company

smoking and vaping prohibited in company cars and fines of 200 euros

by

16 years later, the Anti-Tobacco Law is updated after years of rumors. It does so with substantial changes such as equating vapes with traditional cigarettes. And also with changes that affect mobility. Because smoking or vaping while driving will be prohibited… in some very specific cases. Forbidden. This is what the Government has agreed that with the update of the Anti-Tobacco Law approved by the Council of Ministersfour big changes have been confirmed: Vapes and cigarettes are equated, so both products will be prohibited in the same spaces. Nicotine pouches are also equalized. Consumption by minors is prohibited (previously only sales to minors were prohibited). The consumption of vapes and cigarettes is prohibited in new spaces or those that did not have homogeneous national regulation, such as terracesplatforms or swimming pools, among others. And the car? Indeed, smoking or vaping in the car will also be prohibited. Although only in those that are used in the professional environment. That is, they will be prohibited in taxis and vehicles with a VTC license but also in company shared cars. The prohibition only affects when they provide a service for the transportation of passengers but will not be effective when the professional vehicle is always driven by the same person. That is, in a taxi or VTC you cannot smoke or vape. Nor in a vehicle for the transport of goods in which workers rotate, but there is no problem if the vehicle is for the exclusive use of a single person. The fine? The fine for incurring any of the aforementioned infractions will be 200 euros. That is, in the case of a violation in the car it would be equivalent to a penalty for a serious offense. Of course, we must keep in mind that we are talking about a sanction that is imposed by the Anti-Tobacco Law in very specific situations. Smoking in the car is not punished, smoking in some specific vehicles is punishable, so we should not have changes in the Traffic Law. This means that we do not expect modifications in this last text that could lead to the deduction of points. Tobacco and the car. The issue of smoking in the car has been a source of controversy for years. Last year 2022, the sanctions were updated for throwing a cigarette butt from the vehicle, raising the punishment to 500 euros. However, nothing expressly specifies that smoking while driving is prohibited. For years there have been rumors of the possibility of completely prohibiting this activity or limiting it when there are minors inside. However, fines have been limited to those that can be imposed for not paying attention to the wheel or not being able to control the car at all times. Both assumptions are included in the articles 10.2 and 13.2 of the Traffic Law. These are used as a basis for imposing light penalties of 80 euros. This can be applied to all types of cases due to the diffuse definition of the text. From drinking water or eating until operate the radio while we are underway. Photo | 岁月如歌 In Xataka | All DGT fines for consuming alcohol or drugs: a punishment of up to 1,000 euros and jail

A company from Valencia manufactures Mercadona mochis. They have grown to 165 million euros

