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Two friends sold their company for 1.5 billion dollars and bought it back for 450 million: today it is worth 150 billion

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Buying low and selling high is one of the maxims of any financial operation if you want do well in life. It’s the advice likely followed by two immigrant friends from Asia who met playing basketball in Los Angeles. The story of these two friends is one of the most bizarre and fortunate in the technological business field, since they managed to sell their company for 1.5 billion, and then buy it back for 450 million and turn it into an empire of 150,000 million dollars. Its history is that of one of the best-known RAM and storage device companies since the late 80s: Kingston Technology. Two immigrants and the worst Monday in history John Tu came to Los Angeles from China in the 1970s. David Sun took the same route, but from Taiwan. They were both engineers and were looking for their big break in California. By the whims of fate, they both ended up playing basketball on the same basketball court in Los Angeles in the 80s. Everything else arose from that friendship. His first business was Camintonn, a memory-related components company used by personal computers that were beginning to make the leap from laboratories and electronics hobby clubs to offices and homes, driven by promising young people like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. After a few years of success and growth, Tu and Sun sold Camintonn in 1986 to AST Research for six million dollars. With that money in their pockets, the future seemed like a bed of roses for the two friends, but their joy was short-lived. The feared Black Monday The October 1987 crash on Wall Street caused a good part of his savings to disappear in one fell swoop. They were left with almost nothing. However, instead of looking for work in a company in the flourishing technology market of the time, they began their adventure as entrepreneurs again. “I told him: ‘You make something and I’ll sell it, like last time,’” Tu said. in an interview for Fortune. John Tu and David Sun, co-founders of Kingston Technology That same year they founded Kensington, a company with a name that seemed elegant and sophisticated, but another company had beaten them to it and registered it. So as they were fans of the folk group The Kingston Triothey chose to rename their company Kingston Technology and launched it in a garage in Fountain Valley, California. How much does current technology owe to California garages! From being born in a garage to being worth 1.5 billion To the contrary to Samsung or other brands, Kingston did not manufacture its own memory chips, but rather bought components from large manufacturers and turned them into products that people use: memory modules for computers, pen drives, flash cards, SSD disks. It was a model without great aspirations, but it worked with a precision that few could match. In fact, it is the same business model that it maintains today. By August 1996, the company was already valued at more than $1.8 billion, and SoftBank acquired 80% of Kingston for $1.5 billion. Masayoshi Son’s Japanese giant was then in the midst of a technological buying spree and Kingston was exactly the type of company it was looking for: profitable, well-positioned and growing. That is, with the acquisition of Softbank, Tu and Sun continued to be a decisive part of the company’s operations thanks to the 10% of the company that each one retained, and they also pocketed 700 million dollars each. Yes, I was not wrong: 700 million for each one, because the founders distributed 100 million dollars in extraordinary bonuses for your employees as a sample of thanks for your work. The deal was perfect because both employees and founders had put a lot of money in their pockets, but they continued working in the same position and with the same conditions as up to that date. What a bargain! …but there was still room for further improvement. Sell ​​high, buy low Three years later, in 1999, SoftBank came knocking on Kingston’s door again. The dotcom bubble was at its highest moment and Masayoshi Son wanted to recover liquidity to invest in the effervescent internet companies. Kingston was still a good business, but it was not the type of hypervolatile asset that Softbank was looking for at that time, so it offered them to recover the same 80% that it had bought from them for 1.5 billion. However, the new price was very different: $450 million. We guess holding back their laughter, Sun and Tu said yes. Obviously. In fact, they were even generous to Softbank. Just like you counted to Fortunein 1996 SoftBank had paid part of the purchase with a promissory note of 300 million that it had to pay in two years, but the investment bank did not fulfill its part and was late in that payment. Faced with such a breach, the founders could have recovered the company by contract in 1998. But they did not do so. They forgave their debt. “SoftBank was shocked,” Tu said. When Masayoshi Son wanted to sell Kingston, his first option was to sell it to them because it was his way of returning the favor they had done a year before. Thus, starting in 1999, Sun and Tu once again owned 100% of Kingston: 50% for each one. According to ForbesKingston Technology had a turnover of about $14.4 billion a year and ranked 28th on the list of the largest private companies in the United States. Its value is estimated at 150,000 million thanks to the memory shortage. A peculiarity of the company is that, despite being one of the most consolidated technology companies, it is still not listed on the stock market. No funds. Without external investors. Just the two friends who met on a court in Los Angeles almost fifty years ago and had two strokes of luck in their career that allowed them to become millionaires without losing control of the company they founded. … Read more

