critical

Samsung is playing his future with the Galaxy S26 processor. Exynos 2600 is in critical phase

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Samsung needs a plan to make its chips cast competitive again. Korean sources They point out that the smartphone industry giant is working on its new Exynos 2600 processor, with the aim of installing it in the Galaxy S26 series next year. It will be your first processor manufactured in the process of two nanometers, something that translates quickly: risk. The race for the two nanometers. We know Samsung It has been drawing a plan for years Not to be the last in the career of the two nanometers. Kye Hyun Kyung, general director of the Samsung semiconductor division, predicted in 2023 that his company would exceed TSMC and its other competitors (Intel) over the next five years. It is something that They also predicted in Intel. But, except geopolitical crisis in Taiwan and While China works on its own UVE lithography teamsTSMC seems simply unbeatable for now. Samsung, Intel and TSMC will begin this 2025 the massive production of chips with 2NM lithographic process, but the starting points are very different. Samsung keeps moving forward, but slowly. Korean sources point out that Samsung Foundry has started mass production of exynos 2600 chip TSMC 2nm lithography. In Europe it is key to be a leader (or at least, be up to it) in semiconductors for smartphones. Samsung has not taken long to give up its own processors when the performance has not been enough, and has even made artificial distinctions between members of their family S: in 2023 the S24 arrived with exynos, The ultra model, with Qualcomm. It is not being easy. Samsung has reached a 50% wafer performance for its 2 nm lithography. They remain far from the minimum necessary (70%) to make it viable to produce it on a large scale, but there is still more than half a year for the end of 2025. On the other hand, both Intel and TSMC They have shown confidence in which their nodes have enough maturity to enter mass production. In fact, TSMC already has its eyes on its 1.4 nm lithographyscheduled for 2028. Samsung will have to demonstrate that your They cannot afford to lose. Samsung He is losing money with his semiconductor division. Business Post Korea sources They collected a rumored complete restructuring of the samealready 2024 we knew that Samsung Electronics had delayed reception of some of the key ASML teams for its new chips plant in Taylor Texas. This plant is Samsung’s trick to attract US clients who do not want to depend on Taiwan or Korea. The sources pointed out that their facilities were not yet prepared to house EUV systems, fundamental to manufacture under advanced lithographic processes. Both this new factory and the lithography of 2 Nm will be key for the Samsung division to face the current situation. At a time when China drives its own nodes with SMIC and ASML faces restrictions to sell your most advanced machinesthe global industrial balance in chips depends on how many players can manufacture in this process. Future steps are already given. At the end of 2024, Samsung made the greatest change ever made in its dome. It is a movement that talked about Samsung’s position both in semiconductors and in key components to fight with giants such as SK Hynix (DRAM memories, NAND, HBM, etc.), One of the main HBM memories suppliers for NVIDIA. To lead, Samsung needs customers, and to attract them you need to recover your competitiveness. This is no longer only technical or economic: it is also geopolitical. Samsung not only competes for buyers, but for being a strategic partner for the West, a reliable alternative to TSMC. With Google betting on TSMC and abandoning exynosThe company needs to give a blunt message: launch its S26 family with its own processor. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Best Samsung mobiles: which buy and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality price