by

Who is the company behind Mercadona’s addictive dochis? From battle ice cream to vegan mochis and plants in Cheste, if you have heard of Estiu you will have heard of a success story to be very proud of. Helados Estiu went from being the typical discreet cheap ice cream factory to a central player in the most powerful supermarket in Spain. “Estiu” is summer and in the summer was when they moved, one from 1997, to the highway Manises-Ribarroja km 11.1. From there they sell dozens of liters of ice cream every year and now they are destroying that Trojan horse that is “dochis”, their own version of mochis with crushed cookies. Yes, I have two boxes in the freezer. The white label has known how to bet on the Japanese dessert and has been eaten, in industrial volumeto other legendary companies in the sector such as Frigo or La Lechera. Manufacturing for the leader. Helados Estiu was born in 1983 with a clear idea of ​​producing battle ice creams, a summer campaign and always low prices. During the first decades it worked with various partners, national and European, without completely taking off. It is in 2013 when the large injection of capital begins to expand lines and improve structures: warehouses are expanded, water efficiency is improved, formats are diversified and logistics automation is implemented with Pallet Shuttle. Not for nothing was the ‘mini chocolate cookie’ a hit that ate Maxibon’s toast. But the turning point came in 2002, when they closed their supply agreement with Mercadona and entered the circuit of “screw supplier” by Hacendado. From that turning point today come things as different as chocolates, sandwiches, frozen cakes and the coconut and mango mochis that serve as a bridge between Japan and the supermarket aisle. Can a single manufacturer really shape what a country eats? It seems so. And they are addictive. Or that’s how their numbers explain it. In 2019 it had a turnover of around 61 million euros and sold 27.7 million liters of ice cream. In 2023 it was already at 138 million euros (+30% over 2022), 44 million liters and a average staff of 473 people51% more than the previous year. In 2024 it will reach around 150 million in turnover, 45 million liters and 8.8 million in profit. In 2025 it will reach 165 million, with more than 46 million liters sold and exceeding the 9 million in net profits. The white label, the cat in the water. In the Spanish ice cream market, white label rules. In 2024, Kantar estimated the value share of private labels in ice cream at 68.5%, compared to names that previously seemed untouchable such as Frigo, La Lechera or Häagen-Dazs. In mass consumption, private label has gone from representing 20% ​​of the value in 2003 to touch 44% in 2024and experts see room for it to approach 70% in many categories. And Mercadona is the epicenter of this shift, with a food distribution share that represents a third of the Spanish market, and with those Hacendado ice creams with a wide and very high rotation of styles and flavors. And its price has cost it: the plant in Cheste cost more than 31 million euros, with specific lines for mochis and vegan ice creams, and another 26 million investment is expected in three years. In exchange, of the 65 types of ice cream that Mercadona sells in Madrid, 22 are manufactured by this Valencian company. 34% of the ice cream catalog of the giant Juan Roig. Mochi is the passport. It is true that for the average consumer, Estiu does not exist. What you see is a black cream-flavored chocolate, the mini-sandwich (so you don’t feel so guilty consuming twice as many calories as the standard format) or the coconut mochi at 2.90 euros for a box of six. Estiu entered this format eleven years ago, replicating the Japanese sweet with rice dough and filled with coconut, mango or pistachio ice cream under the Hacendado brand. The invention worked so well that they ended up exporting it: Wao Mochi is the own brand that, in 2019, began selling in Holland, Ireland, Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Germany and Armenia. At first it was almost an experiment, a small fraction of the business. Vawaii, its vegan ice cream brand, occupies the plant-based niche and today more than 26,000 boxes of frozen mochis are sold daily in its three main flavors, and with that surprise called Dochi Cheesecake. Although the favorite of many is still the banoffee: banana, the crunchy cookie and the dulce de leche filling. The best of the flash remains. Growing by selling cheap, this has been its key. None of this would make sense without a very aggressive pricing policy. All their ice creams are systematically below the benchmarks of famous manufacturers, between 2 and 4 euros for complete boxes of 6 products. A frozen hook, a treat for the after-dinner meal that has built a small empire and aims to continue growing. Ironically, mochis travel from hot Spain to Finland. Images | Summer Ice CreamFlickr (Nina Ding) In Xataka | Fernando Sáenz, one of the best ice cream makers in the world, puts the dots over the i’s: “Mercadona has changed the palate of the Spanish people” In Xataka | Italy has taken the “gourmetization” of ice cream to the extreme with a €95 cone. Now the country debates whether that is “idiots”

Apple ousts Nvidia and becomes the most valuable company in the world for a few hours. The secret is in the spending of AI

