A Chinese tire company decided to take its factory to Serbia. And now it cannot export to the US

USA ordered last thursday the immediate seizure of all shipments of tires manufactured by Linglong in Serbia. The decision by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) service affects all US ports and is based on ‘reasonable indications’ of forced labor at the Zrenjanin plant, in the north of the Balkan country. “The message is clear: the United States will not tolerate forced labor in supply chains,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney S. Scott. Linglong, a Chinese manufacturer specializing in tires, has been operating in Europe since 2022, when its first tires went into production from the Zrenjanin plant. Why Washington is acting now. The measure comes three years after the European Parliament ask for investigations about trafficking of Vietnamese workers in this same factory. The CBP says it has based its order on workers’ testimonies, documents, photographs, NGO reports, press articles and academic research. According to the agency, the evidence demonstrates nine indicators of forced labor established by the International Labor Organization: withholding of identity documents, intimidation and threats, isolation, excessive overtime, non-payment of wages, debt bondage, abusive working conditions, deception and abuse of vulnerability. Questionable track record. The Linglong plant was the subject of great controversy in 2021, when hundreds of Vietnamese workers went on strike during the construction phase. The complaints spoke of deceptive practices in recruiting employees. Just like account According to L’Automobile, in February 2024, Serbian civil society organizations reported the case of 14 additional Indian workers allegedly subjected to forced labor. Each time, Serbian authorities rejected the accusations. The Chinese company declined all responsibility, arguing that the workers had been hired by one of its subcontractors. The underlying problem in Serbia. The Balkan country, a candidate for accession to the European Union, has multiplied its contracts with large Chinese companies in recent years. The European Parliament express already in 2021 its “concern about China’s growing influence in Serbia and the Western Balkans”, calling on the country to strengthen “its rules on regulatory compliance for Chinese business activities”. The European resolution stated that Serbian labor legislation should also apply to Chinese companies operating in the country, something that everything indicates has not happened. Beijing and Belgrade. Serbia signed a free trade agreement with China in July 2024. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić called the Linglong factory “the largest foreign direct investment in the history of Serbia” during the opening ceremony in September 2024, noting that the plant employs more than 1,200 workers. However, the US State Department pointed out in its report on human trafficking that the Serbian government “has made little progress in the ongoing investigation into allegations of forced labor at this factory.” What happens to retained tires?. As can be read in the CBP noteimporters of seized shipments now have three options: destroy the merchandise, re-export it, or prove that the products were not manufactured using forced labor. The agency reiterates that it is the fifth detention order issued by CBP in 2025 and the second in fiscal year 2026. Cover image | Robert Laursoo In Xataka | The US bans Chinese drones and turns DJI into the new Huawei. It’s an absolutely crazy idea.

A Singapore company has purchased 136,000 AI GPUs from NVIDIA. What is not clear is what he has done with them.