The critical metal that China has become its new strategic weapon

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First it was Lithiumthen The cobalt. China has decided to play its letter with another essential metal for advanced technology: Gallium. Although just 760 metric tons are produced per yearprices have shot and Chinese restrictions are suffocating the global industry, what is happening with element number 31? Short. China maintains its dominance over the gallium for the third year, controlling 98.8% of the market. A year ago it hardened restrictions, alleging national securitywhich has doubled prices up to $ 725 per kilogram, affecting the technological and military industry. The utility of the Gallium. Although annual production is small and its nominal value in the global market does not exceed 550 million dollars, its strategic role is disproportionate to its market size. According to He explained For Reuters, the journalist specialized in critical industrial and mineral metals, Andy Home, Gallium is essential to manufacture compounds such as Gallium Arseniuro and Gallium Nitruro, both used In high performance semiconductors. These materials allow to develop faster and more efficient chips, essential for mobile devices, electric vehicles and defense systems. The never ending story. The geopolitical war that the United States and China libes is nothing new And it is not the first time that China has used gallium as a strategic pressure gun against the United States on next generation semiconductor chips. As He has collected Reuters, the China Ministry of Commerce is closely monitoring any attempt for physical arbitration that tries to divert Gallic to the international market, maintaining relatively stable internal prices while the external market faces an explosive increase. It has more size. The importance of the Gallium is not limited to the civil sector, but in the military world it has become a critical material. In fact, who started was the United States through the Agency for Advanced Defense Research Projects (DARPA), which promoted the development of Gallium Arseniuro for radars and guided weapons. However, China He has consolidated Its leadership with the manufacture of gallium nitride chips for advanced weapons, consolidating its position as a leader in the production of strategic semiconductors. In addition, the Asian country has invested significantly in manufacturing plants dedicated to these components, which would allow it not only to dominate the civil market, but also expand its production capacity for advanced defense systems. This strategy not only threatens the United States position in military technology, but also reinforces the global dependence of the Chinese supply of Gallium and other critical metals something that something that something that something that Japan already saw coming. The rest of the countries. In the long term, the West could reactivate the production of Gaul, but that will take time. According to ReutersRio Tinto has begun to extract pure Galician in his vaudreuil alumina refinery, in Quebec, from industrial waste. The objective is a pilot plant with a capacity of 3.5 tons per year. For its part, in Greece, producer Metlen plans to reach an annual production of 50 tons by 2028, as part of a project to increase the processing capacity of bauxite and alumina. However, the challenge is technical: Western companies stopped producing Gaul years ago, when China flooded the market with cheap product. Now, they must recover the experience and the know-how To refine and process metal. Forecasts The battle for Gaul is only the prelude to a broader technological war. China has shown that it is willing to use critical metals as strategic weapons, and the West faces the challenge of finding alternatives or risking to be exposed to future interruptions, such as He has sentenced Andy Home for Reuters. While investments in new projects are promising, time runs. Until the West does not manage to diversify its supply of Gallium and other critical metals, it will remain vulnerable to Beijing pressure strategy. Image | Thomas Nguyen and Pexels Xataka | Anuuu is thrown over another problem: China prepares to lead the manufacture of chips for advanced weapons

A critical component of current chips manufacturing machines

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The teams of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) that manufactures the Dutch company ASML are extraordinarily sophisticated. In fact, they are those currently using TSMC, Samsung, Intel, Sy Hynix and Micron Technology for produce integrated avant -garde circuits. They are so complex that during the first phases of their design in the early 90s of the last century, ASML engineers They believed it was impossible. However, everything changed in 1997. That year Jos Benschop, the leader of the research department, reassess whether UNVE technology was a viable option. After the first tests he realized that The German company Zeiss He was able to develop extraordinarily sophisticated mirrors that would be necessary to transport ultraviolet light. And he was not wrong. That was the real starting point of technology that has made it possible for our mobile phones and computers to have such advanced chips. Zeiss’s feat arrived in the 90s One of the most complex elements of UVE lithography machines is The ultraviolet light source. The company of American origin Cymer, although since 2013 it is not an independent company. That year ASML executives decided to buy it to accelerate the development of the technologies involved in UVE lithography. An interesting note: the ultraviolet light is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with a lot of precision to the surface of the silicon wafer. Understanding what is the mask is simple: it is nothing other than a physical template that contains the design of the integrated circuit that is necessary to transfer to the Silicon wafer. In any case, there is another component without whose intervention It is not possible to carry out this crucial task. Other components, in plural, in reality, although all of them are of the same type. It is precisely the mirrors that Jos Benschop suspected in 1997 that Zeiss could produce. The light of 11.4 nm was discarded because it forced to use beryllium in the mirrors and is a toxic chemical element The role of the optical elements of this company in these lithography equipment is crucial. And it is because they are responsible for moving the UVE light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm from the source that is responsible for its emission to the mask contained in the geometric pattern that is necessary to translate into the silicon wafer. If the mirrors involved in the propagation of the UVE light are not manufactured with enormous precision the geometric pattern defined by the mask will be altered, and the chips will be damaged. Interestingly, the choice of the wavelength of the UVE light used by these machines was a very delicate decision. Initially the engineers involved in their tuning had four possible options: 13.5 nm, 11.4 nm, 6.6 nm and 4.8 nm. These last two wavelengths were finally ruled out due to the limitations they imposed Organic photorestoning materials. The light of 11.4 Nm was also discarded because it forced to use beryllium in the mirrors, and is a toxic chemical element. The wavelength of 13.5 Nm required to introduce molybdenum and silicon mirrors, but these elements do not pose any problem. This is the reason why UVE machines work with this light. In any case, this data clearly reflects the extraordinary level of precision with which it is necessary to manufacture the mirrors: Zeiss uses argon ions and other elements to polish layer per layer at the atomic level the mirrors, and then identifies and corrects the defects using a subnustric analysis technique. This last tool is capable of detecting defects with a lower precision than a nanometer (less than a millmillonieth part of a meter). * Some price may have changed from the last review Image | Zeiss BIBLIOGRAPHY | ‘Focus: The Asml Way’by Marc Hijink More information | Zeiss | Asianometry In Xataka | 2024 has been a year full of uncertainty for chip designers. So much that the market has changed leader