One company tested the four-day work week. Now their workers think that the best thing is to work seven days

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Although in Spain Congress overthrew the proposal for the reduction of working hoursthe debate in Europe is more alive than ever and many countries are reconsidering their working day model with alternatives such as four day work week. Lumena small SEO services consultancy based in Cardiff, tested the four-day work week with outstanding results. However, its CEO considered that the idea could still be improved, so he decided to go one step further and test a model even more flexible: work seven days a week. From the four-day week to the 32-hour week. As Aled Nelmes, CEO of Lumen, told on your LinkedIn profilethe company had changed its four-day workday to a 32-hour workday. The difference may be negligible, implicit in this change is the elimination of an important barrier: the company will not impose whether its employees have to do those 32 hours in a certain number of days or at a certain time. It will be the employees themselves who decide when to work. According to its CEO, in 2023, Lumen implemented the four day work week. The results exceeded all expectations: staff turnover fell to zero, productivity increased, and employees felt more rested and engaged. According to Nelmes, “our workers reported being happier, having better health and being more productive.” According to a study published in the magazine Nature Human Behaviorscience agrees with the CEO. But the model could be improved. Seven days to complete your day. “The idea of ​​the 32-hour week is to go further in the flexibility that the four-day week offered us,” explained Nelmes. In the system proposed by Lumen, the only condition is that employees comply with their projects and objectives, managing their time with total autonomy. Nelmes clarified in statements to The Confidential that “what I require is a lot of self-discipline, the ability to concentrate, self-regulation, initiative and independence.” The company looks for workers capable of directing their own time and offering the best of themselves. “I think we micromanage our workers’ daily lives too much, we assume what kind of day they should have to be productive. My argument is that this is not the case, we do not know, and we need to delegate that decision to each individual,” the young manager highlighted to El Confidencial. The exception: meetings and training. According to what was published for him Financial Timesthe only exception to Lumen’s total flexibility is the time the company spends on team meetings in which mandatory projects and training are defined. Overall, the CEO assures that they do not exceed three hours per week. This guarantees team connection and coordination without sacrificing individual autonomy. For everything else, each of the employees distributes their work week with total work flexibility and no check-in or check-out times. Results and surprises. During the three months that this new flexibility model lasted, Nelmes observed that, in reality, employees did not make major changes to their schedules. The majority maintained routines similar to conventional ones, adapting only small details to enjoy personal activities. “People like to have routines and structure, so many… still prefer to move within a standard schedule,” the CEO explained to The Confidential. Flexibility had been limited to adapting their work schedule to certain personal activities (playing sports, medical appointments, etc.) or to coincide with your children’s schedulesand then recover that time at another time of the week. According to Nelmes, the most extreme case is that of one of his employees, who took advantage of this flexibility to adjust her days of rest during the week according to the weather or her personal needs. Then, I worked on Sunday, because that was the time when found greater concentration and fewer interruptions. Flexibility with clear values ​​and limits. As has counted the CEO, this model does not imply total disconnection from the company. Lumen takes great care in selecting its equipment to ensure that everyone shares commitment values and responsibility. “We wouldn’t hire someone who only wanted to work 16 hours in two days,” Nelmes says. In fact, the manager assures that they have had to let go of people who did not adapt to this level of freedom and demand. The goal is to allow employees to have enough flexibility in their workday to fulfill themselves as people and take care of their familieswhich also helps them save on daycare, cleaning or extracurricular activities. According to Nelmes, “if you let your employees be good parents, they will also be good employees.” The company especially seeks to attract fathers and mothers, convinced that flexibility improves both productivity and quality of life. An adaptable model, but not for everyone. Although the manager assures that the results obtained by his staff have been positive, he recognizes that this model is not viable or for all companies nor for all sectors. Consulting companies, banks, law firms or marketing companies can benefit from this approach as they allow the flexibility of teleworking to be combined with organization by objectives. However, it recognizes that it is an option that is difficult to implement in sectors such as the manufacturing industry, construction, hospitality or tourismwhere physical presence and fixed hours are inherent to the nature of the work. In any case, the results were so satisfactory that Lumen adopted this model permanently. A version of this article was published in June 2025 In Xataka | Spain already has its first municipality with a four-day work week. It is not in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​but in a corner of Cádiz In Xataka | Three Spanish companies tell us how they fared after implementing a work utopia: the four-day week Image | Lumen