by

Two years ago the surprise came and Nvidia overtook Apple becoming the most valuable company in the world for the first time. Since then the title has changed hands on several occasions, although Nvidia has retained it practically uninterrupted since mid-2025: good times are going on for Jensen Huang’s team, with stratospheric benefits thanks to the AI ​​race in which he is one of the great beneficiaries. But last night, in just a few hours, a company that is not going through its best moment: sue OpenAI for theft of trade secrets, immersed in full transition of its CEOwith a talent drain and lagging behind in AIonce again emerged as the most valuable company on the planet despite all of the above. Surpass from Apple to Nvidia. Although fleeting, this reorganization of the ranking of the technological giants constitutes a warning to sailors about the expectations placed on AI. what has happened. During the Friday session and how AOL collectsApple was valued at $4.88 billion, above Nvidia’s $4.86 billion, which fell 3.5%. It was a hit and miss: at closing, Nvidia’s capitalization reached 4.92 billion, thus barely surpassing Apple’s 4.89 billion. Fleeting but significant: Apple returned to the throne for the first time since April 2025. Why is it important. Beyond the stock market anecdote, this turmoil reflects a change in the narrative about who truly benefits from the AI ​​boom. One of the large and immediate direct beneficiaries is Nvidia and its leadership reflects this. Toni Meadows, Chief Investment Officer at BRI Wealth Management, declares for Reuters that Apple is less dependent on capital spending intensity and is better positioned to monetize AI through services, the closed ecosystem and hardware upgrades. Nvidia rises with certain fluctuations because it is directly exposed, but Apple is better positioned to reap its rewards with less risk. Context. Nvidia has just broken historical records: in October it became the first company in the world to exceed a valuation of $5 trillion: it looked down on the rest of the magnificent seven. The reason? Chips for AI. Apple, on the other hand, has earned the label of lagging behind: it does not invest in its own models and is laying all its eggs in Google basket. However, in 2026 there is an increase of 20% so far this year. In detail. The catalyst for this movement has been Siri: last month Apple got its act together and renewed its assistant with the new Siri AI. It arrived late to the party, but it starts from a privileged position compared to some rivals and new startups: the personal data that each iPhone and the ecosystem houses. Of course, you have to discover how to take advantage of that information without compromising the privacy of users. The future. What happens from now on will depend on whether Apple manages to turn the promise of monetization into tangible results. Or what is the same: if the new and late Siri manages to stand up to Gemini in the Android ecosystem or compete in features with ChatGPT. For Nvidia, the future involves demonstrating that the colossal spending on AI infrastructure by its clients (hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Google or Amazon) continues to translate into large orders for chips, and that the bubble of an investment that, for the moment, does not offer a sufficient return does not burst. The next quarterly results will be the best thermometer to verify if this rotation of investors towards those who monetize AI with less risk is consolidated. In Xataka | Apple sues OpenAI for stealing trade secrets: “Lol, I have access”, the message of the engineer who uncovered the scandal In Xataka | The European Commission, on Siri AI: “The decision not to launch it in Europe is Apple’s and Apple’s alone” Cover | Applesphere

It’s one of the best sci-fi movies of the 90s, great company for the heat, and it’s on Prime Video

by

In 1994 no studio wanted to finance a film about an alien portal with two actors without much success at the box office. Almost 32 years later it is a franchise that includes a series with hundreds of episodes (which, by the way, has already been confirmed not to return, reinforcing the cult status of the film and original series), and a perfect plan for hot summer nights. We talk, of course, about ‘Stargate. Gate to the stars‘, which you can recover in Prime Video. According to producer Dean Devlin, all the Hollywood studios rejected the proposal, claiming that science fiction was no longer of interest to the public. Finally, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer agreed to distribute it to fill a gap in its release schedule, and the small but ambitious production company Carolco Pictures financed the filming, which would end up costing $55 million. In it we will see how an Egyptologist (James Spader) deciphers the hieroglyphs engraved on a ring found in Egypt in 1928 and discovers that it is a portal capable of opening a wormhole to another planet and will begin a journey joined by an army colonel (Kurt Russell). An interesting proposal that, despite the initial cold critical reception, has ended up gaining cult status for its eminently blockbuster (Roland Emmerich would go on to ‘Independence Day’, so he was becoming an expert in the blockbuster genre.) ‘Stargate’ grossed $16.6 million in its premiere, the best opening for the month of October until then, and ended up accumulating $196.5 million worldwide. The commercial success, however, was not enough to ensure a film sequel. Carolco went bankrupt in 1995 because of ‘The Island of Severed Heads’, and the rights ended up in the hands of MGM, which opted to develop a television series, Stargate SG-1, which would last ten seasons and would later give rise to ‘Stargate Atlantis’ and ‘Stargate Universe’. An epic of decades that we can now recover by claiming its taste for adventure in its purest form. In Xataka | One of the best horror and action films of recent years comes to Netflix. Four Oscars certify it