There is a critical sector that is still expected the worst before the tariffs of the United States: that of medicines

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For three decades, pharmaceutical products have enjoyed green light in international trade in terms of tariffs. However, the commercial war unleashed by the tariffs of the new US government does not understand essential products. Change of course. Upon yesterday, President Donald Trump announced A 90 -day truce to the introduction of tariffs in many countries. Did it one day After ensuring During the National Committee of the Republican Congress an upcoming introduction of “Great tariffs”To the pharmaceutical sector. This raises an unknown to the European pharmaceutical industry, whose immediate future depends on whether this moratorium also means a pause in tariff fever that this week promised specific rates to this sector in principle exempt from tariffs that affect general trade. An industry with its own rules. And until now the pharmaceutical industry had enjoyed tariff exemptions under the Agreement for Pharmaceutical Products of 1994 of the World Trade Organization, agreement in which the European Union, the United States and other countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland or Japan participate. The agreement eliminated tariffs and other surcharges in a variety of drugs and pharmaceutical products. Tariff war. All this is part of the context of a commercial war unleashed by the new US tariffs. Although the tariff issue raised months on the table, the storm broke out last Friday when Trump announced outside the White House the amount of “reciprocal” tariffs that would be taxes to each country (already the European Union). Yesterday, when the tariffs seemed to come true, the president of the United States turned back (more or less). He did announcing 125% tariffs on Chinese products and a 90 -day moratorium on other countries. “Fast and radical” action. Trump’s announcement of industry -specific tariffEuropean Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), appealed to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, take actions “fast and radical“Aimed at avoiding the” risk of exodus “of European producers to the United States. On the other side of the puddle, analysts do not see this hypothetical exodus clear. “Although the details are scarce, we are strongly opposed to tariffs to any pharmaceutical product: these will probably do little to bring their manufacturing again to the US.” pointed to Reuters Evan Seigerman, BMO Markets BMO analyst. “Given the complexity of the pharmaceutical supply chain, we do not expect the industry to make substantial changes.” Ozempic, in the eye of the hurricane. In recent days, Lars Fruerd Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk, has also spoken, the company he developed Ozempic and Wegovy. The Danish company manager expressed a certain degree of concern: “Of course there will be short -term impacts while mitigating the impact of tariffs,” collect Bloomberg. Ozempic’s case is relevant. On the one hand, for months we have seen how the demand for this drug against diabetes converted into weight loss treatment far exceeded its offer. The Danish recipe has, on the other hand, with a competitive formula created in the United States, the tirzepatida we found in Zepbound and Mounjarocreated by Eli Lilly laboratories. The manager also put the focus on generic drugs. “As much as the highest category of drugs is that of generic medicines,” It also pointed to Bloomberg. “If you put tariffs, it is difficult for me to see that it will not lead to another situation of medicine shortage or in general to an increase in prices.” Despite this, the United States closely follows the future of prices of this drug to the point where they have spread Bulos on false tariffs To this product. From Australia to Spain, through India. The question of the genericians has had echoes in distant countries such as India and Australia. In the “Aggravic list”Commercial of Spain, the pharmaceutical issue was manifested in a concern for pricing measures in pharmaceutical products, among other issues. It is not only Spain: in Australia, the PBS program (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) has been at the center of the tariff discussion. This mechanism dedicated to the pricing of pharmaceutical products homogenizes drug In an article for The conversation Deborah Gleeson, from the University of La Trobe. A key country in all this is India. This country is an important drug supplier for US pharmacies. Asian giant producers They fear that tariffs raise the price of their products, which will ultimately lead to a product increase in the US market. In Xataka | There is something more disturbing than the collapse of the bag: the collapse of the shelter values ​​such as the US dollar and debt Image | Glsun Mall