In the last three years, an unknown Singapore company has become the largest buyer of NVIDIA chips in Southeast Asia. This singular activity has caused alarms to go off, especially now that the trade war between the US and China means that the “illegal trafficking” of these components is extremely monitored. The suspicion. The company, called Megaspeed, is being investigated by the US government. The objective is to find out exactly if there are ties that unite this company with the Chinese government and if the NVIDIA chips that the company has purchased have ended up in China despite the veto and prohibition that said cards can end up there. The Singapore government is also checking whether Megaspeed has violated local laws, they say. on Bloomberg. Megaspeed denies the major. In a statement sent by mail to that newspaper, those responsible for Megaspeed declare that the company “is based in Singapore and operates fully in accordance with applicable laws, including United States export control regulations.” At the moment there is no evidence. An NVIDIA spokesperson indicates that its request for information from Megaspeed shows no evidence that there was a violation of the terms of those transactions. In their visits to Megaspeed’s data centers they confirmed that “the GPUs are where they are supposed to be.” Furthermore, according to its data, Megaspeed has owners and operates entirely outside of China, and there is no Chinese shareholder. But it does serve Chinese tech giants. Megaspeed has a “neocloud”, cloud infrastructure dedicated to offering computing capacity for AI projects. It has several data centers in Southeast Asia, and the company rents NVIDIA chips to Alibaba. This is an option that the US government does continue to allow: no buying chips, but access to those from suppliers from “non-vetoed” countries. Delicate situation. The question is whether Megaspeed has really done things right or whether it has ended up serving as an intermediary for NVIDIA chips to end up in Chinese technology companies. It would also be disturbing if in the end Megaspeed did have ties to companies or the Chinese government. This discovery comes just as President Donald Trump has stated that he would approve the sale of certain NVIDIA chips to China, something that until now was prohibited. Confusing data. Although Bloomberg admits that they have found no evidence that Megaspeed’s NVIDIA chips have ended up being sent to China, doubts remain. They have analyzed documents with records of commercial transactions, appointments and job offers from both Megaspeed and some of its collaborating companies, and have detected “inconsistencies” between the inventory of chips and those that should really be installed in their data centers. Megaspeed has thousands of NVIDIA GPUs. And the problem is that this company has a huge number of company chips. Since it was founded in 2023 and until November 2025, Megaspeed has imported at least 136,000 NVIDIA GPUs according to Malaysian and Indonesian customs records. More than half are Blackwell chips, which Trump said I would not approve of them being exported to China. Most of those newer GPUs were purchased six months ago, but NVIDIA employees who visited the data centers did not definitively clarify that those that were exported actually ended up where they were supposed to be. The suspicion: a mysterious data center in China. On the Megaspeed website it says that they have three data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia. There is also mention of a room under construction in an unspecified “specific area.” The problem is that Megaspeed showed an image of a render with a data center in Shanghai financed in part by Megaspeed’s original parent company, a Chinese company. Not only that: Megaspeed has a kind of corporate twin in China with an identical website that shows that in reality the employees of the Singapore company are its employees. All of this raises clear questions that remain unresolved and that raise even more suspicions. In Xataka | The US believed it had dealt a mortal blow to China when it deprived it of NVIDIA. He only accelerated one plan: ‘Delete America’

AI doesn’t just live on chips, it also requires massive energy, so Google has bought an energy company

The AI needs a lot of energy and technology companies are already planning how to power their huge data centers. On the table there are such creative ideas as take them to space either submerge them in the sea to reduce its consumption. Google has opted for a more immediate solution: it has purchased an electricity company for data centers. The agreement. Google has purchased Intersect Powera company dedicated to developing energy infrastructure, including renewable energy sources, for data centers. Google has paid $4.75 billion for the San Francisco-based company, in addition to assuming its debt. According to Sundar Pichai: “Intersect will help us expand our capacity, operate with greater agility in the construction of new power generation facilities in line with the new load of data centers, and reinvent energy solutions to drive innovation and American leadership” Why it is important. The agreements of AI companies are usually focused on computing capacity, not energy. This agreement underscores the importance of energy in AI infrastructure, putting it on the same level as the very chips it powers. Data centers are being developed at a brutal pace and energy is presenting itself as a bottleneck. Satya Nadella already said it: there is no power for so many chips. It’s Google ensuring enough “food” for its chips. Yontersec. Google’s relationship with Intersect began just a year ago, when big tech acquired a minority stake in the company. Under this collaboration, several projects have come to light in their data centers. Both these projects and all Intersect personnel are part of the agreement. What the agreement does not include are other company assets, mainly located in Texas and California, worth 15 billion. These will continue to operate under the Intersect brand. Energy. In 2023, data centers already accounted for 4% of the energy consumption of the entire United States, and at the rate at which they are being built, the figure will continue to increase (there is talk of 12% by 2028). The problem is that US electrical infrastructure cannot support that pace and is having consequences for consumers through price increases in electricity. Google assures that with this agreement it will be able to guarantee “an abundant, reliable and affordable energy supply that allows the construction of data center infrastructures without passing on costs to network customers.” Image | Wikipedia, Intersect In Xataka | Talking about artificial intelligence is talking about energy, and the fashionable term is ‘bragawatts’

Mercadona has bought the company that has been supplying pallets and boxes for decades. And there is a very simple reason