Microsoft set a climate goal for 2030. Becoming an AI company has blown up the plan

by

Microsoft is one of the companies that, a few years ago, set out to be less polluting. There were two goals, the first being to become a company.”carbon negative” by 2030. They began to investigate to create more sustainable buildings and to make better use of water and heat from the Azure hubs to pollute less, but then came the final boss of climate goals. Artificial intelligence. The figures. In it last environmental report, the American company indicates that its total emissions went from about 16 million tons of CO2 to about 20 million net tons in the last fiscal year. As we see in The Vergethat implies that, during 2025, they were 25% more than in the previous period. That “net” thing is explained because they really emitted 34 million, but then you have to subtract the carbon that they paid to remove from the atmosphere, which gives us those 20 million tons. As we see in GeekWirethat places Microsoft emitting as much CO2 as Panama or Lithuania. According to Melanie Nakagawa, director of sustainability at the company, Microsoft continues to focus on the 2030 goal. And what has caused this situation is the push for data centers and artificial intelligence. Scope 3. The report itself points out that the main cause of the increase is investments in new data centers for AI and cloud computing, including integrated OpenAI systems in Microsoft products. And where this carbon footprint accumulates the most is in what they qualify as Scope 3, which encompasses the construction materials of data centers (steel and cement, which we already know are highly polluting), as well as the purchased goods and services, which skyrocket with the massive deployment of AI infrastructure. That Scope 3 concentrates around 96% of Microsoft’s entire footprint, far above the direct emissions from its operations. Electricity. But it is not only due to the construction of the buildings, since these facilities must be maintained. Emissions linked to electricity have increased almost ten times between 2024 and 2025 and, although they pride themselves on reducing direct emissions, they recognize that electricity demand has skyrocketed and it is difficult to cover everything with renewable energy alone. There are already independent analyzes that highlight that Microsoft’s electricity consumption went from 23.6 TWh to 29.8 TWh, 26%, in 2024, and we have to wait to see the independent figures for 2025. If with emissions we have that they are higher than those of Panama, with consumption Microsoft ‘swallows’ the same as Ireland. and it is expected that AI consumption will skyrocket by 2030. braking. Due to this boom and fever for artificial intelligence, Microsoft is deviating from the goal set in 2020, exemplifying the tension between being an AI company and being a company with environmental objectives. But let’s not think that it is the only one because the carbon footprint of amazon increased by 16% last year and that of Google 18%. They remain committed, of course, but right now we are talking about non-terrestrial computing, space but. And for that, many rockets have to be sent into space, with their corresponding emissions. Although the end is good, according to Jeff Bezos: sending all pollution away from Earth to return to the state prior to the Industrial Revolution. Something is something. In Xataka | There is a thing called “Ornn price index”, it is out of control and it is bad news for everyone

There are people covering the LED on Meta’s glasses to record secretly. The company has just made a drastic decision

