companies

We thought that oil was a thing of the past. But the oil companies that have remained faithful to raw live their golden age

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While the rise of renewables continues full -potato wind, as can be seen in projects such as GLOBAL RENEWABLE Watchthe big refineries are starring an unexpected return to the center of the energy stage. The commitment to hydrocarbons. Unlike other companies in the sector, French TotalEnergies did not turn completely in an energy conversion. Yes, he invested in renewables. Yes, he developed liquefied natural gas projects. But he never abandoned his base: oil and gas. According to Reutersthe company has increased its UPSTREAM production (crude and gas extraction) compared to the first quarter of 2024. Although oil prices are below the level of a year ago, gas sales have improved, and fuel production is returns to be profitable. Refinement in recovery. The situation is dragging the effects of a profitability drop that has affected the entire industry. According to the company, the profit margins in the oil refining in Europe have increased in the last six months, but there are still 59% below the levels of a year ago. All this is due to multiple reasons, such as a weak demand, the growth of New refineries in Asia and Africa, OPEC+ overproduction and Trump’s tariff war. Even so, as the news agency has detailed, Totalenergies has increased fuel production, partially benefiting from that slight recovery on the margins. The strategy. According to Ahmed Ben Salem, an analyst at Oddo BHF, among the greats of the sector, Totalenergies is “the most resilient in a weaker macro environment, backed by diversification towards liquefied natural gas and renewable energy.” And it is not the only one that has found a new balance between transition and profitability. While Timenergies clings to a hybrid strategy, its Anglo -Saxon rivals are also adjusting the course. BP, for example, has trimmed His green ambitions to focus again on hydrocarbons. Exxonmobil He has opted strong for carbon capture. Together, all of them seem to be converging in the same idea: crude has not yet said his last word. The paradox of the transition. In the decisive decade for climate action, refining recovery sounds almost to Anatema. Can the energy sector continue to win time with fossil fuels without losing the decarbonization train? This dynamic does not occur in a vacuum. As I know He explained The tariff war and the firmness of the OPEC+ to continue producing the barrels has caused a drop in oil prices, with the Brent and the WTI stabilized around 60 dollars a barrel. This scenario impacts directly on the refineries, which try to balance fossil profitability with the growing stark pressure. Image | Pexels Xataka | The US plan to reduce oil is about to derail what worked best in its economy

34% of the employees are overcaified while companies do not find “talent”

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In Spain, labor overcurrent has become a persistent phenomenon that affects a good part of the active population. According to Eurostat data35% of Spanish workers with university degree He is working In a position that does not require such high qualification, so it is considered underemployed because the labor market is not taking advantage of their knowledge. On the other hand, most companies Does not find qualified talent what are you looking for. Some and others so little. Undume employee record. Every year, thousands of workers with university degrees or higher training are forced to accept jobs that do not require your level of studies. At least that’s what emerges from The latest published data By Eurostat. According to this data, 34% of workers in Spain occupy a position lower than their educational level, which represents the highest overcover rate of the European Union. This figure is 13.7 percentage points above the EU average, which is at 20.7%. Behind Spain are Greece (32.3%) and Austria (26.8%), while countries such as Luxembourg (4.3%), Czech Republic (10.6%) and Croatia (12.3%) register the lowest levels of overcover in the EU. The Spanish employees They have been supporting this phenomenon for more than a decade that, despite having reduced slightly in recent years, continues without finding a solution to reduce the gap in the talent imbus that exists between the formation of the candidates and what companies demand. Women are the most affected. As explained from the EU, the phenomenon of overcover affects both men and women, but in 21 of the 27 countries of the EU, the percentage of overcree women is greater than that of men. Although the gender difference is minimal in Spain: 35.8% of women and 34% of men are overwhelmed. This trend has been stable for more than a decade and does not respond to causes of gender discrimination, but to a generalized inefficiency of the Spanish labor market and Difficulty for family reconciliationwhich forces women to accept jobs for those who are overwhelified, but that allow them to adjust schedules for take care of your children. Difficulty finding qualified talent. At the same time, the last study ‘2025 talent imbus‘ Prepared by the ManpowerGroup employment platform, it reveals that three out of four companies have trouble finding the profiles it needs. On average, 75% of companies do not find qualified personnel for certain profiles, and in some sectors the figure rises to 84%. This situation generates a paradox in the labor market: there is an excess of professionals trained for positions that do not exist and, at the same time, there is a huge scarcity of workers for the competences that companies really demand. The result is an unbalanced labor market, where the supply of employees and the demand for talent do not coincide. The mismatch between training and business demand. The root of this problem is in the mismatch between the training chosen by the students of university careers and the needs of the productive fabric. According to him Sixth Report of the Labor Market Observatory of 2023, prepared by BBVA Research and Fedea, more than 54% of graduates in university careers related to Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences They end up being overcree employees in jobs that have nothing to do with their training. Touch the image to access the original message A very visual example was provided by analyst Jon González (@jongonzlz), from Your X profilein which it showed a graph of the university careers that less underemployment (jobs that require less qualification) record. Placing health care races, engineering, computer science and sciences among which the least labor mismatch. On the other hand, the data corroborates that the branches of humanities register the largest number of overcreeing graduates for the employment it develops. In Xataka | The public sector as a refuge for employees undervalued by private companies: 45% of opponents already have a job In Xataka | The Z generation sharpens the talent retention problem in companies: they do not marry anyone Image | Unspash (Brooke Cagle)