Let Mercadona monopolize 30% of the supermarket business is no coincidence. The success of Juan Roig’s chain responds to a cocktail in which, among other issues, its bet on white labelsthe ready to eat dishes and geographic dispersion. Another key to that equation is your supplierswho are responsible for supplying you from cheeses or kebabs to services. Now the chain has decided take the reins from one of those external firms, Logifruitthe same one that has been supplying it with boxes and pallets for decades. There is a word that explains it: logistics. What has happened? That Mercadona has decided to take over the Valencian company Logifruitone of the key suppliers of its logistics, since it supplies it with the boxes and pallets it uses to transport goods. It has been the Valencian chain itself that has been in charge to announce the acquisition, although without revealing the amount or the dates. In your statement Juan Roig’s company simply emphasizes the importance of the purchase for its internal operations and advances an important piece of information: the 1,600 Logifruit employees will join Mercadona’s team directly. What is Logifruit? A crucial piece in the functioning of the Valencian chain. The company was founded in 1996, has 16 logistics platforms and manages more than 18 million of boxes, boxes and reusable pallets designed for the transport of goods. Its network of facilities is spread across a good part of the peninsula, with 14 nodes distributed throughout Spain and two others in Portugal. Is it just another supplier? No. And not only because your rental model of reusable packaging has earned it a strategic role in Mercadona’s structure. Unlike other suppliers of Juan Roig’s company, which maintain extra business avenues (even if they are minority), the history and work of Logifruit is closely linked to that of the supermarket chain. The company itself explains on his website which started in 1996 as a “logistics operator to provide service to Mercadona’s fruit and vegetable suppliers.” Almost 30 years later, that link remains key for both companies. Why’s that? By defining your “interest groups” in the sustainability report 2023, Logifruit identifies the five major actors that shape its business: the workforce, the companies that supply materials, machinery and services, society as a whole, capital and customers. And among the latter he specifically cites two: Mercadona and its suppliers. In fact, although Logifruit talks on its website about “more than 1,095 clients”that ecosystem seems to basically pivot around Roig’s chain. The diary Five Days assures that, in its latest financial report, the box and pallet company recognizes that it did not have “other clients outside of the pool of services established for Mercadona and its suppliers”. At least by the end of 2024. Do we know anything more about the company? Yes. And it helps to better understand the movement that Mercadona has just made. Last year Logifruit invoiced around 164 million of euros (7% more) and obtained a net profit of 5.2 million. Its assets amount to 22.3 million and its liabilities include debts with financial entities, although most of them mature in the long term. The other piece of information that helps understand Roig’s movement is that in 2024 the company rented packaging worth 54 million euros to Mercadona and its suppliers, according to the documentation consulted by Five Days. What does Mercadona say? That the purchase will help it achieve two of its “objectives”: “unify all its logistics processes” and “continue consolidating the efficiency and sustainability of its distribution network.” “The agreement, pending approval by the Competition agencies and the corresponding administrative authorizations usual in this type of operations, will allow Mercadona to capture important synergies and further optimize its resources,” the Valencian firm stands outwhich hopes to “strengthen” its assembly line. And Logifruit? Logifruit also highlights the historical link between both companies. “When we began our collaboration with Mercadona, in 1996, we took on the challenge of offering a service that met their needs and gave them competitive advantages. Three decades later, I am proud to be able to say that Logifruit has overcome that challenge,” celebrates its president. In its financial report the company itself recognized that it would be “complicated” for Mercadona to find a substitute capable of supplying boxes and pallets in the short term and that this operation would also require a high investment. Is it something exceptional? Yes. And no. In addition to his commitment to the white label, the prepared food and geographical dispersion, Mercadona’s commercial success relies heavily on its network of suppliers. Although it is not common, this is not the first time that he has decided to integrate into his structure one of those companies that help him articulate his business. It already happened in 2010 with the Caladero packaged fish company, although years later he sold it to Profand. Images | Logifruit 1 and 2 and Andalusian Government (Flickr) In Xataka | Mercadona has grown so much in Spain that for the US it is no longer just a supermarket chain: it is a “cultural phenomenon”

We have been talking theoretically about data centers in space for months. A company already has a plan to set it up in 2027