a Chinese company has just converted its energy into prefabricated parts

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The latest Chinese development in artificial intelligence is neither in the form of a chatbot nor a chip. It is in the form of a huge prefabricated electrical base to power data centers aimed at intensive computing loads. It may sound less striking, but it explains very well one of the underlying problems of the sector: data centers need more and more electricity, and that electricity must arrive in a stable, efficient way and with reasonable construction deadlines. China is trying to solve this less visible part of AI by converting the energy base into an industrial piece designed to be replicated. A prefabricated electrical base. According to CCTVOn June 6, what the chain presents as the world’s first prefabricated base for computer centers went into operation in Qingdao. They explain that it is the energetic “heart” of the center, the piece in charge of supplying continuous and stable electricity. We are not talking about a room full of servers, but about the part that makes it possible for that room to work. Manufactured by TGOOD, it is about 53 meters long, 41 meters wide and occupies around 2,200 square meters. From the construction site to the factory. To understand the change, let’s imagine the scene in reverse: instead of erecting each part of the electrical infrastructure on the ground, an important part arrives already integrated from the factory. In parallel, Xinhua describes the solution as a station that brings together high voltage transformers, medium voltage equipment, protection, control, communications systems and other components necessary to connect the center to the grid. The company ensures that its 167 functional modules are prefabricated and calibrated before arriving at the project. Build sooner, occupy less. The interesting part is not only that the infrastructure arrives more prepared, but in what that promises to change in the schedule of a project. The prefabricated base promises to reduce the construction cycle by almost 70% compared to a traditional solution, occupy more than 30% less surface area and reduce the overall cost by around 20%. There is also talk of savings close to 80% in civil works and an execution that, in the fastest scenario, could be completed in five months. The other front. There is another part of the proposal that should be separated from the construction deadlines: how the center is powered once it is up and running. According to CCTV, this base can be connected directly to green energy and promote its 100% local use, also relying on storage to better coordinate electricity supply and computing demand. According to figures reported by TGOOD and collected by Xinhua, the electricity cost per token could be reduced by around 30% if the system works as the company proposes. A problem that is no longer marginal. The interest in this type of solutions is better understood when we look around. The International Energy Agency prevIt is expected that the global electricity consumption of data centers will double to reach around 945 TWh in 2030, and remember an important difference: a data center can be operational in two or three years, but expanding the network, generation and the rest of the energy system usually requires longer periods. It’s not magic. The most reasonable reading is this: China is testing a concrete way to respond to some of the problems brought about by the expansion of data centers. Not all, not even definitively. This prefabricated base points to very physical challenges, such as available space, construction speed, connection to the electricity supply and, according to the figures reported by its promoters, a better fit with cleaner energy. In other countries we will see different strategies, because each network, each territory and each regulation has its own limitations. Images | TGOOD In Xataka | Spain produces so much solar energy that it is the envy of Europe. And even so, 70% of what you consume matters