LaLiga IP blocks are bleeding many companies

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Indiscriminate blockages of IPS ordered by LaLiga They are wreaking havoc on the Internet. It is no longer just that Millions of users They cannot access thousands of websites: there is companies that are losing income for advertising or for sales. From Xataka we have contacted some of those companies to learn first -hand what is the impact they are Noting in your business. These days it has been launched A list of affected in which some companies try to estimate economic losses, although as we will see in the following testimonies, measuring this impact is really complicated. Of 70,000 euros of monthly income to 40,000 There are some more clear cases in that regard. It is for example what happens with Onlytenis.coma sporting store that operates in various countries but that for example in Spain specializes in tennis and paddle items. María José ValueCommerce Manager in the company, explained how for a long time they make use of a cloudflare payment plan, but not even that serves the blockades: “On weekends it is crazy”, because they clearly notice how both the activity in their store and sales. In fact he explains, they have compared the income of the months without IPS blockades and the recent months, which have. “Before we entered 70,000 euros a month, this month They have become 40,000 or 50,000 euros“ However, he explained, for the company “it is very difficult to demonstrate” and relate that decrease in income to LaLiga IPS blockages. For her there is no other explanation than these technical blockages, and he knows that at some point in the payment process there is a problem. “At first it affected more,” he says, “and now it seems that less, but if a client arrives and the web carries it but cannot do Checkout, he goes to another platform.” The problems also extend to online advertising that they also have: for months they never had a problem, but the blockages and football are causing that part to be affected, although It is very difficult to evaluate the impact. The search engine they use in your store stops working totally or partially, she tells us, and the cycle is always the same with these problems. “They last all weekend, and on Monday the orders begin to activate.” For onlyten the impact is being direct and very negative, because as it explains value, “we had a growth trend of 20% and now everything has stagnated, this does not go 100%.” It shows other desperate with the situation, because it does not have solutions or resources to go to: “We cannot deactivate cloudflare, the remedy is worse than the disease“ That’s: the services of this CDNS provider avoid for example denial attacks, and disable these services can end up being a significant cybersecurity problem. Getting rid of cloudflare is not the solution José Ángel Martínez He is the founder of Ninjalabs —What gives WordPress support services or SEO audits – and administrator of Generationxboxand has seen impact on both businesses. In the first case, he tells us, those affected are the clients they manage and who make use of Cloudflare. With the second, your community for Xbox users, it does estimate that the losses are about 800 euros per weekend due to blockages. As was the case with Onlytenis, in the case of online stores those customers see how every time there is their websites are blocked at some point. “Our agency manages some online stores and When the blockages are produced, they cut the payment catwalk“He explains. It is a serious problem, because as it explains, in those shops sales are made but they are not registered: When the client goes to pay, normally the payment platforms for security lead you to their platform, for example Redsys. With these blockages the customer arrives, pays and believes that the purchase has made, but this is not registered in the store because the catwalk that has to return to the online trade does not inject the transaction data. In fact, he explains, that causes the client to believe that everything has gone well, but that trade does not know anything. “There are customers who are claiming requests from March”, and that is when online stores have to investigate and compare data to know who made what requests not registered and be able to complete the process normally, which is especially cumbersome and delicate. The solution in some of the services they manage is to directly remove cloudflare. “With some we tried the payment plan but even with that they are saved from the blockages,” so they ended up taking it away. By removing cloudflare the exhibition as we said is greater, but from Ninjalabs they mitigate problems with various rules. Even so, these clients notice other problems: their servers then consume many more resources, because they have to request bots that arrive from everywhere and that would normally be stopped by the Cloudflare service. Suddenly infrastructure needs rise, and on top of the attempts to manage bots can end up blocking legitimate traffic. A true nightmare, Martínez explains. “It is more a matter of image and helplessness” Htcmanía It is a well -known mobile users forum that has also been affected by these indiscriminate IPS blockages. Its creator and owner confirmed it, Jorge Burruecowhich told us that “both the payment service and the free cloudflare has given us problems” because “they have ended up blocking all the IPS” that uses its platform. Even so, he explains, the blockages are irregular. “It does not always happen in all the big games. I do not know if it is random or forget, but for example on Saturday there were no blockages on my page. Yes on Sunday,” he explains. Burrueco adds that his exposure is relative, but sensitive: “As you know, it only affects Movistar, Digi fiber connections, and some more operator. Taking into account that the percentage of users who enter HTCMania must be around 65%, that remaining … Read more

