two Interactive, NCSoft, Square Enix and Bandai Namco. They are not testimonial investments: in several cases it is the second or third largest shareholder after the founders or traditional Japanese funds. This gives it influence on boards of directors, veto power over strategic decisions and privileged access to sensitive corporate information. At Ubisoft and Microsoft. The links with Ubisoft and Microsoft are more opaque. There is a 2022 agreement after which Savvy acquired minority stakes in Ubi as the Guillemot family fought hostile takeover attempts by activist investors, but the exact terms of the pact were never made public. With Microsoft, the relationship transcends the purely financial: Saudi Arabia has maintained investments in the technology matrix since 2016 and collaborates with Xbox on server infrastructure for the Middle East. Leaving Tencent behind. At the time, Tencent’s strategy generated regulatory alarms in the West due to concentration of power, but the Saudi approach is more aggressive in a key aspect: while the Chinese company sought majority stakes that would give it operational control but respected brands and structures, the kingdom has absolute ownership of medium-sized studios and also strategic stakes in consolidated giants. This hybridization allows for vertical influence without triggering antitrust alerts. The European Commission investigated for 18 months Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but authorities have not publicly questioned that a single actor controls significant stakes in nine of the twenty publishers largest in the world while directly owning three mobile developers that bill more than $10 billion annually combined. With the imminent incorporation of EA and Moonton, Saudi Arabia will have spent more than 70 billion dollars on gaming from 2021. To put it in perspective: that figure exceeds the current market value of Ubisoft, Capcom and Square Enix combined. A future of acquisitions. It is an entire recreational empire that could increase in the future: it is less supervised by regulatory authorities than other sectors and, for the moment, it has a very wide margin for growth. Few acquisitions comparable in magnitude remain in the pipeline, but the project Saudi Vision 2030which wants to diversify the country’s economy so as not to depend so much on oil, makes the nation look to the future. And this is a very financially attractive future. In Xataka | How Saudi Arabia and China are dividing up the video game industry with a checkbook

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