The company that revolutionized the nylon bag now wants to revolutionize space suits

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NASA has just presented the suits that the Artemis Program astronauts will wear on future trips to the Moon. It has done it together with the two companies in charge of its design: Axiom and Prada. Yes, those of the famous Galleria bag. Although this time they haven’t made an elegant Saffiano leather or nylon bag, but rather a suit designed to comfortably (and stylishly) withstand the conditions of the lunar south pole. Two essential pieces. Like all astronauts, the crew of the Artemis missions They will wear a double suit. On the one hand, there is the extravehicular suit. That famous jumpsuit that, accompanied by the diving suit, they always use to expose themselves to the elements of space. On the other hand, there is the suit that goes inside the EVA. In this case, the extravehicular suit is the AxEMU and the underwear, in the design of which Prada has had great weight, the liquid cooling and ventilation garment (LCVG). Aesthetic and useful details. Apparently, the LCVG is a very stylish sportswear item. It has a V-neck, thumbhole sleeves and retro pants, all accompanied by Prada’s famous red line. However, it also contains channels through which tubes pass through which the cooling liquid flows, which will help them maintain an adequate body temperature. In the past, these types of suits did not have built-in tubes. They included threading into a type of mesh fabric, but it was a slow manufacturing process. On the other hand, larger tubes through which air flows are now included to facilitate the astronauts’ breathing. Everything incorporated into the suit. More advantages. Another great advantage of these suits is that they will be customized to perfectly fit the astronauts’ bodies. This provides them much more comfort. color matters. Although some orange prototypes had previously been shown, currently the AxEMU that has been presented is white. This color reflects sunlight much better and also allows lunar dust to be detected more easily. Thus, astronauts can clean it after walks on the satellite. Special conditions. Unlike the astronauts of the Apollo program, those of the Artemis missions will land on the moon the lunar south pole. This is a place where the temperature varies greatly depending on whether there is shade or not. There may be fluctuations of up to 200ºC. That is why it is so important to have an optimal temperature control system attached to the suits. More tests. The suit has already undergone numerous temperature and gravity tests. However, it is hoped to be able to test it in other environments before it is used on the Moon. Possibly it will be used at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. A kind of pool in which astronauts try to move in conditions similar to microgravity. Some suits could also be sent to the International Space Station. Additionally, although it has not yet been confirmed, it is possible that the Axiom and Prada suits will be tested already in Artemis III. These astronauts will not land on the moon. In fact, they will not even go to lunar orbit, as the crew of Artemis II have done. However, they will be able to test the comfort and functions of the suit. It is very clear that it is an elegant suit, we could not expect anything else from Prada, but we must also make sure that it is useful in space. Image | Axiom In Xataka | We have not yet colonized the Moon and we have already filled it with garbage: there are even abandoned golf balls

The CEO of a technology company has explained to his employees why he will not raise their salary: they will spend it on AI