No one is safe from tariffs. Not even one of the most powerful and necessary companies for the US: ASML

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ASML occupies a privileged position. This company of the Netherlands is the only company on the planet capable of producing equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) that are necessary to manufacture avant -garde chips. In fact, these are the machines that use TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology to create Your most advanced integrated circuits. It is currently not exaggerated to affirm that a very important part of the semiconductor industry is supported About Asml’s shoulders. And, despite its indisputable relevance, it is not immune to tariffs. Or, at least, to the uncertainty that has triggered the government’s tariff strategy led by Donald Trump. In fact, According to Reutersthe investors of this Dutch company are very concerned about the impact that US taxes will have on the company’s economic performance. The next tariffs on chips have plunged Asml in uncertainty The US administration has excluded manufacturers of lithography equipment from the base tariff of 10% announced just a few days ago. However, ASML, Tokyo Electron, Canon and other companies that produce these machines have reason to be expectant. And worried. A little over 24 hours ago Donald Trump confirmed that during the next few days will announce the tariff rate with which it will finally tax the imported integrated circuits. He also anticipated that some companies in the semiconductor industry will have some flexibility, although he did not specify either what will be those organizations or to what extent they can continue to import integrated circuits avoiding tariffs. The problem is that with these statements has plunged the entire semiconductor industry in uncertainty. This is the problem facing ASML and the other machine manufacturers to produce integrated circuits. If the US government finally decides to impose tariffs on the importation of lithography equipment manufactured abroad, the semiconductor sector will suffer If the US government finally decides to impose tariffs on the importation of lithography equipment manufactured abroad, the semiconductor sector will suffer. ASML is in a more comfortable position than other chips processing equipment manufacturers because, as I mentioned in the first lines of this article, it is the only company that produces UVE lithography machines. And not having competition in this segment helps. In addition, Intel and TSMC are equipping, or, at least, they plan to do it in the short or medium term, Its new plants of manufacture of semiconductors in the US. And it is impossible to start them Without ASML machines. However, the panorama is gloomy even if the US administration decided to exclude tariffs definitively to the manufacturers of lithography equipment, which is something that can happen. If this last scenario was given, but the US government decides to impose tariffs on imported chips, which right now seems most likely, the business of some of the best ASML customers, such as TSMC, Samsung or SK Hynix, presumably will resent to a greater or lesser extent. And, consequently, it is reasonable to assume that ASML’s economic performance will degrade. This is what worries your investors. TSMC and Samsung They already have factories in the USand SK Hynix is ​​building a plant in West Lafayette (Indiana), but in the short term they will hardly be able to meet the needs of the US market Only with your US plants. We will see what happens finally, but whatever happens is evident that uncertainty is already hurting even an industry as robust as that of integrated circuits. Image | ASML More information | Reuters In Xataka | Nvidia will continue to sell its H20 GPU in China. It has cost a dinner of 1 million dollars per diner

