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Tim Cook will step down as CEO and John Ternus will be the new leader

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Apple management is preparing for a replacement that marks a turning point in the company: Tim Cook will step down as CEO and John Ternus will be his successor. As reported by Apple, confirming the rumorsthe change is part of a pre-planned transition process supported by the board of directors. The appointment will be effective as of September 1, the date on which Ternus will assume the position after years at the head of hardware engineering. John Ternus, current Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, and future CEO of Apple Tim Cook will continue to lead Apple over the coming months while working directly with John Ternus on the transfer of responsibilities. Once the replacement is effective, he will assume the position of executive president of the board of directors, a role from which he will continue to be involved in the company’s strategy and its relationship with governments and regulators. The change redefines his role, but keeps him linked to the company’s strategy and certain institutional functions.

Amazon Web Services is such a profitable business that its CEO is already thinking about something more ambitious: competing with NVIDIA

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Andy Jassy is the CEO of Amazon and an advocate of artificial intelligence to the point that he expects AI to transform the company’s workforce in the coming years. It makes sense that he is the captain of a liner that has turned to the AI ​​business, since before succeeding Bezos, he came from leading Amazon Web Services. And in his last letter annual to shareholders, Jassy leaves several notes that give us clues about the future of the company. It plans to compete against NVIDIA and SpaceX. And they have 200 billion dollars to invest. The photo. The company is going like a rocket. amazon hill 2025 at 717,000 million dollars, exceeding by 12% the 638,000 million of the previous year. Operating income increased by 17% to 80,000 million and, for its part, AWS cloud business it also worked well, achieving 24% year-on-year in the last quarter. They have done so, according to Jassy, ​​without being able to meet the demands of some clients due to the current situation of the data centers, but even so, they are more than happy. Burning pasta. And those good vibes are going to reach Amazon to invest some 200,000 million dollars in the coming months. The CEO has commented that “they are not going to invest that amount in 2026 following a hunch,” also pointing out that they are not going to be conservative in their bets and that what they are looking for is to lead the artificial intelligence business. HE wait that 50,000 of those millions will end up in the pockets of an OpenAI that will need a boost after the NVIDIA “sit-in”he Sora’s closure and Disney’s withdrawal of investment. Those 200 billion will be concentrated on AI infrastructure, a bet on the future that can add pressure to margins in the short term, but from which they expect a lot.or when the business starts operating. For its part, OpenAI is going to invest 100 billion in AWS over the next eight years. The chickens that enter by those that leave, like almost everything in this AI market. business engine. What business? Well… the one with the chips. Amazon is one of the companies (like Goal, tesla or one’s own OpenAI) that buys from NVIDIA, but that also you are developing your own solution. There are three proper names: Graviton, Trainium and Nitro, training and inference chips (depending on the case) whose business is growing at triple digits year-on-year. Specifically Trainium, which is the chip used to train some of the company’s models, can “save tens of billions of dollars a year.” But it’s not just about saving money by having the chip made at home and do not depend on NVIDIA prices and market competition: it is about not depend on NVIDIA itself at all. The NVIDIA Garden. We have already explained on more than one occasion how NVIDIA is the engine of the artificial intelligence business. Not only do they have the hardware that powers the data centers of the main AI players, but they have the money to invest in both established companies and, above all, in the startups that can define the future of the sector. And Jassy aims, directly, to become a hardware rival, one that competes with NVIDIA, AMD and even with the reborn Intel. According to the CEO, if Amazon were to sell its chip on the open market, it could represent a market of about $50 billion annually, more than double its current chip market. It would still be well below some of its rivals, but it could sell its hardware in conjunction with its AWS software. It would be by selling that “complete AI package” where Amazon would be strong against its rivals. Amazon’s Starlink. Wanting to step on the hose of the strong hardware trio is not the only field in which Jassy wants to play. We already know that Bezos, founder of Amazon, has its space businessbut in parallel, the own Amazon is deploying its Kuiper project. It is its own constellation of satellites in low orbit for broadband Internet that aims to be direct competition to SpaceX and Elon Musk’s Starlink. The deployment began in 2025 with a modest 27 satellites, but this 2026 They want to launch another 3,200. In the end, as all mega-companies want, Amazon seeks to be ubiquitous and permeate absolutely every millimeter of the business. Now, although its capacity in AWS is indisputable, competing against NVIDIA is a big deal. Jensen Huang’s company is TSMC’s first customer -the great global factory-, has deployed very aggressively and intelligently in the AI ​​segment, creating a network that is difficult to replicate and, in addition, has ensured itself to be the main customer of Samsung and SK Hynixthe companies leading high bandwidth memory without which AI cannot take off. Image | Amazon (edited) In Xataka | If you think the internet was much better before AI, congratulations: they have created an extension for you