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That AI doesn’t take your job It does not free you from suffering the consequences of its implementation. And if not, tell the Teradata employees who have seen how their salaries were frozen this year, not to balance somewhat tight accounts, but because they have decided that every available dollar should go to AI. what has happened. They tell it in Business Insider. In January of this year, Teradata CEO Steve McMillan sent an internal message to the company’s 5,100 employees telling them that they should not expect a salary increase in 2026. Teradata’s goal for this year was to “win in the market with AI,” for which they need to increase investment in AI talent and tools. In Xataka An Atlassian engineer was fired. He then published a video on YouTube explaining how the company works When AI takes your paycheck. According to two employees of the company with more than ten years of service, they normally received an annual raise of between 2 and 4%, but this year they have been left without it, although they were able to receive a performance bonus and shares. This measure affects countries where regulations do not require wage adjustments linked to the market. Teradata is not the only company that has preferred to invest in AI over people. The consultant TTEC also decided to pause its contribution to the retirement plan 401(k) because they are going to focus on AI certifications, tools and automation. A choice, not an inevitability. Speaking to Business Insider, the labor expert Jennifer MossHe affirms that cutting employees’ pockets is not the only way out. It is true that both Teradata and TTEC have recorded revenue declines (5 and 3.2% respectively), but there are options such as resorting to external financing to pay for the investment in AI, cutting non-essential expenses or adjusting senior management compensation. It also mentions alternatives such as staggering investments in AI over time, resorting to strategic acquisitions or accepting lower margins for a limited period, instead of loading the entire cost of the transformation on salaries. AI and augmentations. We recently talked about the logic of salary increases has been broken with the arrival of AI. Previously, raises were granted based on parameters such as experience, seniority and job category. However, in the technology sector this scale has changed and in 2026 many companies have frozen their salaries. Although AI is not directly responsible as in the case of Teradata, it has contributed to creating an elite of highly paid profiles and has amplified the gap: now the company you work for and how central AI is to its business matters more than your simple progression from junior to senior. {“videoId”:”x806n3d”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”TECHNOLOGY and THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE – Insert Coin with Manuel Hidalgo”, “tag”:”employment”, “duration”:”1806″} Firing is expensive. Normally when we talk about the impact of AI on the labor market, we talk about layoffs. So far this year, it is estimated that 92,000 tech employees have lost their jobs with the excuse of compensating investments in AI. However, the reality is that the layoffs are costing them a fortune for compensation and exit packages. Oracle, for example, has reserved 2.1 billion to cover compensation after lay off 30,000 employees. To avoid legal disputes, giants like Microsoft or Google are betting on incentivized “voluntary layoffs”, assuming the enormous risk that their best AI talents will take the money and go to the competition. Image | Jakub ZerdzickiUnsplash In Xataka | These are not your imaginations: your CEO has developed delusions of grandeur with AI and it is part of a pattern (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news The CEO of a technology company has explained to his employees why he will not raise their salary: they will spend it on AI was originally published in Xataka by Amparo Babiloni .

Renfe has a contract of 4,000 million euros in its hands. And no Spanish company gives you the trains you are looking for

