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Mexico is getting its foot in the door in the semiconductor industry. It will take more than good intentions

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The return of donald trump to the White House it was like an alarm clock for the rest of the countries. It caused the rise of the feeling of European technological sovereigntybut also the awakening of his neighbors. That feeling was captured in the ‘Mexico Plan‘, a strategy for the country to stop depending so much on others and where technology plays a fundamental role. Because Mexico has decided to get into the conversation of the semiconductor industry, and the OECD He just said there is potential. But also some other problems. Intentions. Mexico’s intention is to complete a series of objectives to become the tenth economy in the world and, within that strategy, there are objectives such as reducing poverty and inequality, promoting tourism and promoting vaccines made in Mexico. Also generate 1.5 million jobs and enhance the technological network. Among the various initiatives to achieve this, there are two that stand out: electric cars for urban mobility (the Olinia project of which We expect news this summer) and semiconductors (the Kutsari project). Mexico has experience in both fields because there are powerful companies that manufacture their products in the country, but from being the factory to having all the legs of the chain there is one step. How things are going. However, without making much noise, the institutions are moving. Puebla, Sonora and Jalisco are the three proper names, the three headquarters chosen to develop this plan that allows Mexico to go from being a country that assembles chips for others to one that designs, manufactures and sells them. The three states are reinforcing investment and consolidation of already established infrastructure, as well as the construction of new buildings and agreements to attract and retain talent. In Sonora, for example, it is in the Mexico-US Trade Corridor. In Jalisco there is the Intel Design Center, so there are contacts and experience in integrated circuits. And Puebla will have one of the semiconductor production plants. Strengths. The idea is to start producing chips by 2028 with an eye toward commercialization by 2029. And beyond what Mexico says, it is interesting to see what other organizations have to say. Here the OECD comes in with a optimistic message in which he points out that Mexico already has that experience in the assembly and testing of chips, so it has a base on which to scale. They assure that the country has “a promising future” and a favorable position due to its geographical proximity to the main world market, a large and experienced workforce and an industrial network that, as we say, has already been tested by manufacturing chips for others. They also have data centers and plenty of land for renewable energy to power the industry. Something that the OECD also highlights is the talented labor base because 17% of Mexican graduates are from engineering areas, three points above the average for the OECD as a whole. The least optimistic face. Now, not everything is so optimistic. There is a difference between “potential and concrete execution” and there is critical positions with the country’s ability to meet energy and transportation requirements. security when developing this industry. Regarding education, although the OECD indicates that number of engineering graduates, only 16% of young people between 15 and 19 years old are enrolled in technical programs related to the sector compared to the average 23% of the organization. Water can also be a problem, but if there is one thing clear, it is that the country is more on track with its future as a producer of semiconductors than, for example, as a creator of mass electric cars with its own batteries. Because that’s where lithium comes into play and, although there is plenty of it in Mexico, It’s one thing to have it and another thing to refine it.. Images | mister rfflag of Mexico, Data Center (edited) In Xataka | The avocado “war”: the product that has brutally confronted Mexico and the United States for 80 years

Your refrigerator has a compartment designed for eggs in the door. It’s the worst possible place to keep them.