Europe cannot be a “technological vassal of the United States”, and the CEO of Mistral is clear about the path

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Mistral is emerging as the pillar of European artificial intelligence. A few weeks ago we said that the French startup had raised another 830 million dollars to create AI data centers in Europe. Arthur Mensch is the CEO of the company and, for some time now, he is establishing himself as one of the powerful voices within the initiative of European technological sovereignty. His new warning is that Europe cannot be a “vassal state” of the United States and he has published a roadmap so that Europe leads AI. It won’t be easy. European swerve. There are those who complain that everything cannot be politics, but really politics is something that permeates many layers and the European turn in search of technological sovereignty has a lot to do with this. It is something that has coincided with the return of Donald Trump because Europe has realized that, between threats and the “I invaded Greenland”, can’t trust his ally. With American technology companies very involved in the ideology set by their Government, there is a demand for sovereign European alternatives that do not depend on American Big Tech nor how they may process your sensitive data. What happens with rockets, satellites, chips and even with Microsoft Office. And AI is no exception. Measures. That’s right where it comes into play. Mistral. As the greatest exponent of European AI (within the Generative AIsince we also have the suite from the Spanish Freepik as one of the most important companies in this field), Mistral and its CEO are voices with a certain weight when it comes to talking about what seems to be the only topic of conversation in recent months. And Mensch has clear that Europe cannot be a “vassal” of US technology companies. For this reason, they have published “European AI: a roadmap to lead it”, a long document in which it urges the institutions of the European Union to speed up procedures and permits to take advantage of its single market position of more than 450 million people and combine the talent of different countries at the service of AI. From European AI, of course. The premises are clear: Attract and retain talent. Unlock the full potential of the single market. Embrace European AI on all economic fronts. Empower Europe with critical infrastructure for AI. 80%. Each of the measures has a series of points that detail what the optimal way to proceed would be (according to Mistral) to achieve European leadership and stop depending on foreign technology. And one of the points to keep in mind is that Europe has the possibility of commanding, but it faces a devastating fact: 80% of the digital infrastructure continues to depend on non-EU providers. To put it down: if a ministry needs an office suite, turn to Google or Microsoft. If a hospital needs an AI, goes to ChatGPT or Huawei. If we limit ourselves to AI, Mistral estimates that only 20% of EU companies have adopted AI and that only 11% of SMEs take advantage of its potential. slap on the wrist to regulatory Europe. What they point out is that this situation makes us vulnerable to extraterritorial controls that put the strategic autonomy of the member countries in check. They defend that this roadmap is not a theoretical exercise, but rather something practical that is based on three key principles: Action over theory. Unity against the fragmentation of each of the governments. And the most important: the speed is questionable. We must find quick ways to attract talent and capital so that the most innovative in Europe are not left behind, trapped in regulations that take time. Ambition. They warn that it is something with potential not only for Mistral, but for the entire ecosystem, an ecosystem in which Mistral is already very, very well positioned. Part of the 830 million they have raised will go to their facilities near Paris where there will be 13,800 NVIDIA GB3000 chips (You can’t become independent from NVIDIA…), but it won’t be the only one. By 2027 they hope to have a €1.2 billion facility in Sweden with 23 MW of computing capacity. In total, they hope to achieve 200 MW of capacity by the end of next year. It is very, very far from China and, above all, from the United States, but although the distance is enormous, it is an important step. The B side of the matter. Now, everything has a twist, and the twist of this enormous amount of money is that this round is not venture capital, but debt financing. The main French banks have lent this money to create data centers and, while the risk capital is not returned, the debt is, and with interest. It doesn’t matter if Mistral’s move turns out well or not, even if the AI ​​bubble bursts: the banks that have lent the money expect to receive it with the aforementioned interest regardless of how business goes. It is an added pressure for the company, but also a sign that they trust in what they are building. In Xataka | ChatGPT’s milestone is not being a good AI: it is having become one of the biggest attention grabbers in history