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Renfe is preparing to choose the lucky company that will supply at least 30 high-speed trains. It is the most expensive tender in the company’s history, with around 4,000 million euros at stake. It is also the litmus test to see if Spain once again positions itself as a leading country in high speed. The contract. 1,362 million euros insured and the possibility of reaching 1,777 million euros. That’s only with the purchase. Because if we take into account the cost of maintenance, a long-term contract is estimated at 4,000 million euros. This is the contest to which anyone can apply. As long as, of course, it is capable of delivering 30 high-speed trains and is open to the delivery of another ten units if the Spanish company so requests. It is one of the previous steps to launch a Madrid-Barcelona line in less than two hours. A comprehensive renewal of the line thanks to a Spanish invention and new trains capable of reaching top speeds of 350 km/h are essential. Quickie. In substance and form. Because in order to comply with the specifications of the Renfe contract it is essential that the trains can run at a maximum of 350 km/h as we say. Inside they will have to accommodate 450 passengers, have a space for transporting bicycles and a cafeteria car. But in addition, Renfe wants the chosen company to deliver at least five units in the first 40 months once the contract is signed. At the latest, the last unit of the fleet of 30 trains will have to be delivered before month 78. That is, the company will have to have everything ready in less than six and a half years and after three years Renfe has to begin to reap the first fruits. “Citizens would not understand”. That is the warning that José Ignacio Jainaga, president of Talgo, has issued in statements collected by The Mail. And the obligations included in the contract specifications leave this Spanish company in a very complicated position according to experts. In fact, Jainaga wanted to highlight the efficiency of its trains, which it considers are capable of offering an efficiency “35%” higher than rivals, but it has not talked about deadlines or being able to reach the aforementioned 350 km/h with its trains. Despite this, he considers that citizens “would not understand that the regulator, the operator, and ultimately the Government, do not consider Talgo’s solutions as the best adapted to the priorities of Spanish society.” CAF, another company specialized in the construction of trains, would also be outside the conditions required by the contract right now, they explain in The Basque Journal. The company has the approval for its trains to run at 300 km/h in Spain since 2020 (the most advanced reach 320 km/h top speed) but with such tight deadlines, CAF would be left out because it would not be able to develop a new platform in time. Without a trace of Spain. Both CAF and Talgo understand that with these conditions they will not be able to compete in a contest that is considered one of the most attractive in Europe. At the moment, it does not seem that either company can offer such fast trains within the planned times. CAF, as we say, does not have a platform capable of reaching this speed. Talgo, on the contrary, managed to reach 360 km/h with their Talgo Avril but they are limited in their approval to reach a maximum of 330 km/h. But, in addition, the relationship between Talgo and Renfe is not going through the best moment. The Avrils arrived with reliability problems that hit the ceiling with the fissures in Madrid-Barcelona. Renfe considers that, since they are under warranty, Talgo must fix them but this company says that the problem is generated by the infrastructure. In addition, Renfe sanctioned Talgo with more than 100 million for being late in delivering these trains. A punishment that Ignacio Jainaga, president of Talgo, claims to have been resolved although no further details have been given, stated in The Confidential. Beyond Spain. In the midst of these controversies, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportation, did not hesitate to show interest in trains that are manufactured far from our borders. It makes sense because, according to the experts referenced in the previous media, only Hitachi or Siemens seem really well positioned to be able to compete for this project. Before the bidding rules were announced, Puente toured the factories of these companies. He appeared, for example, at the Siemens factory whose Velaro Novo Yes, it can operate at more than 350 km/h. Hitachi has the ETR 1000 that Trenitalia uses for Iryo and that reach a top speed of 400 km/h. But, also, Puente also traveled to China where he praised the CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles trains because they are capable of reaching the aforementioned 350 km/h but, above all, he praised their ability to deliver them in record time and at a much more competitive price. He came to point out that: “Chinese manufacturers deliver trains at half the price in a period of six months to two years, while the European industry offers them to you for 60 months. I am the politician who buys and I don’t have 60 months” However, this possibility has been put into more doubt because the European Commission is investigating this company because it considers that the Chinese State has doped it financially, which could leave it out of Renfe’s famous 4 billion euro contract. Photo | MaedaAkihiko In Xataka | “They deliver trains in six months at half the price”: Renfe needs new AVE and is clear that China will give them to them

A Chinese company has been building AI for years to predict who is going to criticize the government before they do so

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In ‘Minority Report‘, Tom Cruise was the head of the pre-crime police, a department capable of arresting criminals before they could commit the crime in question, all thanks to the powers of mutants or precogs. Well, according to the New York Timesthere is a Chinese company that is trying to build a similar system, but their target will be future political dissidents and instead of mutants with powers they will use AI. what’s happening. The leak reported in the New York Times contains internal documents from the Chinese company Geedge Networks and has been published by a group of researchers at Vanderbilt University. In it they detail how the company is building an AI system capable of predicting which citizens will become political dissidents in the future. Geedge is investigating how to use LLM to synthesize large packets of data (including browsing histories, locations, online activity and contacts) and then infer citizens’ behavior, detecting whether they will present a “political risk” in the future. Like the police precrime, but for political dissidents. What is Geedge?. In September 2025 we learned that a Chinese company was exporting the surveillance system known as “Great Firewall of China” to other countries. It was Geedge Networks. The company, which has one of the creators of the Chinese firewall as a key investor, has already sold its solution to countries such as Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. What this great firewall does is analyze the traffic of entire countries, even capturing personal data such as passwords and emails. Why is it important. According to the leak, the system is in the research phase, but it is still a disturbing approach. It is no longer just about using AI to monitor what people do, the next thing is to anticipate what they could do and even think. We see every day that AI models have biases and make many errors, using them as predictors to repress dissent poses a terrifying scenario. Tech authoritarianism as a service. As we said, Geedge is already exporting its solutions to other countries so it is selling technological authoritarianism as a service. The worst thing is that we do not find this only in China, but it is a global trend: the United States too you are delegating critical security functions to private and disreputable corporations like Palantir, and The United Kingdom also wants to follow in their footsteps. The bottleneck. There is good news (if you can call it that) and that is that Geedge has encountered a problem in developing this system: they do not have the power to manage such a volume of data. According to the New York Times, since they cannot access the most powerful chips due to the US blockade, since 2024 they have been forced to use AI models and less powerful chips. In order for the system to be able to manage the enormous amount of data they already collect, they need computing capacity that they currently do not have, always according to US sources. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | We have been hearing for years that China scans the faces of millions of citizens every day. It’s already happening in Europe