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Almost all refrigerators on the market, when purchased, come with an accessory designed specifically for this purpose: an egg cup that goes on the shelves of the appliance door. This has become the place that many of us look at at first to catch the eggs, but the truth is that it is the worst refrigerator place to save the eggs. The thermal trap. The reason lies not in the fragility of the food, but in a microscopic enemy that surrounds us and can be potentially dangerous: the Salmonella. Here the main problem with the refrigerator door is that it is the area most exposed to thermal changes, since every time we open the refrigerator to get milk, water or simply to think about what to eat, the temperature on the door shelves fluctuates drastically. Here are the regulatory bodies of the United States They are quite clear pointing out that these constant rises and falls in temperature are the ideal breeding ground for bacterial growth. Furthermore, as pointed out by the South Korean Ministry of Food, the door is prone to generate condensation, creating a humid environment that facilitates the proliferation of pathogens in the shell that end up in the food when we break the eggs in the same bowl where we beat them (something also not recommended). The ideal temperature. To keep salmonella at bay, the temperature must be stable and below 4°C – 10°C, since under these conditions, the growth of the bacteria is suppressed by more than 99%. But this on the refrigerator shelves is something that is not always achieved. What the studies say. Here the science is quite clear with different studies that have pointed to the survival of strains such as Salmonella Typhimurium and the Salmonella Enteritidis in very specific conditions. A 2021 study demonstrated that at room temperature the bacterial load increases alarmingly in both the white and the yolk. On the contrary, keeping them at 5ºC limits their multiplication and reduces virulence. But if we come more to the present, a study launched in 2024 found that, under alternating temperature conditions, that is, in cycles of 25 ºC to 5 ºC, similar to taking food in and out of the refrigerator, salmonella manages to migrate to the yolk in 64% of cases. How to preserve them. Taking all this into account, the big question is: what should we do when we get home from the supermarket? In this case, the health authorities point to two strategies, the first being to put them directly on the interior shelves, preferably on the lower or middle ones. In this way, the temperature remains stable below 4ºC, and especially if it is at the bottom of the refrigerator. Do not throw away the cardboard. Although we usually take eggs out of their boxes to put them in plastic egg cups for convenience, the truth is that it is a mistake. That is why the second conservation strategy is to keep them in the original packaging, since the cardboard not only protects them from possible knocks, but also acts as a crucial barrier against moisture loss, prevents the shell from absorbing odors from other foods and protects the egg’s natural cuticular barrier. Images | Onur Burak Akın Katie Bernotsky In Xataka | The internet has become obsessed with drinking hot water in the morning. Science is clear about what it does (and what it doesn’t)

Iran has turned Hormuz into the entrance to a VIP nightclub. And Spain enters the guest list and the US stays at the door