It is a critical milestone to get to nuclear fusion

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Imagining a world with clean and inexhaustible energy is no longer just science fiction. France has achieved a unique milestone to maintain a plasma reaction in minutes. An unprecedented advance. On February 12 in France, the West reactor of the Atomic Energy Commission and Alternative Energies (CEA) has managed to maintain a plasma For more than 22 minutes (1,337 seconds), thus beating the previous record of plasma duration reached with a tokamak. This represented an improvement of 25% with respect to the previous record time achieved with EAST, in China, which reached 1,066 seconds (17 minutes) a few weeks before. In addition, the plasma reached a temperature of 50 million degrees Celsius. In depth. This achievement has shown that magnetic confinement technology is moving forward, allowing reactors to sustain the extreme conditions necessary for nuclear fusion for longer periods. The longer the plasma is controlled, the closer we will be generating fusion energy continuously, reliable and commercially viable. To achieve that time and control plasma, the Eurofusion consortium scientists They have applied a combination of strategies, such as temperatures between 100 and 150 million ° C, 2MW injection of thermal power and the use of superconductive coils and cooled components. In addition, the materials were protected, minimizing erosion and contamination of the internal components of the reactor. Why nuclear fusion? Nuclear fusion It is considered the “Holy Grail” of energy because it does not produce long -term radioactive waste, unlike nuclear fission. Besides, Use less resourcesIt has a practically inexhaustible fuel and could generate clean and stable energy without carbon emissions. Magnetic confinement technology in Tokamaks is the most advanced today and is considered the most viable path to obtain merger energy. A global effort. The study of nuclear fusion and seeking its stability is being given in different parts of the world. Starting with ITERthe experimental reactor that an international consortium led by Europe is building in the French town of Cadarache. On the same continent a little higher in Germany and in France themselves are exploring other alternatives such as type reactors Stellarator. Out of the European Union, in the United Kingdom, the JET It was for years the referent in generation of fusion energy, closed in 2023 after providing key data for the development of the future Iter. In Asia, in Japan, the JT-60SA It is a joint project with Europe that seeks to optimize plasma stability. In China, the reactor East It has broken temperature and duration records of the plasma, approaching necessary conditions for commercial fusion. For its part, KstarIn South Korea, he has managed to keep plasma at extreme temperatures for prolonged periods. Forecasts West’s record has shown that magnetic confinement technology in Tokamaks could approach The possibility of building viable commercial reactors. In addition, this progress has shown that the knowledge of the plasmas and the technological control of them for longer periods is maturing and offers the hope that merger plasmas can stabilize for longer periods in machines such as The iter. Image | CEA Xataka | Spain’s milestone in nuclear fusion: the first plasma produced by the Smart reactor invites us to optimism

The countries of the Persian Gulf have a plan B to continue influencing beyond oil: critical minerals

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In case the sector of Solar energy was smallthe Persian Gulf wants to continue expanding his empire and now points to the extraction and trade of metals. Expanding sectors. The companies between Oman, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia They have created Specialized units in metal marketing. On the one hand, International Resources Holding (IRH) in Abu Dhabi and Minerals Development Oman (MDO) have focused on energy and metal control. On the other hand, the Saudi country, through Ma’aden and the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has driven Its mining sector with new commercial strategies towards critical minerals. The look in the metals. The global raw material trade has changed in recent years, displacing traditional centers such as London and Geneva towards the Middle East, especially Dubai. Great oil traders, such as Vitol, Mercuria and Gunvor They have expanded Its metal business, and the Gulf states seek to position themselves in this market. With greater control over marketing, these countries can ensure better prices for their resources and strengthen their presence in the global supply chain. The expansion strategy. To consolidate their presence in the sector, companies such as International Resources Holding (IRH) and Minerals Development Oman (MDO) have created specialized commercial teams. Irh, based in Abu Dhabi, He has hired to 60 people to handle energy and metal trade, while MDO is in the process of establishing a unit of 25 people. At the same time, the Saudi Mining Fund Manara plans to form its own commercial team to ensure the supply of critical minerals. In addition to reinforcing their commercial capacities, these countries have made key investments in mining. IRH has acquired a 51% share in the Mopani copper mine in Zambia, and Abu Dhabi, through ADQ, has signed a joint company of 1.2 billion dollars with Orion Resources. Oman, on the other hand, has reactivated copper extraction in his lasail mine and seeks to better organize the plaster and chromite market to maximize income. Towards other booming markets. The Persian Gulf is exploring other areas such as renewable energies, artificial intelligence and nuclear energy. Countries like United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia They are promoting solar projects massive and the development of green hydrogen, with the expectation that more than 30% of its energy capacity comes from renewable sources in the next five years. Saudi Arabia has also seen an opportunity in The resurgence of nuclear energy And seek to lead the uranium sector, ensuring its role in the global supply. At the same time, the country has sealed Strategic agreements in AIwith projects like Neom that seek to position it as a key actor in the technological revolution. Global ambition. The gulf bet for metal trade is just one more piece in its strategy to become a key actor in the global economy. With the rise of the energy transition and the reconfiguration of international trade, the region seeks not only to diversify its income, but also consolidate its influence in strategic sectors. Oil gave them power; This new diversification is your insurance to continue like this for decades. Image | Unspash and Corey Poppe Xataka | The Persian Gulf has dominated the long era of oil. Now he is preparing to lead the era of solar energy

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