by

Today it is relatively easy to know when someone is recording us with a cell phone: we see it raised, pointing towards us, becoming an almost universal signal. The same does not happen with smart glasses. They may look like normal glasses, be on the face of someone looking in our direction, and go unnoticed for those who don’t know what to look for. In this scenario, the small white light that turns on when capturing photos or videos is not a minor detail: it is the visible clue that allows us to understand that those glasses are recording. The problem begins when that clue disappears. That’s just what Meta is trying to prevent now. The company claims that its AI glasses, a category that already goes beyond the Ray-Ban Meta, will disable the camera if they detect that the capture LED has been physically tampered with or destroyed, not just if it is covered. Until now, Meta said that, since its second generation of glasses, the system already blocked photos and videos when it detected that that light was covered. The novelty is that the protection is extended to more aggressive attempts to override the visible warning. It is not an absolute guarantee against all misuse, but it is a direct response to a specific crack in the product. The problem with glasses was not just blocking the light Meta calls that signal “capture LED”: a white light on the front of each pair of glasses that flashes when content is being captured for the gallery. According to the company, in the case of a photo the notice appears for a moment, while on video remains throughout the recording. On paper, its function is simple: let people around you know that someone is taking an image or recording a scene. In practice, that small light carries an enormous responsibility: making visible a camera that, by design, can be confused with conventional glasses. The leap is that it wasn’t all about putting a piece of tape over the light. Meta acknowledges that it has seen attempts that went further: efforts to physically modify or destroy the capture LED. Media like 404 Media and BGR have documented those types of practices in more detail. The first published the case of a service that offered to modify the Ray-Ban Meta to make the light useless, while the second included more rudimentary methods and other more elaborate ones, from accessories designed to hide it to physical interventions on the indicator area. The underlying issue was clear: if the signal could disappear and the camera continued working, the safeguard lost much of its meaning. In Spain we have already seen how far this gap can go. At Xataka we have been counting for just over a year the case of a young man detained in Barcelona after recording hundreds of women with smart glasses without their knowledge, an episode that turned a until then diffuse concern into a much more tangible problem. The key was not only the device, but the lack of social alarm about it: many people still do not react the same to apparently normal glasses as to a cell phone pointed in their direction. The company presents the update as a new layer of privacy, but it is also an admission that the LED had become an attackable point in the system. If the visible notice could be obscured, modified, or destroyed while the camera continued to operate, the promise of transparency was weakened. Now Meta is trying to turn that light into something more than an indicator: a condition for the camera to operate. Images | Goal In Xataka | Meta already has its rival for Nano Banana 2. Its problem is the same as always: mercilessly invading our privacy

humanoid company robberies from 15,000 euros

by

UBTech Robotics just presented in Shenzhen its first robot not designed for industrial environments, but to be able use it in home environments. It’s called U1, it has silicone skin, real hair and an “emotional AI” that according to the manufacturer remembers the conversations it has had with you for months. Welcome to companion robots and loneliness as a business. Three versions, three price ranges. The U1 comes in Lite, Pro and Ultra variants, with prices ranging from 15,500 to 127,000 euros for the most advanced model. They exist in a male (183 cm) and female (168 cm) version, and have 88 servo joints and an “emotional artificial intelligence” that runs locally thanks to a Rockchip RK3588 chip that does not depend on the cloud to process user data. Beyond the chatbot with legs. The U1 maintains eye contact, recognizes moods from tone of voice and facial expression, and according to the manufacturer It responds with a latency of just 20 milliseconds. At UBTech they present it as a robot that builds a relationship over time, not as something you chat with occasionally. The robot remembers and learns from previous conversations and adapts its behavior according to the detected mood. The demand is already there. The company has not yet manufactured a single unit, but its managers claim to have already received more than 13,000 reservations for these robots. Deliveries will begin in September, although full-scale production will take time. At UBTech already have arrived to an agreement with Siemens to manufacture 10,000 units per year. Loneliness as a business. The company’s data indicates that in China alone there are 90 million adults who live alone and 118 million seniors whose children no longer live with them. The robot can remind them to take medication, detect signs of fatigue and stress, and offer constant companionship. A UBTech executive highlighted how these robots will never “betray or abandon” their owners. Disturbing customization. If the user pays more, UBTech promises the ability to customize the robot’s face and hair to look like anyone: a partner who has passed away, a child who has left home, or even a fictional character. It is an option that brings us closer to the uncanny valley and that once again poses a important ethical and moral debate. One that in China they seem to have overcome, because for a long time there have been companies that they create deepfakes of loved ones who died. It is inevitable to remember that episode of Black Mirror titled ‘Be Right Back‘ which precisely posed this future that UBTech now promises us. But the limits are there. The U1 robot has important limitations. The battery has a maximum autonomy of four hours, and the robot does not do housework like cooking or cleaning because it is not designed for that. Nor does it do something that many will wonder: no intimate relationships. The company insists that all data from conversations with robots is encrypted and is not used to train its AI models. China continues to tighten the screws on global robotics. This launch once again demonstrates the ambition of the asian giant to dominate this market. According to data from Barclays, last year the country already concentrated 85% of all integrations of humanoid robots in the world. More than 140 Chinese companies have already launched 330 different models, and that this type of robots will reach the home seems inevitable. Promises and realities. In South China Morning Post share a video in which those attending the launch commented on their impressions of these robots. Although they were impressed with the synthetic skin of the robots, they also highlighted that the response times are very long and the conversations lack naturalness. However, we are facing a very premature version of robots that undoubtedly will advance significantly in the short term. Today there are more promises than realities: maybe in one or two years things are very different. But also maybe not. In Xataka | China wants to teach the rest of the world a lesson by turning robots into butlers. The problem is that a house is not a factory