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Spain has never been a great military power, but it has been a key player in energy routes. In fact, more than 60% of the gas Its consumption arrives by ship and its refineries are among the most important in southern Europe. Furthermore, its geographical position makes it a natural bridge between Africa, America and the Mediterranean, which means that any change in global energy flows ends up impacting, directly or indirectly, its economy. Iran as oil watchdog. what is happening in Hormuz At this moment it breaks one of the great premises of the global order of recent decades. The naval superiority of the United States was assumed to be overwhelming, backed by a navy that far surpasses the rest of the world in capacity and deployment, and which guaranteed the security of the great sea routes. However, Iran has shown that it is not necessary to dominate the oceans to control a key point. It is enough to have the ability to deny access in a small space, combine asymmetric military pressure and assume the cost of the conflict. The result is that Washington, despite its power, is tied hand and foot and cannot reopen the strait without escalating the war to levels much more dangerous. This turns Iran into a kind of “watchdog” for world oil, capable of deciding who passes and who doesn’tand marks a paradigm shift where the control of strategic bottlenecks outweighs global military supremacy. A tight as a VIP nightclub. Yes, because Iran has transformed the Strait of Hormuz into something more than an energetic chokepoint: has converted it in a business which works in the same way as the door of an exclusive nightclub, that is, a space where not just anyone enters, but only those who are on the list. And there Spain appears among the guests (what have confirmed explicitly) and, of course, the “hostile ships” of the United States and Israel are clearly banned. In other words, they have established a system selective access that redefines control of one of the most critical routes on the planet and turns geopolitics into a direct filter on who can trade and who cannot. Spain and its no to war. Impossible to ignore the government statement Spanish with Iran’s latest move. Pedro Sánchez’s refusal to align with Donald Trump’s strategy broke the dynamic common in Europe. Spain blocked the use from its bases, refused to actively participate in the operation, and turned “no to war” into foreign policy. That movement, which seemed isolated, began to influence other countries. Germany and Italy, for their part, they took distance. And Europe stopped moving as a bloc, showing that there is room to challenge Washington without completely breaking the alliance. The “prize”. It remains to be seen if in the end it will be “poisoned”, but the truth is that this Spanish positioning has had immediate consequences. Iran has shown a special disposition towards Spain, facilitating ship transit linked to their country in a context in which the passage is practically closed for many others. This preferential treatment turns neutrality into an operational advantage tangible, but also introduces a delicate dimension. Spain gains room for maneuver in the short term, but at the cost of exposing itself to criticism and pressure from its allies, critics who may interpret such access as a dangerous concession in a highly polarized environment. The Iranian model that no one saw coming. I was counting this morning the financial times that Tehran is designing a maritime traffic control system much more structured than it might seem. Transit no longer depends solely on navigation, but of a process which combines diplomacy, supervision and, in some cases, high payments to guarantee passage. As? Apparently, the ships must coordinate with the Iranian authorities, undergo verifications and follow specific routes under surveillance. This “handmade” model that few saw coming in the middle of the war introduces a de facto “toll” that transforms the strait into an economic and political tool at the same time, reinforcing Iran’s ability to influence global trade. A global bottleneck. The impact of this change is enormous if we take into account the importance of the Strait of Hormuz. How have we been countingit passes approximately one fifth of world oil, as well as gas and essential raw materials for the global economy. The war has reduced traffic drastically, has increased attacks on ships and has generated a situation of great uncertainty for thousands of sailors. What was once a predictable route has become a high risk spacewith immediate consequences on energy prices and market stability. From highway to guarded corridor. They explained in The Guardian through a visual analysis that the functioning of the strait has also changed in operational terms. The usual routes have been replaced by controlled runners closer to the Iranian coast, where authorities can directly supervise transiting ships. This system allows almost individualized traffic management, reducing the volume of passage and increasing control on each vessel. The result is that Hormuz has stopped behaving as an international maritime highway and begins to function as a regulated access, where each movement depends on prior authorization. Consequences. In the long term, this model opens the door for Iran to obtain important income and consolidate a tool for strategic pressure on world trade. However, also raises legal issues and diplomatic tensions significant, since it questions basic principles of international maritime law. Given this scenario, other countries could accelerate the search for alternatives, such as new energy infrastructure or different trade routes (China and Russia they are already doing it). If this process is consolidated, the result could be a system fragmentation global, where access to key resources depends increasingly on political decisions and less on norms shared for years. Image | eutrophication&hypoxiaNARA, US Navy, اری In Xataka | Israel has found the secret route of the war in Ukraine: it has just bombed the “Uber of shahed drones” between Russia and Iran In Xataka | Iran is … Read more

Canada now allows Chinese cars to be sold and the US believes they have opened the door to the wolf