We have all suspected that our cell phone is listening to us. The company that sold this technology has just recognized that it was a lie

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There are many people who are convinced that cell phones listen to everything we say. We have all had the same disturbing feeling when we see an ad for something we recently talked about with a friend or family member, but have never searched for on the internet. The most solid proof that they really listen to us was a leak from a company that sold a technology called “active listening” and it did exactly what you’re thinking. Well, it was all a big lie. what has happened. They count in Wired that the US Federal Trade Commission (FCT) has fined Cox Media Group $880,000 for deceiving its customers with its active listening technology. They have also fined two other companies, MindSift and 101 Digital Networks, $25,000 each. In total, $930,000 will be used to compensate businesses that were affected by this deception. What they sold. Cox Media Group claimed that its technology could capture conversations from cell phones, smart speakers, televisions and other devices. Then, using AI, they segmented the advertising based on what people said and also based on their location, which they also claimed to be able to obtain. Their excuse was that users had already agreed to be recorded by accepting the terms of service. The company didn’t have many scruples, just look at the slogan they used to sell the product: “Is it scary? Sure. Is it great for marketing? Without a doubt.” What it really was. According to the FCT, it was all a hoax. They were not able to listen through all those devices, nor could they know the location of people. What they did was buy generic email lists from data brokers and resold them for a price much higher than their real value. The FCT also notes that agreeing to generic terms of service does not constitute explicit consent to something as invasive as these recordings. Why it is important. We are surrounded by technology that has the potential to spy on us with microphones, not only mobile phones but speakers, headphones and even smart watches. Today has not been proven that cell phones listen to everything we say, but it is a very widespread belief and these companies decided not only to feed the conspiracy theory, but also to profit from it. The answer. When the cake was revealed, Cox Media Group attempted to place the blame on an unknown third-party vendor. Speaking to Wired, a company spokesperson said that “Our local marketing team relied on marketing materials provided by a third-party vendor about their product. We quickly removed the materials and stopped use of the product.” All three defendant companies admitted fault and agreed not to make false statements about their products in the future. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | Yes, the V16 beacons transmit your position in the event of an accident. No, the DGT cannot “spy” on you with them

An Atlassian engineer was fired. He then published a video on YouTube explaining how the company works