Laurance Li, CEO of Honor Spain

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Laurance Li is a reference within the mobile telephone sector. He started working for Huawei in Shenzhen in 2008 and has been in the industry since then: first linked to Huawei especially in Mexico and then, starting in 2021, already in Honor. He has experienced from the inside the rise of smartphones, the changes between 2G and 5G and much, much more. On the occasion of the MWC we were able to sit down and talk to him, and the truth is that he is quite clear about where he is going to go. the present and also the future of the smartphone. You can innovate in mobile phones in 2026 Honor may currently be the brand that is experimenting the most with new mobile device formats. For years they have been fighting to lead the folding category, and this MWC they surprised everyone with the Honor Robot Phone. Honor Robot Phone in an image taken during its presentation at MWC Although the most striking thing about the phone is that camera that is “stored” in the back and unfolds, for the CEO of Honor Spain this new type of device is very relevant because They will change the way we communicate with the phone. On the Honor Robot Phone, the camera responds to you, looks at you, reacts to your requests. “There will be communication with you, excitement.” Beyond phones with robotic arms, Honor has been betting on folding phones for some time. In 2023 I visited their factories in Shenzhen and from then on it was one of its main strategic priorities, and the arrival of the Honor Magic V6 comes to endorse it: thinner and with more battery than ever. A foldable that doesn’t look like a foldable from the outside. “I think folding phones are going to be the future,” he says convinced. For now, he believes that many people are not daring to take the leap because of the cost, but he believes that this will change. Honor’s plan to convince people to make that leap? Paradoxically, it happens, in part, through the iPhone and its users: it is no coincidence that in their MWC presentation they spent some time explaining all the compatibility between the iPhone and the Honor ecosystem. “Some iPhone users want to switch, but they can’t because of the ecosystem.” These types of initiatives open the door to more users: “more and more users will choose foldable devices.” “I want to change their minds, but step by step. Apple users can use Android devices and other devices,” he adds. The importance of operators and stores in the present and future of Honor Finding a place in an already complex and competitive market like the Spanish one is not easy, and Honor knows it. It is no coincidence that when we asked how 2025 has gone, much of the conversation focused on highlighting how Honor is growing with some of its great allies. According to figures that Laurance Li shared with us, with MasOrange they have “more than 8% of the smartphone market share.” The figure grows, according to the executive, up to 20% if we talk about tablets sold through the operator. Together with Vodafone, it claims to have “800 points of sale” in which Honor as a brand has direct contact with the consumer. This year they have started working with MediaMarkt. Despite not yet being present in all MediaMarkt stores, 8% of smartphone sales went to Honor and, if we talk about tablets, the figure grew to 10%, according to their figures. They continue working with El Corte Inglés, and it is not strange to go to a store and see a counter decorated with their brand. “It has been a good 2025,” Li summarized when he shared the figures with us. Its goal for the future is to strengthen its presence in these distributors and work more closely with them, but also to look for new partners with whom to continue growing. In terms of market share, Honor ended 2025 growing 18% in Europe compared to the previous year, according to figures from Counterpoint Researchranking as the fourth brand with 4%. Ahead, Apple with 33%, Samsung with 29% and Xiaomi with 6%. In other rankings, however, it appears in fifth place: in Omdia They place Motorola ahead in fourth position. The big question: prices in 2026 It is impossible to talk about mobile phones in 2026 and not talk about the big question: what is going to happen to the shortage of components? In reality… it is impossible to talk about any consumer device and not ask this same question. We have told it ad nauseam: it is not only the RAM crisisbut the crisis of components in general sponsored by the massive proliferation of data centers to serve AI. “This is the biggest challenge in the last 20 years for the phone industry,” Li tells us convinced. On the one hand, he sees it as a way to confirm that Honor’s strategy with Alpha and its plan focused on artificial intelligence is on the right track. On the other hand, it confirms what we have already seen: “increasing the cost of memory will greatly affect entry-level devices.” That is why its strategy involves focusing more on mid-range devices onwards. On these phones “it will impact, but not as much”, as the cost of memory is lower in proportion to the rest of the phone. Where is the mobile phone industry going? Sitting down with Laurance Li to talk is like sitting down with someone who has witnessed firsthand all the changes in the telephone industry. I can’t help but ask you what you think is going to happen next, what you think is going to happen to the current smartphone industry. “We have had different revolutions,” he explains. “2G to 3G, 3G to 4G, 4G to 5G. From 2G to 3G was a big leap for video conferencing, for video calls. From 3G to 4G was … Read more