200 companies will adopt it definitively

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The current working day was implemented more than 100 years ago. However, neither the current works are the same as a century ago, nor are the tools. Therefore, governments are looking for new workday models that adapt better to The current needs of companies and employees. While large companies in the United States insist on the return to the office urging their employees to make longer working hours, in the United Kingdom more and more companies are betting on a different alternative: the four -day work week. The United Kingdom wants to work less days. In 2025, more than 200 British companies have decided to implement the four -day work week. These companies use more than 5,000 people and cover a wide range of sectors, from marketing and technology to consulting, charity and industrial sector. 59 of them are based in London, which reflects the commitment of the City’s companies with the well -being of their templates. The working day model for this project will be 32 hours a week without wage loss or other benefits for employees, in an eight -hour and four working scheme. According to declared to The Guardian Joe Ryle, campaign director 4 Day Week Foundation That audits the change of day in these companies, “the four -day work week offers people the freedom to live happier and more full lives.” As hundreds of British companies and a town hall have already demonstrated, a four -day work week without loss of salary can be beneficial for both workers and employers. “ Four -day working week 2.0. This is the second project of these characteristics that is carried out in the United Kingdom. In 2022, the British government brought together 70 companies to carry out one of the longest pilot tests, since the companies that participated in that call still provide data to the project. Not all the companies participating in the first test of the United Kingdom continued with the day four days after the end of the pilot program. However, the success of calling this second initiative reveals the growing interest of companies to find new Ways to reconcile family life and work of its employees. Improvement supported by data. One of the main advantages of the new four -day work week projects is that they are no longer “blind” as in the first experiments that were done throughout the world. The evidence of the United Kingdom, Germany, ValenciaIceland, Portugaleither South AfricaThey serve as a basis on which to build a more solid strategy for these 200 companies. In the results collected by the different projects, most participating companies registered Productivity increases and a significant reduction in the rotation of the personnel, as well as a greater commitment of the template and improvements in its physical and mental well -being. In addition, thanks to the free time that employees, trade and local leisure win is dynamic, which generates benefits for the entire community, not only for the companies that apply it. Success is not guaranteed. Before reaching these benefits, companies had to undergo an optimization period for change your way of working and even adopt new tools to adapt processes that occupied a good part of the day. In this optimization is the key to the success of this type of initiatives, since it is possible to improve productivity using Less working time. However, not all companies get Adapt your work system to the new day. In each event of the four -day week there have been companies that They have not continued with that model of day and have returned to the five -day day format, although with some kind of improvement in the form ofshorter days. Others, however, They will never return a week of five days. Of working more when working less. The Data point that workers can only remain productive for a certain time during their day, so apply a weekly day of 60 or 80 hours as they are asking Some US technology It is counterproductive and does not improve productivity. The European approach, and especially that of the United Kingdomis walking towards a Flexible workday and shorter through the optimization of productive processes, not to exhaust employees with marathon working days. In Xataka | Three Spanish companies tell us how it has gone after implementing a job utopia: the four -day week In Xataka | Spain has a problem to massively implement the 37.5 hours day and that problem is tourism Image | Unspash (Jason Goodman, William Warby)

The US tariffs are already hurting two of the companies that support Taiwan’s economy: TSMC and Foxconn