this is how this company operates in a small town in Ciudad Real

by

Among the vineyards and olive groves of Herencia, a municipality of just over seven thousand inhabitants in Ciudad Real, some of the armored vehicles that today circulate through NATO barracks, Spanish police stations and roads in several countries in Africa are manufactured. The company in charge of this type of projects It’s called TSDand the most interesting of all is that it was not always a vehicle manufacturer. In fact, he started selling safes. How it all started. Antonio Ramírez founded the company in 2000 as a family business that had nothing to do with the military industry. “We began by focusing our work on the transportation of funds, on the development of vaults or safes for banking ATMs,” explained Ramírez. in the report from El Español. Over time, the firm expanded its activity into the security and defense sector until it became a manufacturer of tactical and armored vehicles. Today TSD invoice around 130 million euros per year and employs more than 600 people in its rural surroundings. In detail. The firm’s star product is the Íbero, a multipurpose 4×4 tactical vehicle with a modular design that can become an assault vehicle, border surveillance vehicle, riot control vehicle, command post or even a mortar launcher, as detailed by the company. There are three versions depending on weight and capacity: the lightest (LTV) is around 5 tons and carries up to 6 occupants, while the heaviest (HTV) reaches 15 tons and can carry up to 12 people. The vehicle was officially presented in 2020 after a decade of development, and there are already around 70 examples manufactured. Between the lines. TSD does not build chassis from scratch. The company works as a “second phase” manufacturer. And it is that part from brand platforms such as Mercedes-BenzRenault or Iveco and on them it mounts the armor, communication systems and the specific configurations of each mission. It is a model that allows you to adapt practically any commercial chassis to military or police use. The NATO seal. As an official supplier of the Atlantic Alliance, TSD vehicles have the organization’s own certifications and approvals. According to what they saythe entire process is governed by STANAG regulations, the international standard that sets the armor levels required by NATO. Vehicles destined for the Alliance are painted dark green, the official color of NATO, while those sent to desert areas, such as the Middle East, wear a cream tone. Beyond Europe. The Íbero has crossed borders, since nearly a hundred units have already been sold, most outside of Spainwith presence in African countries such as Senegal or Ivory Coast, where the vehicles operate in real scenarios and have been tested in combat. The company is now studying making the leap to South America, with Chile and Argentina as markets in its sights. Not just military vehicles. Along with the tactical range, TSD maintains a less visible but equally important line of business, with armored vans for transporting funds, destined for central banks and security companies. They incorporate remote locking systems and patented technologies, such as foam that solidifies in seconds to protect cargo from an attempted assault. Added to this is the manufacturing of police vehicles, with a production volume that exceeds the 5,000 units per yearof which about 1,500 are personalized to order. In Spain, bodies such as the Civil Guard already use their vehicles. And now what. The context in which we live is helping the company, since Europe is increasing its defense spending and seeks to reinforce its strategic autonomy against dependence on external suppliers. In this scenario, family businesses like TSD gain weight as an agile and flexible alternative. Cover image | TSD In Xataka | One of the most advanced yachts in the world keeps its biggest secret below deck: cryogenic tanks at -253 ºC