After visiting a Chinese factory, the CEO of Honda loudly admitted the noise of the industry

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We are witnessing a great change in the automobile industry, led above all by the great presence of China in more and more global markets and a transition to electric which seems to still be difficult for him. The traditional automobile industry is going through a delicate point, and the president of Honda saw it clearly when visiting a supplier factory in Shanghai. The surprise. At the end of February, Toshihiro Mibe, president of Honda, visited the facilities of a large Chinese manufacturer of components in Shanghai. What he found was a completely automated plant, without workers on the production line, and capable of supplying parts to both Tesla and local builders, minimizing labor costs and operating constantly. “We have no chance against this,” counted Mibe when leaving, according to statements reported by the Nikkei Asia media. It is certainly not the type of statement that one would expect from someone who runs one of the most historic brands in world motorsport. Why does it matter? Honda is not an isolated case. It is the latest symptom of an industry that has been looking at China with concern for years. Chinese manufacturers have managed to compress the development time of a new model to between 18 and 24 monthsabout half of what the Japanese or Europeans need. And it’s not just speed: it’s cost, automation and software. It is a change that is costing the traditional automobile industry, and that is not easy to replicate either. Numbers. In 2020, Honda sold 1.62 million vehicles in China. In 2025, that figure fell to 640,000 units, a decrease of 24% in the last year alone and the fifth consecutive year of decline, according to data published by the media. Its factories in the country operate at 50-60% capacity, well below the 70-80% necessary to be profitable. By 2026, the planned production is less than 600,000 units. “It is an extremely disappointing plan,” acknowledged an executive from a Chinese supplier company to Nikkei Asia. “But it doesn’t surprise me either,” he continued. Honda is not alone in this. Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, warned in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning last October that China has enough production capacity to “supply the entire North American market and put us all out of business.” “Unless things change, we will not survive,” counted for his part, also the then president of Toyota, Koji Sato. And coming from Toyota, which is basically the largest automaker in the world, that says a lot. Vgo back to the past to go towards the future. Honda’s reaction goes through resurrect your R&D division as an autonomous entity, something that has already existed since 1960 and that in 2020 was dismantled in favor of centralized management. It was that independent structure that, in 1972, developed the low-emission CVCC engine (the first to meet US regulations) and turned the original Civic into a global success. Now, thousands of engineers return to a subsidiary with greater operational freedom. “Five or six years ago it was good for the headquarters to take the reins,” recognized a Honda executive to Nikkei Asia. “But now the world has changed drastically,” he continued. Doubts. The movement does not convince everyone. Takaki Nakanishi, chief analyst at the Nakanishi Research Institute, said to the media that “it is doubtful what will change just by restoring the organization.” Honda’s own management team admits that recovering the structure does not guarantee winning China. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to raise the white flag,” added a company executive, according to Nikkei Asia. In parallel, Honda cancels two of its electric planned for the US, the 0 SUV and the 0 Sedan, and assumes losses of up to 15.8 billion dollars. Also have been left in the air the two vehicles under the Afeela brand, the joint project with Sony. The alternative bet: India. While Toyota and Nissan choose to ally with Chinese partners to learn from their speed and launch affordable electric cars, Honda prefers another path. The brand is betting on India as a manufacturing base for its next generation of electric cars. The Model 0 Alpha, its global strategic EV planned for 2027, will be produced there. In mid-March, the Indian subsidiary shared images of the Alpha in rolling tests, describing the moment as “a new milestone in Honda’s electrification journey.” Imbalance. The automobile sector is going through one of its most profound transformations. China has stopped being just a market to become the main global competitor, with brands like BYD already reaching 1.8% share in Europe in the first two months of 2026, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Honda, with just 0.5% in the same period, illustrates this imbalance well. Cover image | Sling In Xataka | Sensors, luminous tires and fish scales: the crazy (and stinky) story of the first “autonomous” car