The Californian startup Aetherflux has announced which will launch its first data center satellite in the first quarter of 2027. It is the initial node of a constellation that the company has named “Galactic Brain”, designed to offer in-orbit computing capacity powered by continuous solar energy. The underlying promise. Aetherflux presents an alternative to the years of construction that terrestrial data centers require. According to Baiju Bhatt, company founder and co-founder of the financial firm Robinhood, “the race toward artificial general intelligence is fundamentally a race for computing power and, by extension, energy.” The company is committed to placing sunlight next to silicon and completely bypassing the electrical grid. How the project works. The Galactic Brain satellites will operate in low Earth orbit, taking advantage of solar radiation 24 hours a day, something impossible on land. Advanced thermal systems would eliminate the limitations faced by terrestrial data centers, which require large amounts of water and electricity for cooling. In addition, the constellation fits within Aetherflux’s initial plans: transmitting energy from space to Earth using infrared lasers. The competition is already underway. Aetherflux is not alone in this bet. Google presented in November your Suncatcher projecta plan to launch AI chips into space on solar-powered satellites. Jeff Bezos too expressed his optimism on large data centers operating in space in the next decade or two, a goal that Blue Origin has been working on for more than a year. SpaceX also works in use Starlink satellites for computing loads of AI. Musk himself wrote in The real obstacles. Although launch costs have decreased considerably, they remain prohibitive. According to recent estimateslaunching a kilogram with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy costs around $1,400. Google calculate that if these costs drop to about $200 per kilogram by 2030, as projected, the expense of establishing and operating space data centers would be comparable to that of terrestrial facilities. In addition, the chips will have to withstand more intense radiation and avoid collisions in an increasingly congested orbit. The urgency. Big tech is colliding with physical limits on Earth. From 2023, dozens of data center projects have been blocked or delayed in the United States due to local opposition over electricity consumption, water use and associated pollution. According to the consulting firm CBRElimitations in electricity generation have become the main inhibitor of data center growth around the world. The Aetherflux Calendar. The company, founded in 2024 and which has raised $60 million in financing, plans to first demonstrate the feasibility of transmitting space energy through a satellite that will launch in 2026. If all goes according to plan, the first Galactic Brain node will arrive in 2027. The company anticipates launching about 30 satellites at a time on a SpaceX Falcon 9 or equivalent, although if Starship becomes an option, they could orbit more than 100 data center satellites in a single launch. The long term strategy. Aetherflux hasn’t revealed pricing yet, but promise Multi-gigabit bandwidth with near-constant uptime. Their approach is to continually release new hardware and quickly integrate the latest architectures. Older systems would run lower priority tasks until the life of the high-end GPUs were exhausted, which under high utilization and radiation might not last more than a few years. Cover image | İsmail Enes Ayhan and NASA In Xataka | OpenAI launches GPT-5.2 weeks after GPT-5.1: a maneuver that aims to cut ground on Google’s Gemini 3

BYD CEO is clear about why the company is losing steam in China

Wang Chuanfu, president and CEO of BYD, has publicly acknowledged for the first time the reason behind the company’s sales decline in the Chinese market. During an extraordinary shareholders meeting held on December 5 in Shenzhen, the CEO bluntly admitted that the manufacturer has lost the technological advantage that differentiated it from the competition. According to local media, Wang said that they had lost that ‘wow factor’ in the domestic market, in reference to the impact that their innovations previously generated. The underlying problem. The local media China Securities Journal collected the statements of the head of BYD, who stated that the drop responds to two main factors. On the one hand, he admits that BYD’s technological advantage is no longer as pronounced as in previous years, which has reduced the surprise effect of its products in the market. On the other hand, the CEO acknowledged that unresolved practical problems persist, such as the slow charging speed of its vehicles in low temperature environments, a critical aspect for users in certain regions of China. The numbers confirm the trend. In November 2025, BYD sold 480,186 new energy vehiclesthe highest monthly figure of the year, but which represented a decrease of 5.25% compared to the same month in 2024. It is the third consecutive month of year-on-year decline. Domestic sales were particularly weak, at 348,300 units, a drop of 26.81% year-on-year. In contrast, exports exceeded 100,000 units per month for the first time, reaching 131,700an increase of 297% that has become the company’s main growth engine. We have already seen how they have broken into Europe. For BYD and the rest of the Chinese manufacturers, it is important to continue consolidating their foreign business for two main reasons: to continue feeding their factories and to increase their profit margins in the face of a China that seems to live in a constant price war. The competition tightens. Chinese manufacturers such as Geely, Changan and Chery They have intensified their offensive with efficient hybrid and more affordable electric models, eroding their market share. Furthermore, the homogenization of products in the industry has made it difficult for BYD to stand out like before. In September 2025, SAIC Motor even temporarily surpassed BYD in monthly sales, according to they counted from CarNewsChina. BYD’s response. Wang Chuanfu hinted that the company is preparing “heavy technologies” that will be announced soon, although it did not offer details. The CEO stressed that BYD’s strength lies in its team of approximately 120,000 engineers, who will be key to regaining technological leadership. The company plans to intensify its investment in electrification and smart technologies over the next two to three years. Self-criticism included. Wang also made an exercise in self-criticism by admitting that favorable market conditions in previous years generated a certain complacency in the areas of marketing and merchandising, as they point out from CnEVPost. And now what. BYD revised its global sales target for 2025 downward, from 5.5 million vehicles to approximately 4.6 million. Between January and November, the company accumulated 4,182 million units soldwhich represents 90.9% of the adjusted objective and a growth of 11.3% year-on-year. Figures that contrast with the spectacular expansion rates of previous years: 218% in 2021, 209% in 2022, 62% in 2023 and 41% in 2024. Stella Li, its vice president, already warned us during the Xataka Awards gala We will soon have very interesting news from the manufacturer. So we can only wait to see what the firm’s strategy will be to alleviate the effect of competition. In Xataka | The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country