The business ‘Dream Team’ repeats as the best company and the highest valued manager in Spain

by

If we think about which Spanish company is the best ratedit is very likely that Inditex, Mercadona, Banco Santander or Repsol are among the most repeated. The same thing happens when we talk about entrepreneurs who have founded them or managers who direct them. Names like Amancio Ortega, Juan Roig or Ana Botín are the first that come to mind. For the last 25 years, the corporate reputation business monitor Merco make a ranking with the best valued companies and managers in the country. In its 26th edition of Merco Empresas, the duo Inditex and Juan Roig have remained immovable on the podium as a company and manager best rated from Spain. Inditex, again at the top One more year, Inditex tops the list of the 200 companies with the best reputation in Spain. They are closely followed by Mercadona and Grupo Social Once, which complete a podium that barely changes from one year to the next. The Merco Empresas study is prepared based on 65,000 surveys, seven evaluations and 29 different sources, as detailed by the Merco Empresas study. Merco report. In fact, the top 5 of 2026 has not moved one place compared to the 2025 edition. But from sixth place onwards changes do appear. Caixabank rises two positions compared to the 2025 ranking and enters the top 6. The insurer Mapfre also improves its rating, going from tenth to eighth place, achieving 7,111 points from the experts. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, loses four positions and falls to tenth place. Repsol, Iberdrola, Caixabank, BBVA and Santander complete the top 10 best valued Spanish companies. Juan Roig, eight years unbeatable Something very similar happens in the leader ranking. Juan Roig, president of Mercadona, repeats as the highest-rated executive in Spain for the eighth year in a row, as confirmed by himself leader ranking. Ana Botín, executive president of Banco Santander, follows closely behind. Closing the top 3 is Amancio Ortega, followed by Marta Ortega, founder and non-executive president of the Inditex group respectively. This block already has several editions without changing ordersomething unusual in a ranking that measures public perception and not just the figures on a balance sheet of financial results. From fifth place onwards there are new developments. Josu Jon Imaz (Repsol) rises to sixth place and Pablo Isla (Nestlé) enters seventh. Isidre Fainé and Gonzalo Gortázar (CaixaBank) also climb positions compared to the previous year. Antonio Huertas (Mapfre) slips into tenth place after climbing five steps. Florentino Pérez (ACS Group) and María Dolores Dancausa (Bankinter), on the other hand, leave the top 10 this year. From the analysis of this reputation list, two clear conclusions can be drawn. The first is that both Mercadona and Inditex, as well as their directors and founders, are two examples of business success not so much for its good growth figuresbut for having achieved connect with your customerswhich are those that are taken into account in this type of listings. On the other hand, it is striking how the personality or image that a manager projects can even be above the perception levels of the company he or she directs. That is to say, the public recognizes the work of a manager like Ana Botón, placing her in second position but, on the other hand, Banco Santander has not achieved the same connection with users than its president, maintaining ninth position in the company ranking. Amancio Ortega, the boss who no longer commands but continues to weigh Amancio Ortega left the executive presidency of Inditex in 2011 and does not even have a management position in its investment arm Pontegadea. Since then he has lived away from the spotlight in La Coruña. But its shadow is still very long. Ortega continues to be the largest shareholder of the group, with more than 59% of the capital through Pontegadea, and will collect this year a record dividend of more than 3,234 million euros. Furthermore, he remains the only Spaniard among the ten richest in the world, according to the Forbes list of 2026. Ortega no longer signs decisions on a day-to-day basis at Inditex, however, even after his retirement, his name continues to occupy a prominent place in the ranking of managers best valued by the public. In Xataka | Mercadona is doing the opposite of other large companies: freezing Roig’s salary to reinvest it Image | GTRES, Mercadona