The AI ​​industry fell in love with OpenAI, but doesn’t trust its CEO one bit

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At OpenAI they see a future in which the work week should have four days. Not only that: every citizen should receive a share of the economic growth generated by AI. These are some of the proposals that the company has published yesterday with the aim of preparing us for the “age of intelligence.” And just the day they published that proposal full of good and reassuring intentions, a blow arrived for the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman. An investigation published in The New Yorker once again called into question his way of acting, highly criticized by experts and engineers who worked with him. The conclusion of all of them: better not trust Sam Altman. The arrival of the age of intelligence. What they call the “age of intelligence” will undoubtedly have a negative impact in some areas, but OpenAI proposes with their document to make changes that mitigate these problems. Among the most striking measures is the creation of a “public wealth fund” that will distribute dividends from AI directly among citizens, regardless of their employment status. Let the machines work (and pay us for it). They also suggest taxes on automated labor to finance social security, and also pilot projects of four-day work weeks without salary reduction. The proposal is striking and seeks, of course, to reassure citizens in the face of threats such as job loss that can be caused by the mass adoption of AI. The problem is that this proposal comes at a delicate moment for an OpenAI in the midst of a reputational crisis. Smokescreen? This optimistic proposal contrasts with the report published in The New Yorker and in which the authors interviewed more than 100 people “with first-hand knowledge of how Altman behaves in business.” And among them, rivals like Ilya Sutskever or above all Dario Amodei who founded their own startups. Both harshly criticized Altman. Sutskever accumulated internal documents and messages showing deception and manipulation. Amodei stated that the obstacle to AI security is Altman himself, who leaves that area in the background compared to the company’s ambition for personal power and excessive growth. For his former partners, Altman is not a visionary, but an actor with a calculated pose. Says one thing, does another. The scandal of dismissal and later return of Altman was due precisely to that attitude in which the council accused him of having “not been consistently frank in his communications.” It’s the same thing we’ve read on other occasions: Altman has a dual personality. In him, the pathological desire to be liked and accepted is mixed with a total lack of concern for the long-term consequences of his misdeeds. He tells his interlocutors what they want to hear, and then does what he really wanted from the beginning. It is something that, for example, Karen Hao narrates over and over again. in his book ‘Empire of AI’in which, it must be said, it erred in calculating the water consumption of data centers mentioned in its studies. In the report they mention how the well-known programmer Aaron Swartz met him before die in 2013 and commented about him even then that “he is a sociopath.” Public image is everything. The publication of the OpenAI document occurs at a particularly critical time for the company, which is involved in a reputational and strategic crisis. Anthropic has managed to become the darling of the AI ​​industry —without being much less perfect— and OpenAI has realized that it was experimenting with too many AI applications that were not profitable and now wants to refocus on what makes it profitable. The good intentions shown in the document try to get public opinion on their side just when the company plans its IPO. Learning from the past. Altman’s critics reveal that he is an expert at designing control mechanisms that go up in smoke. Support AI regulations (at least those that favor you) and publicly promotes ethics committees and alignment and security of the AI ​​that in reality later knocks down internally, at least according to those who work with it. It happened when he promised to allocate 20% of the computing capacity to the super-alignment team, and then actually gave up only between 1 and 2% of that capacity. Jan Leike, who was named co-leader of that team along with Sutskever, resigned in May 2024 indicating that “safety culture and processes have been relegated to the background compared to flashy products,” he explained in a thread in X. He ended up signing for Anthropic. Interested reviews. Although Altman’s career at the head of OpenAI –with what happened to the Pentagon as a recent example—reinforces the comments of those who criticize him, it must be remembered that competition in this industry is currently fierce. Many of those who participate in the report are direct rivals and therefore their criticism, veiled or not, is partly self-serving because it harms their competitor. In Xataka | There is a new generation of AI models at the doors and Anthropic has to sell them: “The biggest and smartest”

Carlos Li, CEO of TCL Europe, on the commitment to giant TVs to conquer the high-end