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Canada is about to become the gateway of chinese manufacturers of electric cars to North America. BYD, Geely and Chery They have been preparing their landing for months in the country, and from Washington they are watching with great suspicion. What has happened? In January, Mark Carney’s Government closed a trade agreement with China that reduced tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 100% to 6.1%, in exchange for Beijing lowering tariffs on Canadian agricultural products such as rapeseed or lobsters. The agreement allows the entry of up to 49,000 Chinese electric cars per year, with the possibility of scaling up to 70,000 in five years. March 1, Ottawa opened the application process of import permits. Tensions. This decision comes amid trade tensions with the United States under the Trump administration, which has imposed tariffs on both Canada and China. “We take the world as it is, not as we would like it to be,” counted at that time Carney, with the intention of diversifying its alliances. Who arrives and how. According to the DSMA advisory firm, which is mediating between Chinese manufacturers and Canadian dealers, three brands lead the race: BYD, Geely and Chery. The three are working in parallel on the approval of vehicles, the construction of distribution networks and agreements with local financial partners. Jason Zhao, director of Asian market development at DSMA, estimates that the first cars could arrive at the end of 2026. It would look like this: BYD wants to open 20 dealerships in a year, starting in the Toronto area and then expanding to Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary, according to explained to The Globe and Mail Farid Ahmad, CEO of Dealer Solutions Mergers & Acquisitions. The brand is also studying the possibility of building its own production plant in the country, although, according to declared to Bloomberg a few weeks ago its executive vice president Stella Li, “no decision has been made yet.” Geely expects to soon receive certification from Canadian authorities for its vehicles, according to confirmed to Bloomberg Andy An, CEO of Zhejiang Geely Holding. The company already has some presence in North America through Volvo and Polestar, but Zeekr would be its first Chinese brand to reach the Canadian market. Cherry is hiring in Canada and has already registered several of its brands, including Omoda, Jaecoo and Exeed. In statements collected According to Automotive News Canada, the company stated that it is “evaluating avenues for future development, including alliances with local players,” although without confirming dates. The problem of times. Just because there is a trade agreement does not mean that the cars will arrive tomorrow. Stephen Beatty, industry consultant and former executive at Toyota Canada, counted to Automotive News Canada that, if starting from scratch, the homologation process can take “a year or more.” And the brands best positioned to be the first through the door are Tesla (which had already prepared its Shanghai factory to export to Canada in 2023) and Volvo and Polestar, which already operate in the Canadian market under a Chinese umbrella. Washington’s reaction. Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative, qualified the agreement “problematic” and warned that Canada might regret it. The issue raises concern in Washington, since if Chinese manufacturers manage to establish themselves in Canada, the US market (the great long-term objective) will be much closer. “The obvious end goal is all of North America,” counted Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights, in the middle. Between the lines. The United States maintains very high tariffs on Chinese cars and a ban on connectivity technology for Chinese-made vehicles, which has blocked any mass entry into its market. Canada, by opening its door, not only irritates Washington because of the direct commercial impact (about 49,000 cars are barely 3% of the Canadian market), but for what it represents: a precedent and a bridgehead. BYD, in fact, has already publicly ruled out trying to enter the US in the short term. Stella Li, speaking to Bloomberg, described the American market as a “complicated environment” and said that the brand is focused on other markets where it can replicate its successful model in Brazil. And now what. According to DSMA, large dealer groups in Canada they are divided: Half are actively looking to close an agreement with a Chinese brand, the other half are waiting to see how the situation evolves. The medium and small ones, on the other hand, are “all” interested, according to Zhao. Longer term, both DSMA and Sino Auto Insights estimate that between 15 and 20 Chinese manufacturers will end up operating in Canada. Cover image | Tom Carnegie and BYD In Xataka | What happens if you are in a self-driving taxi and someone wants to get into the car and attack you? Waymo’s response is not encouraging

Peru gave the keys to a giant door to China that the US now wants to blow up

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For years, Chancay was a secondary port on the central coast of Peru, one linked to regional exports and with a limited weight in international trade. Everything changed when, at the beginning of the 2010s, the project began to transform into a megaconstruction designed to receive the largest ships in the world, a leap that culminated with the entry of Chinese capital and the inauguration of a work called to redefine the country’s role in Pacific trade. A giant door to the Pacific. Peru has now become the central stage of the rivalry between China and the United States for a very specific reason: the Chancay megaport, a deep-water infrastructure north of Lima that acts as a direct gateway between South America and Asia and that has elevated the Andean country from a trading partner to a strategic piece. As we said, with the capacity to receive the largest cargo ships in the world and accelerate the flow of raw materials to China, the port symbolizes how a logistics project can alter regional balances and place a country in the middle of a dispute between powers. The direct notice. From the Washington Department of State, the Donald Trump administration rated case as an example of how “cheap Chinese money” can erode national control over critical infrastructure, an unusually harsh warning in pointing out that Peru could be losing sovereignty over one of its critical infrastructures, after a court ruling which limits the ability of the national regulator to supervise Chancay. For the United States, the message is clear: Chinese money, presented as cheap and fast, has a long-term political cost. A case that has become an example of the US strategy to stop the expansion of Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere and regain ground in a region that it considers vital for its security and global leadership. China and the Silk Road in Latin America. It we count some time ago. For Beijing, Chancay is a key piece of its Belt and Road Initiativethe great project with which it has financed ports, roads and airports around the world through credits and state guarantees. China has been for more than a decade the main partner Peru’s commercial sector and has invested massively in strategic sectors such as mining, electricity and transportation, consolidating a deep economic relationship that goes far beyond a single port and that reinforces its presence in the Latin American Pacific. The court ruling. The spark of the conflict has been court ruling Peruvian law that orders the authorities to refrain from regulating, supervising or sanctioning the activity of the port of Chancay, considering it a private facility. The regulator Ositran, which controls the rest of the country’s large ports, has denounced that this exception leaves users unprotected and creates a dangerous precedent, by making the operating company the only one that provides a public service without direct supervision of the State. The organization has already announced that it will appeal the decision. Cosco, sovereignty and red lines. The Chinese company Cosco Shipping, majority shareholder and operator of the port, has rejected any insinuation of loss of sovereignty and maintains that Chancay remains fully under Peruvian jurisdiction and subject to its laws, with the presence of police, customs and environmental authorities. For China, the US accusations are a political maneuver and a discredit campaign, while for Washington the problem is not only legal, but strategic: who controls, de facto, South America’s great gateway to transpacific trade. Peru trapped between two powers. The country is thus in an uncomfortable positionwith China as its main trading partner and the United States as a strategic ally and military partner, even designated as a main non-NATO ally. While Washington negotiates the construction of a naval base a few kilometers from Chancay, Beijing consolidates its influence economy around the same enclave. The result is a nation located in the middle of a major geopolitical battle, one where a port infrastructure has become the symbol of a difficult choice: take advantage of an economic opportunity without this giant door to the Pacific ending up conditioning its sovereignty and its international room for maneuver. Image | cosco In Xataka | China has been building a megaport in Peru for eight years. It has just been released to revolutionize South America In Xataka | €10 order, €30 tariffs: the EU has just approved the mother of tariffs for Aliexpress, Shein and Temu