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Tariffs officialized by the US government on April 3 They are wreaking havoc on the entire planet. These taxes penalize Vietnam with a 46%surcharge; to Cambodia, with 49%; to China, with 34% that adds to the tariffs that the US administration had already previously approved to make a total of 54%; either Taiwan with 32%among many other countries with which the nation led by Donald Trump maintains commercial relations. The relationship that the US and Taiwan maintains is singular. From a geostrategic point of view they go hand in hand with the purpose of defend their interests against China. However, the current US administration is determined to take the necessary measures to re -lead the semiconductor manufacturing industry as it did until the mid -80s and Taiwan is an obstacle. A very big one. After all, TSMC, The largest integrated circuit manufacturer on the planetIt is a Taiwanese company. Taiwan’s bag is already collapsing Donald Trump’s plan and his collaborators require that the US acquires the ability to manufacture all the avant -garde chips that currently come from Taiwan, or, to a lesser extent, from South Korea. And is that a good part of the GPUs for artificial intelligence (AI) that design Nvidia, AMD, brains or Amazon, among other American companies, leave the latest generation plants that TSMC has in their country of origin. The announcement of the new tariffs is already seriously damaging some of the companies that support Taiwan’s economy, such as TSMC or Foxconn If we stick to Taiwan the US tariffs seek to encourage the transfer of TSMC, UMC production plants and other Taiwanese companies to the US to, thus, avoid tariffs. In fact, TSMC is getting ready Several avant -garde plants in Arizona (USA), and one of them is about to start large -scale advanced chips production. In any case, the announcement of the new tariffs is already seriously damaging some of the companies that support Taiwan’s economy, such as TSMC or Foxconn. Just 24 hours ago the Taiwan bag almost 10% collapsed in which it is already its most pronounced fall in one day. The coup de grace was given the officialization last Thursday by the US government of the imposition of the 32% tariffs that I have mentioned a few lines above. According to Reutersthe announcement of the US administration has caused many investors to sell their shares of large technology companies. And, apparently, TSMC and Foxconn are two of the most affected. In addition, it is not any two companies. Not much less. Chips are fundamental for the support of Taiwan’s economy. And it is evident that TSMC is your crown jewel In this industry. AND Foxconn leads the global industry of the manufacture of consumer electronics devices. In fact, it is a fundamental pillar in Apple’s supply chain, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, HP or Dell, among many other companies. The Taiwan government has responded rapidly creating a fund of 2,650 million dollars that seeks to help the companies most damaged by the new US rules. And President Lai Ching-te has announced that he will strengthen economic ties with the country of Donald Trump with the purpose of finally eliminating tariffs between both nations. We will see what happens finally, but Some specialized analysts In economics they predict that Taiwan will fall into a short -term recession. Image | Foxconn More information | Reuters In Xataka | The USA hits China again with a double purpose: to stop the development of its hypersonic superorders and missiles In Xataka | What’s behind the chips megafabrica that TSMC and Samsung plan to build in Arab Emirates

Mining companies believed to have found a treasure in Ciudad Real. Until the Iberian lynx appeared