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TCL is in an enviable moment in the television market. In 2025 managed to sell 20% more TVs while other of its competitors such as Hisense fell. Even Samsung, world leader in sales, fell slightly and the separation with TCL, its most direct rival, is already barely 1% share. The striking thing about this growth of TCL is in which segment it has occurred: the high-end. Nobody dispatches more MiniLED TVs than them right now and giant screens (85 inches or more) take up more than 22% of the global market. ​ The coup de effect was the recent announcement of alliance with Sony. The agreement, which is expected to come into operation in April 2027 at the earliest, is the most eloquent sign of how far a company has come that, until not long ago, was seen as good value for money and that’s it. With all this context, we were able to chat with Carlos Li, CEO of TCL Europe, who explained to us the company’s next steps to continue growing in televisions, but also in other segments such as household appliances. TCL has conquered the market thanks to a very good quality-price ratio and now I suppose the challenge is the high-end segment. What is your strategy to convince the European consumer to invest three or four thousand euros in a TCL X955For example? “We are focused on technology and also on giant screens. We believe that bigger, especially if we want to motivate consumers to return to the living room to watch television more often as a family. It takes a good experience to watch games or movies and differentiate itself from other devices, such as phones or tablets. We simply offer bigger screens and better image and sound quality. For more premium products, we are working on improving the experience, both in audio and video, to create an immersive cinema or gaming environment. That’s it which motivates consumers to pay premium prices to get a better product for their daily use.” Do you see this being a trend across Europe or just in some countries? Is it also happening here in Spain? “Yes, it has been proven and has been very successful in many markets. First years ago in China, and now in the United States, Europe, emerging markets, Latin America and also in the Middle East. We see this trend because, thanks to better products and larger screens, people are buying more televisions than before, especially high-end products with higher prices. We think we are very competitive in that area.” The recent news about the manufacturing deal with Sony has generated a lot of buzz. Beyond the volume of business, do you feel that the fact that a brand as demanding as Sony trusts its subsidiary CSOT serves as a definitive validation of TCL’s engineering and all its experience in this field? “First of all, the possible cooperation between TCL and Sony is still in the phase of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). We are still in the process of migrating from the MOU to a contract, so there are many things under discussion. But the good thing is that both Sony and TCL see the synergy that we can create together due to our capabilities in the industry, especially in the supply chain, R&D, resources in terms of CSOT panels, and our continuous investment in new technological innovations. This creates the synergy. perfect between the two companies for a new joint venture. Everything is still in process, but I think it is good proof that both parties see good added value in the other for the business portfolio.” I know everything is under discussion right now and it may take time to talk things out, but is there a tentative date to operate together? “It is a long-term bet, we are at an early stage and the two companies really need to get involved in the new strategy. There will be contracts later, so we do not expect to have an immediate impact on the market in 2026. It is more of a medium-term impact, like five or ten years.” There is a lot of talk about mini RGB or RGB mini LED as the technology that will surpass OLED and even traditional mini LED. What is TCL’s vision regarding this technology? “We have been developing Mini RGB technology for years, although we did not announce it before. We believe that SQD is a better display technology with better quality in terms of brightness and contrast. In the end, RGB is a type of mini LED TV with red, green and blue, but it has a higher cost because instead of a single LED light, you need to have three. This technology is not new for us, we have been developing it for eight years, which is why we are also launching our RGB mini LED TV. However, along with that, we will strongly push our “SQD because it is a unique technology in the industry, very robust and linked to our CSOT panel technology. For the moment, we reserve the SQD technology exclusively for our TCL brand, which creates a much better image quality compared to a Mini RGB. So the Mini RGB will be just one of the products in our portfolio.” Will they prioritize SQD then? “We believe that SQD will be the main trend for the future. We think it is a better solution as a display technology, which can really surprise the end user while maintaining the original price, and that is why we propose this.” Appliances, glasses and other areas where TCL also wants its piece of cake Carlos Li during the inauguration of the new TCL office in Madrid Many people know TCL for their televisions, but they also have appliances and we are seeing a lot of movement from other manufacturers in this segment. What is TCL’s next move in Europe regarding home appliances? “In home appliances, and together with air conditioners, we are … Read more