if it closes the entrance door to the 10 million inhabitants

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Since post-war Europe, immigration has been a silent constant in the economic reconstruction of the continent, first to supply labor in industry and later to sustain growth and the welfare state in increasingly aging societies. Over the decades, this phenomenon went from being an assumed necessity to becoming a central political debate, especially after EU enlargements and economic crises. Today, Europe once again faces a question that it thought had been resolved: how far it is willing to go to remain an open space. The nerve figure. The idea we tell it a few months ago. Switzerland heads to a vote which condenses many of the tensions accumulated in Europe during the last decade: demographic growth, immigration, housing and the economic model. The proposal to set an absolute limit of 10 million inhabitantsdriven by the Swiss People’s Partyreaches the polls after gathering the necessary signatures in a country where direct democracy turns social unrest into state decisions. The situation: with a current population of 9.1 million and growth much higher than that of its neighbors, the debate no longer revolves around whether Switzerland can continue to grow, but rather whether if you want to do it. From attractive to “saturated” country. For decades, Swiss prosperity rested on high wages, political stability and an open economy capable of attracting both low-skilled labor and international talent. This success has had an increasingly visible reverse: a 27% foreign residentsa stressed real estate market and increasing pressure on infrastructure and public services. For defenders of the population cap, this growth has become uncontrollable and threatens the quality of life, but for its detractors, it is precisely the engine that has sustained the country’s wealth. The limit and its consequences. The initiative, a priori, does not propose a gradual system or flexible quotas, but rather a rigid, hard limit, which would force action once it exceeds 9.5 million and which, upon reaching 10 million, would literally imply close almost completely the entry of new residents, including asylum seekers and family reunifications. This absolute nature is possibly what most worries economists and companies, which warn of an abrupt stop to the arrival of workers just when the aging of the population is beginning to be noticed and the demand for labor remains high. Europe as a red line. The most delicate point of the plan is precisely its direct impact on the relationship with the European Union. The reason is very simple: if the limit is not respected, the Government would be obliged to abandon the agreement of free movement of people, the cornerstone of the treaties that guarantee Switzerland access to the single market. In a country where nearly half of exports go to the EU, breaking that link is not only a migration issue, but a structural change of the economic model built over decades. The economy versus the emotional vote. Other factors appear here, since multinationals and employers have reacted harshlywarning of relocations, loss of innovation and additional tensions on the pension system, largely fueled by foreign workers. For its part, the business lobby Economiesuisse has described the proposal of chaoticwhile academics emphasize that the recent stagnation of real wages and the increase in the cost of living have created a perfect breeding ground for looking for culprits in immigration, although the problems have more complex roots. Beyond the census. Polls show a country divided almost in half, with a support close to 48% which makes the result unpredictable. So it doesn’t seem like it’s just about deciding how many people can live in Switzerland. The fundamental crux points elsewhere: defining what kind of country do you want to be in an increasingly tense European environment. Either one that preserves its openness at the cost of better managing its internal imbalances, or another that raises a symbolic limit and assumes the risk of redefining its relationship with Europe and with its own idea of ​​prosperity. And, meanwhile, Europe hold your breath for what may arise from the decision. Image | Pexels In Xataka | Switzerland is about to exceed 10 million inhabitants. And he will do everything possible to avoid it. In Xataka | The countries with the largest immigrant population in the world, displayed on this map