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“I was recently affected by layoffs made by Atlassian and wanted to take some time to reflect on the time I spent working there.” This is how it begins the video that Vasilios Syrakis shared on his YouTube channel. The video, titled “I have been fired by Atlassian” seems to be a criticism of the company. It’s something much better. What has happened? On March 11, Atlassian, the company behind software like Jira or Trello, announced that it was going to reduce its workforce by 10%which translates into about 1,600 street workers. The reason, of course, was AI. In the company’s words: “Our approach is not that AI will replace people, but it would be dishonest to pretend that AI does not change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas.” One of those roles was that of Vasilios. The answer. Instead of recording himself criticizing the company’s decision, this engineer opted for something different. What he did was publish a detailed, 38-minute description of everything he built during the eight years he worked at the company. Your video is a masterclass on How the architecture of a company of the stature of Atlassian works and it serves two objectives: it turns your experience into a common good and at the same time it is a letter of introduction for future jobs. what he did. Vasilios did not have a minor role at Atlassian, but for eight years, he worked on the invisible “plumbing” that connects millions of users to Jira and Confluence. In the video he details how Open Service Broker works, the internal platform he built so that Atlassian teams could publish their services on the internet with one click; also the Sovereign system, which acts as the “brain” of the more than a thousand proxies; and how it rebuilt security so that all internal services inherited the same authentication and attack security without having to write it one by one. The context. In the announcement, Atlassian admits that it is achieving very good results. In February 2026 they published their resultsin which they boasted a 23% increase in their total revenues, which reached 1,586 million, and a 26% growth in cloud revenues. Despite the fact that the company is doing very well, 10% of its staff ended up on the streets, including engineers with roles as important as Vasilios’. As mentioned in the Experienced Devs subredditVasilios is careful and in the video he does not seem to mention confidential information about the company, but instead limits himself to talking about the design of its systems, so it does not seem like they could sue him. At the time of writing, Atlassian has not commented on the video, which already has almost a million views. Image | Vasilios Syrakis, YouTube In Xataka | “They blame AI for layoffs they would do anyway”: Sam Altman confirms that AI has been used as an excuse to lay off

Anthropic is about to achieve something that seemed impossible for a large AI company: make money

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In a data leak published by The Wall Street Journalthe artificial intelligence laboratory founded by the Amodei brothers has informed its investors that it will close the second quarter of 2026 with revenues 130% higher than those of the first quarter of the year. It is a colossal achievement that also achieves something unusual for these companies: they will have an operating profit of 559 million dollars. They earn more than they spend. According to these data, the company will reach $10.9 billion compared to $4.8 billion in the first quarter. Its quarterly growth rate already exceeds Zoom during the pandemic or those that Google and Facebook had before their stock market increases. It is quite a breath of fresh air for an industry accused of being a gigantic bubble. The rivals, fatal. While Anthropic gives the big surprise, the rest of the competitors are still in a good financial situation. For example, OpenAI confessed to its investors that does not expect to see benefits until 2030. It didn’t work out well for xAI either, which carries losses of 6.5 billion due to investments in data centers. How did they achieve it?. To achieve this milestone, Anthropic has differentiated its strategy from the beginning. It has focused mainly on companies that pay for the intensive use of its agentic tools (Claude Code) and its APIs (Claude Opus/Sonnet 4.7). It also uses chips from manufacturers such as Google and Amazon, and has managed to optimize its spending in the cloud. It is therefore more focused and it is more efficient than its rivals, and that has had a clear effect on its balance sheet. Mythos as reputational success. In recent months Anthropic has fought several political and media battles and seems to have emerged victorious from all of them. Have Pentagon attempt rejected By controlling how its AI models were used was a clear boost to that brand image. But also the launch of its Mythos model It has been especially striking because although it is not publicly accessible, it does not stop giving headlines that seem to confirm that what Anthropic said (“it is so good that we better not release it”) was true. But. Although the figures are promising, there are nuances in these estimates. Not being a public company, Anthropic uses accounting methods that benefit it in this forecast. For example, it includes as direct revenue the sales of its models through its partners, such as AWS or Google Cloud, something that OpenAI does not do. In addition, it excludes stock compensation for its employees and these results do not guarantee that this profitability will be maintained throughout the year. We will see more quarters in red. The profit achieved would be extraordinary for many companies, but it is pocket change for Anhtropic. The company recently committed to spending $15 billion in SpaceX computing capacity using Colossus clusters. At the moment everything indicates that these benefits will be temporary and the company will return to red numbers. And yet, its evolution is currently more positive than that of OpenAI, against which it has not stopped winning battles for some time. In Xataka | Nvidia’s financial results are simply dizzying. And it still hasn’t sold a single chip in China

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