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In a video that is has viralized By networks you can see how two lynxes are disputing the territory to headers, a habitual practice between these felines. He Reelrecorded in Ciudad Real, shows how felines are returning to their natural habitat. In a turn of events, these animals have managed to stop attempts to extraction a company: giving them a legal header. The exploitation. The “Neodimio Project” is an initiative of the Quantum mining company that seeks gray monacita in the province of Ciudad Real. From this rare land the neodymium is extracted, used in magnets of electric cars and wind turbines. The mining company has shown interest in exploring areas near Valdepeñas, Santa Cruz de Mudela and Torrenueva, areas to overcome the cat, According to the avant -garde. Maybe there are no lynx … But there are people living in those areas that oppose mining. The “yes to the living land” platform has asked the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, to oppose the Rare Earth’s mining project, According to Cadena Ser. From the organization they have explained that it could have a devastating impact on local biodiversity and endanger the ecological corridors that the lynxs have begun to recover. They do not stop in your search. Quantum’s story with Ciudad Real It has been more than a decade. After the failure of the “Matamulas” project, the company tries to return to the load. But time does not play in its favor: the citizen opposition has grown, water resources are increasingly scarce and the rural economic model (based on wine, oil and tourism) fears are affected. The controversy has also intensified for a complaint of the Seprona, which accuses the company of having done work without permission on a plot of Torrenueva, According to Castilla-La Mancha Media. Legal header The Iberian lynx, in its reintroduction process in the region, has played a decisive role in this conflict. Although rare earth mining is seen as an economic opportunity in the context of the energy transition, efforts to preserve fauna and biodiversity have led to stop these projects. As have explained at the vanguardthe lynx is no longer just a conservation symbol, but an argument of weight in legal reports and protests. Its presence in areas such as the Montiel field has become an obstacle to mining companies that seek to exploit these natural resources. It is not the only place. Although Ciudad Real is emerging as the area with the most potential for rare earths in Spain, it is not the only one. In different areas of the country we can find, as Galicia, Gran Canaria, Almería, Estremaduraamong other places. The fan that has been opened is very wide, but these deposits have in common not only the element, but their extraction seems to be complex. For its part, the European Commission has not included the Quantum project in your list of strategic initiativeswhich means that it does not have the support of Brussels to continue its development. Recovering spaces. The lynx has become a defender of its territory, interfering with projects that threaten their home. The struggle for the future of Ciudad Real is between the protection of biodiversity and the progress of mining, a dispute that reflects the dilemma between the need for natural resources and the conservation of ecosystems. Image | Pexels and Diego Delso Xataka | The rare earth war has arrived in Spain. And it is in Ciudad Real where mining and ecology are confronted

Europe has said that it is a bargain for companies

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From the 2012 labor reform, Spain uses a fixed scale to establish compensation for Improper dismissal. The Council of Europe has re -urged Spain to change this system indicating that it does not comply with the provisions of the European Social Charter Companies are already very cheap to fire their employees for no justified reason. The European agency considers that workers in Spain are not correctly protected against a dismissal without just cause Because when you know in advance the cost of your compensation for dismissal, it loses its deterrent effect. In addition, the regulations do not include that in the calculation of this compensation, the principle of proportionality by the Damage caused to the worker. New Strasbourg Notice. Spain ratified the European Social Charter in 2021 with the objective of harmonizing labor policies throughout the territory of the Union, committing to transpose the indications of the community document to Spanish regulations. However, the resolutions issued by this European agency are not binding, but the commitment signed by Spain. As he advanced The countrythe pronouncement of Strasbourg has occurred by a CCOO union claim in 2022 before the European Social Rights Committee (which adds to the already resolved request of UGT in 2024) on the need to reform the compensation system in Spain. The union claims the Government of Spain to equate its regulations to the European, which made that the agency pronounce again, Giving the reason to the union and urging the Government to modify this system. The Spanish legislation of 2012. The Council of Europe has made it clear that the system of Compensation for improper dismissal of Spain breaches the appropriate justice and reparation parameters. According to current Spanish regulations, which the government of Mariano Rajoy reformed in 2012, workers receive compensation of 33 days of salary per year worked, with a maximum limit of 24 monthly payments, instead of 45 days per year with 42 monthly payments that were before the reform. However, the Council of Europe has been considered an insufficient model due to its zero deterrence for inadmissible layoff calculate the costs of dismissal In advance, especially for those with little seniority in their jobs. Union spokesmen insisted that this resolution “evidences the need to open a stage of dialogue and negotiation in the field of social dialogue to adapt the framework for the protection of workers in the face of dismissal to the demands of the European Social Charter”, collected The plural. Discrepancies by article 24. The main point of friction between the European Social Charter and the current Spanish legislation focuses on section B of article 24 of the European document indicated: “The right of dismissed workers without valid reason to adequate compensation or other appropriate reparation.” In its resolutions, the Council of Europe has made it clear that the compensation system for unfair dismissal of Spain breaches the appropriate justice and reparation parameters, leaving in judicial hands the calculation of a personalized compensation to each specific case. “It is essential In your writing before the Council of Europe. The temporal “patch”: go to court. While the government is expected to adapt the legislation to European recommendations, to workers who face an inadmissible dismissal only the judicial means have to obtain compensation according to the European Social Charter. However, the Supreme Court It has not been very satisfied With that solution to conflict with Spanish regulations, which they already consider “adequate”, although it left Open the possibility of reinterpretations from European standards. The Last data of layoffs collected in the report ‘Disposal statistics and its cost ‘ prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy give the reason to Europe, indicating that the Average compensation for dismissal in Spain in 2023 It was 35% lower than those received in 2021, although the number of layoffs increased by 34%. That is, although inadmissible dismissals have been resolved by judicial means, the courts have not imposed higher compensation as “reparation” as they ask from Europe. In Xataka | Going to the bathroom is not work: a Swiss court allows a company to force its employees to sign when they go to the bathroom In Xataka | Companies have found a way to fire indefinite after labor reform: disciplinary dismissal Image | Unspash (Mika Baumeister)