CEO Toyota believes his extreme perfectionism is a problem

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Japan is an extremely peculiar country. It is for many reasons in the eyes of a European. One of them is the mixture of humility at work and absolute dedication to the company to achieve a common objective that materializes in designing and producing the best possible products. The contrast is more complicated to understand if possible in the automobile industry. Toyota is considered the mother of what we know today as “toyotism”. A formula to work in a chain with a very limited stock. That is, without a safety net that allows unforeseen events to be handled with a warehouse large enough to support production until the problem is solved. This is achieved, of course, by building a chain that is oiled with the precision of a Swiss watch. But also with the certainty that what goes on the market is the best version of what each worker has in hand. Toyota revolutionized automobile assembly line production by giving the workers themselves the power to stop production if any failure was detected. It is a way of working that can only be carried out when, when developing the parts and design of an entire car, you work with the firmness of philosophy Kaizen. This Japanese word defines the pursuit of perfection through continuous improvement. This allows each modified part in the process of producing a new car to have the support of years of experience behind it. This way of working has been a competitive advantage until now has made Toyota the largest car manufacturer of the world. The company was, in 2025, the world’s largest automobile producer, with more than 11 million units manufactured. Volkswagen is second and remained at 9 million units manufactured. It is the result of production measured to the millimeter and reliability earned by hard work. That philosophy kaizen which Mazda or Toyota boast has allowed the latter to always be at the top of the reliability rankings, a value when it comes to putting millions and millions of units on the market. But this way of working has its drawbacks when you have to make agile decisions. China is the train to follow “If things don’t change, we won’t survive.” The phrase is from Koij Sato, CEO of Toyota, and is especially relevant because, as we pointed out, it comes from the head of the world’s leading brand. The message was sent to 489 suppliers with the aim of making them understand the importance of improving competitiveness against Chinese companies, they state in Automotive News. According to AutoblogToyota’s quality standards have been so strict that parts have been returned with small resin wrinkles that had no impact on a vehicle’s dynamics or reliability. The same thing was happening with thousands of wire harnesses that would have been returned because they showed minor signs of discoloration. Small aesthetic defects that buyers did not even notice because they are hidden inside the vehicle itself. Now Sato has asked its suppliers to be more flexible to save money on production and be more agile. The message launched by the company’s CEO is not coincidental. Months ago, a consulting firm specialized in reverse engineering I already alerted Toyota that their electric cars were designed as combustion vehicles and that penalized them when producing them. The problem is that, according to this company, producing an electric car is so different from a combustion car that it is almost equivalent to two different products even though both have four wheels and a steering wheel. They pointed out, for example, that Toyota used steel bars and reinforcements in the steering column or to hold the dashboard, thinking about reducing vibrations. However, Chinese manufacturers and Tesla choose to increased use of plastics because those vibrations are almost non-existent in an electric car. This allows them to produce cheaper and faster. And get lighter cars. “The average customer doesn’t even see these parts,” explained Shoji Nishihara, purchasing manager for Toyota’s vehicle development department, in statements reported by forumelectriccars. The final goal is complicated. The company aims to improve competitiveness by reducing production times and making the final quality of its products more flexible. A complicated balance if we want to continue being the reference in terms of reliability. For now, Toyota believes that its perfectionism was already bordering on healthy. Photo | toyota In Xataka | The legend of the Toyota Supra, one of the legendary Japanese sports cars: the fusion of illegal racing and the Kaizen philosophy

Companies are not just letting go of their youngest workers. They are making them CEO