A Spanish company is at the center of the new A320 headache. Airbus must inspect hundreds of planes

At the heart of the A320 program, a recent discovery has triggered a wave of attention aimed squarely at a Spanish aerostructures supplier. This is a quality problem in fuselage panels that Airbus has decided to address with a large-scale inspection campaign, at a time when every delivery counts. According to Airbusthe episode has not affected flight safety, but it has opened a new front for the European manufacturer and for part of its industrial chain, especially in Andalusia. The manufacturer has confirmed that the origin of the situation is in metal panels of the A320 front fuselage that have thicknesses outside the specified values. According to industrial presentations consulted by Reuters, in some cases pieces that are too thick or too thin have been detected, forcing each potentially affected aircraft to be inspected. Airbus insists that flight safety has not been compromised and that inspections will determine which planes need intervention. Impact on the fleet. Data shared with operators and cited by Reuters raises the number of aircraft that will undergo inspection to 628, a figure that reflects the industrial scope of the process. Among them there are devices already in service and others on the assembly line, including a group that was due to be delivered in 2025 according to industry sources. This volume forces plant tasks to be reorganized while Airbus prepares the specific procedures that airlines must follow depending on the status of each unit. The adjustment that Airbus communicated on December 3 makes it clear that the quality problem has fully hit its delivery expectations for 2025. The manufacturer now sets its objective at “around 790” commercial aircraft, a figure lower than the initial forecast of about 820 units, according to data provided to Reuters. The cut shows the direct effect of the technical reorganization triggered by the A320 inspections and marks a notable change in industrial planning for next year. Inspections and recent context. The manufacturer maintains that the process will allow it to precisely identify which aircraft need intervention, insisting that this quality problem does not affect flight performance. Reuters points out that the inspections are relatively quick, while The Air Current estimates that repairs could take between three and five weeks. All this occurs after the massive update applied to more than 6,000 Airbus aircraft, motivated by a software vulnerability triggered by episodes of intense solar radiation. Who is Sofitec? Founded in 1999 and based in the Andalusian aeronautical hub, Sofitec is dedicated to the design, manufacture and repair of metallic and composite aerostructures for international programs. Its evolution has been accompanied by investments in engineering, final processes and facility expansions, which has consolidated it as a relevant supplier for the A320 family. Bloomberg identifies the company as one of the suppliers of the fuselage panels that require inspection, which explains its presence at the center of this industrial episode. Union accusations. Bloomberg revealed that the UGT FICA Sevilla union has reported to Airbus the existence of alleged irregularities in several internal Sofitec processes. In a letter addressed to the CEO, the union claims that dates were falsified at certain stages of production and that expired paints and sealants were used, in addition to unauthorized repairs being carried out on carbon fiber parts. Airbus said it acted in accordance with its internal quality procedures but declined to comment on the specific allegations, while Sofitec did not respond to requests for comment. The episode leaves several unknowns open for the European manufacturer and its supply chain. Airbus now faces a technical reorganization that will coexist with its delivery commitments and the usual scrutiny of airlines and regulators. For Sofitec, the situation means being under unusual visibility and managing it while the inspection campaign progresses. The Andalusian aeronautical sector, which has been consolidating its international presence for years, is watching the process carefully, waiting for the reviews to definitively limit the scope of the problem. Images | Airbus | Sofitec In Xataka | SpaceX is known for its rockets. What is less known is its growing and striking fleet of aircraft