Who are Openchip, the Catalan company that designs RISC-V chips… and has just received 115 million from the Government

by

This Monday, June 29, the Council of Ministers authorized an investment of 115.77 million euros in Openchip & Software Technologiesa microelectronics company based in Barcelona and five years old. The operation is channeled by the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETTthe digital SEPI, dependent on the Ministry for Digital Transformation) through the Next Tech facility of the Recovery Plan. It is the largest one-time injection of public capital received by a Spanish technology company in the sector to date. It comes just a week after another move. On June 23, The Generalitat converted part of a 35 million bridge loan into sharesan operation that gave him 5% of the capital and set a implicit valuation for Openchip in around 700 million. With that reference, the 115.77 million from the SETT would be equivalent to a participation of up to 16.54%, which would place direct public control (State and Generalitat) above 20%. Both administrations will have a seat on the council. The Government also included a veto right over any transfer of the headquarters outside of Catalonia. Added to the 111 million already received via PERTE Chip, public support accumulated is close to 262 million. The public supports a good part of the structure. A company that designs, not manufactures Openchip was born in 2021 as a joint initiative of the Catalan engineering group GTDaround 54% of the capital, and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), the center that operates the MareNostrumaround 46%. Today it employs about 300 people, almost all of them engineers, and operates under a fabless– Designs intellectual property and outsources manufacturing to external foundries. The CEO himself has admitted that this production will leave Europe, which in practice points to where these types of projects usually aim: TSMC. The industrial plan estimates investments close to 500 million to deploy the entire infrastructure. What it designs are processors and accelerators based on RISC-V, the open source architecture that has become the European bet (and, ahem, China) to avoid the dependency on x86 (Intel, AMD) and ARM. Its specific product is a vector accelerator for AI and high-performance computing, integrated into DARE SGA1a 240 million European initiative led by BSC itself that distributes the design between Openchip (vector accelerator), the Dutch Axelera (AI processing unit) and the Czech Codasip (general processor). The goal: a European hardware and software proposal operational by 2028. The schedule, the equipment and the exam This is where it is good for everyone to temper expectations. In November 2025, Cesc Guim (pictured above), CEO and former Intel, said that the company had just sent its first prototype to the factory and that commercial production was planned for 2028. The commercial argument is energy efficiency: its designs promise to reduce electricity consumption by 20% to 30% compared to current alternatives. The real comparison can only be made when there is working silicon, not plans. A few weeks ago, in May, Openchip signed Tobías Martínez as presidentformer CEO of Cellnex for almost a decade. Replaced Carlos Kinder in a change that the company did not officially confirm. His profile provides what a startup of 300 engineers with a round of hundreds of millions was missing: plenty of experience in the capital markets. The operation is sold under the convenient modern mantra of ‘European technological sovereignty’, and the truth is that the framework is real: Europe today designs a minuscule part of the world’s chips, and certainly none of the leading ones. But There remain questions that public investment does not solve on its own: Whether Openchip will achieve a competitive product against rivals with a twenty-year advantage (Guim himself has admitted it). Yes, manufacturing will continue to depend on TSMC, which keeps Europe away from the critical link in a long-term dependence. And whether the intensive financing model, with two administrations on the board and a regional veto over the headquarters, will allow the flexibility and agility that a semiconductor business requires to compete. The State has bought shares, a seat on the council and qualified employment in Catalonia. What remains to be seen is whether the chips arrive. And they work as promised. In Xataka | The Valencia family that made a fortune with guano and Coca-Cola now has another project: photonic semiconductors Featured image | Openchip, Xataka

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.