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The business fabric in the US is experiencing one of its most turbulent periods. Not only because of the coming to power of Donald Trump and his upstart tariff policiesbut because of the challenge in management and governance models that poses to AI. OK to what was published by The Wall Street Journalthe US is experiencing a generational change at the head of the main listed companies. In 2025 alone, one in nine CEOs at the 1,500 largest companies in the S&P 1500 will be replaced, the highest rate since records began in 2010. The demands of AI they are retiring the CEOs more experienced. Relay record at the top. According to data revealed by a study from the consulting firm Spencer Stuart, 168 people debuted as CEO in large listed companies. In more than 80% of these appointments, the new managers lacked previous experience leading companies of that category, although 60% of those appointments were promotions. Furthermore, two-thirds of these incorporations had also not served on boards of directors before. That is to say, its greatest value It was not his experience, but his youth. The trend continues strongly during the first two months of 2026. Top-tier companies such as Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Lululemon, Disney, PayPal and HP have made changes in his highest executive position. This pace marks a great experiment in leadership by large companies in the face of unstable markets, where the pressure to obtain immediate results accelerates the departures of veterans. Younger and younger leaders. The average age of new CEOs dropped to 54 years in 2025, which is almost two years less than the record in 2024, thus confirming that this is a trend that has been occurring for some years. Although only 3% of managers in large companies are under 40 years old, 64% are between 50 and 59 years old, and only 12% are over 60 years old. Some examples are found in recent replacements like disneyin which Josh D’Amaro, 55, took the replacement of Bob Iger 75 years old. This replacement reflects a commitment to fresh talent, but with a deep knowledge of the companies they are going to lead, but without experience in decision-making. The life cycle of a CEO. Spencer Stuart analysts found that CEOs of large companies have “a useful lifespan” at the helm. During the first year in office, the new CEO begins the “honeymoon effect” and his companies outperform the S&P 500 by 10% on average. However, in the second year of office, 73% experience a drop in returns of an average of 21%. Between the third and fifth years at the helm, a reinvention of leadership occurs, which precedes a stagnation between the sixth and ninth years. Beginning in the tenth year, stable leadership is established. The majority cannot taste that stability since, after the third year, 25% have already left the position. 50% do not reach the sixth year as CEO. The average duration of active CEOs is 7.1 years, and 86% of departures are voluntary and agreed upon with the board of directors. Only 9% of CEO changes in the S&P 500 group of companies have been forced removals. It should be noted that only 16% of new appointments to senior management positions they have been womenwhich represents a bittersweet historical record. In Xataka | The average salary of Ibex 35 managers has grown by 172% in two decades: the purchasing power of its employees, not so much Image | Unsplash (Bruce Mars)

“We will not flood our ecosystem with soulless AI garbage.” We already know what Asha Sharma wants to do as CEO of Microsoft Gaming

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Friday night has been busy in the gaming world with a movement that, more than a change of cards, represents a paradigm shift in Microsoft’s video game division: the end of the Spencer era and the resignation of Sarah Bond as president of Xbox. Phil Spencer has left the company after almost 40 years, 12 of which he has been leading the gaming area. The new CEO of Microsoft Gaming is Asha Sharma. Who is Asha Sharma. The 36-year-old Indian-American’s CV includes Instacart, where she was director of operations for three years, until she left the firm for Microsoft in 2024. She previously served as vice president of product and engineering at Meta, leading, among other things, the company’s messaging apps. And more than a decade ago he worked in the marketing area of ​​Microsoft. Another leadership profile. Spencer’s leadership was almost evangelical: his era was characterized by rebuilding the brand after the discreet launch of the Xbox One in 2013expansion through acquisitions such as that of Activision Blizzard for 69,000 million dollars and its total commitment to Game Pass. However, Xbox has still not won the console war and its studios have been chaining cancellations and closures in recent times. Sharma’s career is meteoric, but she lacks a track record within the video game industry: she is neither a designer nor a dev, she is an operations and technology executive who comes from leading enterprise AI teams at Microsoft. The new Sharma aims more at operational efficiency, AI and platform ubiquity. Asha Sharma’s roadmap with Xbox. Sharma has already published its first statement where it establishes three axes: Great video games. His message is reassuring for fans: there will be iconic franchises, a commitment to creativity and innovation, and complete trust in Matt Booty. The return of Xbox. You want to put the console back in. center, something that with Spencer had been blurred. Of course, without giving up PC, mobile phones and cloud gaming. The future of gaming and AI. Sharma promises not to flood his ecosystem with artless garbage: “Games are and always will be art, created by humans and with the most innovative technology we offer.” Surprising from someone who comes precisely from there. In summary it would be: AI yes, but with a head. Unknowns and challenges. Its first message is promising but vague and leaves many key questions in an area where finding balance is complicated. If Microsoft, which is the largest player in the sector by capitalization, puts someone without gaming DNA on the front line, it sends a signal of where the business is going that points to platforms, subscriptions, generative AI, platforms… the question is whether that is compatible with making great games. On the other hand, Sharma mentions that games are “art made by humans” but also that AI will “evolve and influence.” We will have to see what the conciliation is like. In addition, neither she nor Booty have clarified What will happen to the studies that Microsoft has closed. Finally, the Xbox Everywhere model invites you to play on any device and makes more sense than ever, so there is no doubt to wonder about the future of consoles as devices. In Xataka | Video games have grown a lot this year. But the money goes to China, Roblox and the owners of mobile platforms In Xataka | Windows was the kingdom of gaming for decades: Microsoft knows that something has gone wrong, and promises these changes Cover | Microsoft

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