A company identified an employee on its payroll as “buzzed.” Justice has added some zeros to the joke

A payroll can be much more than a payment document: in this case, it became judicial evidence and object of compensation for damage to honor. A company in the Basque Country included the word “Zumbada” to identify the employee as a beneficiary on two successive payrolls. It so happened that the employee’s ex-husband was also the co-owner of the company. A ruling from the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country has condemned the company to pay 10,000 euros in damages to the employee’s honor. A list for “Zumbada”. According to is detailed in the sentence issued by the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country, the worker carried out administrative tasks in the company of her ex-husband, of whom he was in the middle of the judicial process of divorce and custody of their common son with a disability. In this context, the employee received two payrolls in which the word “Zumbada” appeared in the section intended to indicate the name of the beneficiary of the payroll. As it could not be otherwise, the employee filed a lawsuit against the company. As the employee herself stated in an intervention in the program “And now Sonsoles” hosted by Sonsoles Ónega on July 27, “There was a first trial for the crime of minor insults in which it was the other partner, Iñaki, who took responsibility for having made that transfer.” However, the employee resorted to court again when she understood that it was the company that had to respond for her work mistreatment, arguing that she suffered a workplace harassment for the humiliating work shown towards her on her payroll. It’s not harassment. In July, the Social Court handed down a ruling arguing that, however reprehensible, the company’s conduct did not constitute workplace harassmentconsidering it a sporadic act. The labor lawyer Juanma Lorente agreed with the court’s ruling and analyzed the case in a published video on his Instagram profile. “We are not talking about workplace harassment, but rather a breach by the company, and you can file a complaint against it. But it is not workplace harassment. They have to be repeated over time for approximately six months,” said the lawyer, indicating that the employee’s legal advice had not been correct. The TSJPV did not let it pass. Although in the first instance the Social Court dismissed the claim. The ruling was taken to the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country, where on October 25 it revoked the first ruling, recognizing that the company had violated the employee’s right to honor by using the term “Zumbada” on its payroll. The ruling emphasizes that “the inclusion of derogatory terms in a list generates a detriment to the dignity of the worker and constitutes an act contrary to the fundamental principles of respect and honorability”, indicating that the offense occurred in a public context given that the document had to be processed by the employees of the financial institution, bypassing the area of ​​privacy. For this reason, the Court has sentenced the two partners of the company (one of them her ex-husband) to pay compensation of 10,000 euros for damage to the employee’s honor. History repeats itself. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that payroll processing has been used as a channel to inflict humiliating treatment on employees. In 2024, a baker included the concept “Nómina Abril Maricón” on the payroll of one of its employees, which led to a conviction and the seizure of his assets to face a compensatory compensation. In Xataka | An employee put the handbrake on the company van when he was the passenger. He was fired, but from his company Image | Wikimedia Commons (Zarateman), Unsplash (Resume Genius)

Sam Altman is trying to buy his own rocket company to compete with SpaceX. The key: data centers

The rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk has just reached its highest point: space. And all so that OpenAI can deploy its own data centers in space. The news. As revealed by the Wall Street Journalthe CEO of OpenAI has been exploring the purchase of Stoke Space, a Seattle startup that develops reusable rockets, with the goal of building data centers in space. Although talks with Stoke Space cooled in the fall, the move confirms a trend we’ve been observing for months: Silicon Valley is outgrowing the Earth to fuel AI. Sam’s plan. According to the Journal’s sources, Sam Altman was not looking for a launch provider, but rather an investment that would ensure OpenAI majority control of Stoke Space. Stoke Space, founded in 2020 by former Blue Origin engineers, is developing a fully reusable rocket called ‘Nova’ to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9. So that. Altman maintains a tense rivalry with Elon Musk, so the logic of this move would be to reduce OpenAI’s dependence on Musk’s rockets in the event that it decided to deploy servers in space. But above that there is a purely energetic motivation. The computing demand for AI is so insatiable that the environmental consequences of keeping it on Earth will be unsustainable. In certain orbits, however, solar energy is available 24/7 and the vacuum of space offers an infinite heat sink to cool equipment without wasting water. The fever of space data centers. Altman is not alone in this race. What until recently seemed like an eccentricity has become a serious project for big technology companies: And what does Musk say? The irony of Altman pursuing his own rocket company is that the industry’s undisputed leader, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, already has the infrastructure in place. While his competitors design prototypes and seek financing, Musk has cut off the debate with his usual forcefulness: in the face of the discussion about the need to build new orbital data centers, He assured that there is no need to reinvent the wheel: “It will be enough to scale the Starlink V3 satellites… SpaceX is going to do it.” Images | Brazilian Ministry of Communications | Village Global In Xataka | Building data centers in space was the new hot business. Elon Musk just broke it with a tweet