There are European companies that want to become independent from the clouds of Amazon, Google and Microsoft: they will not have it easy

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Cloud computing services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure have become fundamental tools for governments and companies of all sizes in Europe. Logic is simple: instead of investing in their own servers, they can access powerful technological resources under a payment model for use. It is a scheme that has given good results for years, but in recent times certain inconveniences have emerged. To the costs, which in certain cases are higher than expected, new concerns of geopolitical nature are now added. These concerns began to gain strength with the return of Donald Trump to the White House, and are taking some actors in the old continent to consider a change of course. Europe begins to look beyond the United States A little over a week ago, about a hundred European organizations They signed an open letter Aimed at Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, already Henna Virkkunen, EU digital manager. They claim “Radical actions“To reduce the dependence on foreign digital services. The document urges to bet on local solutions, covered by hardware to cloud platforms. Practically in parallel, the Parliament of the Netherlands approved eight motions that ask the Government to replace the software and hardware of American origin for solutions developed by local companies. The intention is to sign new contracts with Dutch suppliers that offer equivalent services and, in a broader look, reinforce the country’s digital sovereignty through a national cloud based on local technology. In addition, as Wired points out, European suppliers such as Exoscale – a company based in Switzerland – are registering a notable Increase in demand of their services, promoted by customers who seek to move away from the American cloud giants. According to his CEO, Mathias Nöbauer, even in Denmark there are companies that are distanced by tensions between the Trump administration and the Danish government For the matter of Greenland. There are still no signs that European governments and companies are moving in mass to local alternatives is happening right now, although as we have seen, there are several initiatives underway and some actors taking the first steps. An exodus would be bad news for American technological ones, who have adopted several changes in recent times to protect European clients and prevent them from fleeing to other platforms. In this context, some foreign companies have begun to install servers within the European Union with the aim of ensuring that the data is stored in Community territory. At the same time, security systems have been implemented that limit access exclusively to the clients themselves. As we mentioned before, cloud services are the basis of many fundamental components that work without pause. A complicated task from where he looks at her Change the cloud supplier It is not a simple decision. Beyond whether it is an American or European platform, every migration process implies a high workload, possible interruptions in operations and meticulous planning. To this are added specific risks, such as the loss of data or compatibility problems between systems, especially when the architectures are not aligned. Even in ideal scenarios, where everything goes as planned, the process can be more than desired. The necessary time will depend largely on the size and complexity of the organization, as well as the services involved. In companies with critical operations, a provider change requires more than will: strategy, technical resources and sufficient margin to absorb any unplanned impact is needed. Images | Alexandre Lallemand | DC Studio In Xataka | In full tariff war, the EU has found a weapon to press the United States: soybeans

ASML’s “invisible monopoly” is indisputable. Although without the technology of these companies would not have reached the top