The police and firefighters have turned it into a 60 billion company

It is true that in reality The iPhone did not completely kill Motorola, but it left it very touched. In 2007 their cell phones were selling like hotcakes. Their previous foldables, the RAZR, were part of popular culture thanks to the promotional agreements that made Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria Abril Lavigne or David Beckham They will pose proudly with them non-stop. But then the iPhone arrived and things began to change for many traditional manufacturers. Nokia and Blackberry were never the same again, and something similar—although not as severe—happened to Motorola, which, faced with declining sales, decided to split into two different companies in 2008. The “Motorola” of before is now Lenovo The first of them, Motorola Mobilityit ended up being bought by Google in May 2012 and then to be repurchased by Lenovo in 2014. This manufacturer has kept the brand and has managed to revive that part of the business with a remarkable mobile catalogbut the original company went down a completely different path. In fact, the firm has reinforced its proposal with the new Razrthe “mid-range” folding ones that present a certainly interesting option, especially for small cell phone lovers. The popularity of these devices is not the same as in the past, but this year we experienced a nice nod: Paris Hilton, who was already the star of a limited edition with the original Razr 20 years ago, has returned again. At the beginning of the year we knew the Motorola Razr Plus Paris Hilton Editionvery pink, very “exclusive” and not cheap at all. The real Motorola is now Motorola Solutions Inc. But what is truly striking is that Motorola Solutions Inc.the “boring” part of the company that was split up in 2008, has emerged strongly from the situation. It has done so by focusing on what it already did well then: critical communications. Source: Bloomberg. Their products have become a success among security forces and bodies, who use them massively in the United States, but also in countries such as Bulgaria, Brazil or the United Kingdom. In fact, Bloomberg highlights that since they separated from Motorola Mobility the return for investors has grown by 1,000%more than double what the S&P 500 index has achieved, for example, and much more than what other companies such as Ericsson or Nokia have achieved, to which the iPhone did much more damage. Source: Motorola Solutions Inc. Motorola Solutions’ products are very varied, and range from body cameras for police forces to communication equipment for emergencies in health or fire departments and, lately (of course) drones. Greg Brown, the company’s CEO, has achieved turn it into a 60 billion dollar giant. It has achieved this with a strategy in which acquisitions have been a fundamental part and have accelerated traditional organic growth, often much slower. Brown’s path has not been easy, although the hardest part was that division at a time when the company was suffering a real financial hemorrhage: “we froze pensions, we laid off 15,000 people, we announced that we were getting out of the mobile phone business… which were the true identity of the company.” He ended up surviving that and managed to revive the company precisely by returning to what it had become famous for: Motorola was already providing communication equipment to the police shortly after its founding in 1928, although we met it much later. First, when he developed the famous Motorola 68000 processor which was part of legendary computers from Apple, Commodore or Atari. Then, in 1983, when it began its particular mobile revolution with the legendary DynaTAC 8000X. The future of Motorola Solutions seems promising, although it is not without challenges. The company, which will turn 100 years old in 2028is now starting to integrate AI into its products. The SVX body camera integrates AI functions and is the clear exponent of where the current Motorola (Solutions) is heading. This year they launched a body camera for law enforcement that uses AI to create automatically audio transcripts, provides directions to remote operators, and examines surveillance footage. It is the demonstration that that original Motorola – not the current mobile phone, which is now Lenovo – is still alive and well. In Xataka | What happened to NeXT, the company that Steve Jobs founded when he left Apple and that ended up being his salvation

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