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“In 1997, Jos Benschop, the leader of the Investigation Department of ASMLreassess whether extreme ultraviolet technology (UVE) was a viable option. After the first tests he realized that Zeiss was able to develop extraordinarily sophisticated mirrors that would be necessary to transport ultraviolet light. Everything began to change: The puzzle pieces began to fit in their holes and that impossible machine was acquiring little by little. ” These lines come from the chapter entitled “An invisible monopoly” from the very interesting trial book “Focus: The Asml Way” written by Dutch journalist Marc Hijink. We have resorted to them to open this text for a weight reason: they perfectly condense the complexity of the lithography machine that has allowed ASML to lead the industry of the manufacturing equipment of chips alone. And it is that Europe has a voice in the integrated circuit industry thanks to this company of the Netherlands. ASML has no competition since its first UVE photolithography team placed on the market. Japanese Canon and Nikon companies, their natural competitors, also tried to develop this machine, but failed in the attempt. The technical and economic resources that were necessary to make it possible were so numerous that They decided to retire from the struggle with Asml. Free road. Today the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing machines that we can find in the TSMC, Intel, Samsung or SK Hynix plants produce ASML. Currently his reign seems imperturbable. Canon has developed a team of nano -impression lithography that it seeks to compete from you to you with the UVE machines of ASML, but for the moment it is not clear that this technology will be able to rival the most advanced team of the Dutch company: the machine of High Opening Photolithography (UVE). Intel is already testing it, and it is expected that TSMC and Samsung do so for the next few months. Presumably thanks to it they can produce chips of less than 1 nm before this decade expires. ASML does not walk alone UVE photolithography equipment is extraordinarily sophisticated. The GPUs for artificial intelligence more advanced from Nvidia; The most powerful soc that Apple or the CPUs with the highest AMD performance are possible thanks to them. Of course, none of these companies make their own chips. They design them, but they are produced by the Taiwanese company TSMC using ASML UVE lithography machines. However, this European Corporation has not developed solo all innovations that have made its most advanced integrated circuit production equipment possible. One of its most important allies is the American company Cymer. This company founded in 1986 specializes in the manufacture of lasers and deep ultraviolet light sources (UVP) and extreme (UVE). It has a very close relationship with ASML for many years; In fact, the role that Cymer manufactures in lithography machines is so relevant than in 2013 ASML bought this San Diego company with the purpose of investing in it to accelerate the development of the technologies involved in UVE lithography. The ultraviolet light transports the geometric pattern described by the mask to the surface of the Silicio wafer Somehow Cymer gives ASML the raw material that their photolithography machines need. And that raw material is none other than the ultraviolet light that is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with great precision to the surface of the Silicon wafer. Understanding what is the mask is simple: it is nothing other than a physical template that contains the design of the integrated circuit that is necessary to transfer to the Silicon wafer. During this transfer process a fine sheet of a substance sensitive to ultraviolet light is placed on the wafer and exposes the latter. The mask blocks or allows the passage of light in concrete regions of the wafer, thus transferring the chip pattern. Then the development, engraving and deposition processes follow each other whose purpose is, in broad strokes, transfer the different layers of the circuit integrated to the wafer and consolidate the transistors and interconnections that shape the chip. Interestingly, as we have just seen, the photolithography process is very similar to the chemical development of photographs. Of course, it is much more complex and requires working with resolutions that until a few years ago were unimaginable. Precisely thanks to the very high resolution with which it is possible to transfer the geometric pattern that describes the circuit integrated to the wafer today we enjoy Integrated 3 Nm circuits. And for 2025 they will be available The first 2 Nm semiconductors. Since we are involved in flour, it is worth investigating a little more in the characteristics of the light used by UVE lithography equipment. And its most striking property is that it belongs to the most energy portion of the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, its wavelength extends in the range that goes From 10 to 100 nanometers (NM). The problem is that it is not easy to generate and deal with this form of electromagnetic radiation. And it is not, among other reasons, because it is so energetic that it alters the structure of the physical elements with which it interacts inside the lithography machine. In addition, the UVE light must travel from the source to the silicon wafer without interacting with the slightest dust particle, so it is necessary that the entire chips production process be carried out inside a camera designed to provide a very quality vacuum. Anyway, the transport of ultraviolet light from the fountain that produces it to the wafer is only possible thanks to the intervention of the mirrors that the other great ally of ASML designs and manufactures: the German company Zeiss. If the mirrors involved in the propagation of the UVE light are not manufactured with enormous precision the geometric pattern defined by the mask will be altered The role of Zeiss’s optical elements in these lithography equipment is crucial. And it is because they are responsible, … Read more

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