Tesla popularized “invisible” car door handles. China has just handed down its death sentence

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In China they have been wanting for a long time ban retractable handles of the vehicles, a design commonly popularized by Tesla. It is no wonder, since over the last few years we have witnessed serious fatal and safety incidents involving this type of handles. The regulations will force many of the best-selling models on the market to be redesigned. what has happened. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has approved a new safety regulation that will come into force on January 1, 2027. The regulation prohibits door handles recessed in the body and requires that all vehicles have visible handles and a mechanical opening system on each door, according to they count from Financial Times. Why is it important. The hidden handle design has become popular in recent years in electric cars. In China they had been following Tesla’s example for a long time, looking for a more minimalist aesthetic and small aerodynamic improvements. Virtually all of the major electric car manufacturers in China have models with retractable handles. However, these designs have proven to be dangerous in emergency situations. The trigger. A fatal accident in 2024 with Aito’s M7 SUV was one of the main triggers. Three people, including a two-year-old child, died after a crash. Videos shared on social media showed rescue teams breaking windows to try to save victims. As Aito explained in a statement, “the power and signal cables were immediately cut, preventing the handle controller from receiving the ejection signal.” The concern continued after two accidents with the Xiaomi SU7whose videos showed people struggling to open the vehicle doors to rescue those inside, without luck. What the regulations require. Just like they explain from CarNewsChina, the ‘GB 48001-2026’ standard states that each door must have a mechanical exterior handle located in specific areas of the door surface, with sufficient space for manual operation in emergencies such as deployment of restraint systems or battery problems. Electric handles must include independent mechanical mechanisms capable of withstanding forces of at least 500 N. On the other hand, inside, each side door must have at least one mechanical opening handle with graphic symbols of at least 100 mm × 70 mm and clearly visible instructions or pictographic symbols. Impact on the industry. The regulations will affect numerous models from manufacturers such as Xiaomi, BYD and others that have adopted designs similar to Tesla. Bill Russo, founder of Automobility, counted to FT that the standard will require changes to some models but not a complete redesign. “Many manufacturers already design alternative handle solutions for export markets with different regulations,” he explains. “With the new regulation, we will be ready to change any handle as the government wants,” Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD, told Bloomberg TV. Outside China. Perhaps the most notorious case is in the United States, where the issue of hidden handles is also being investigated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened investigations on Tesla Model Y and Model 3 over concerns about the accessibility of their vehicles in emergencies. A particularly serious accident in California that caused the death of three teenagers in a Cybertruckwhere neither the occupants nor anyone close to the incident could open the doors through the hidden handles and reinforced glass, prompted Congress to take action and Tesla to announce a redesign of its handles. Cover image | Eyosias G In Xataka | Putting solar panels on an electric car sounds like a total win-win: the reality of extra autonomy is a bucket of cold water

Amazon is negotiating to invest 50 billion in OpenAI. The money would go in through the door and out through the window.

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is in talks with Sam Altman to close an investment of up to $50 billion in OpenAI. He has revealed it The Wall Street Journal and has confirmed it CNBC referring to his own sources. The deal could close in a matter of weeks as part of a record $100 billion funding round that would skyrocket OpenAI’s valuation to $830 billion. Today there are only fourteen listed companies in the world with a higher valuation. And none among the unlisted ones. Why is it important. Amazon would become the largest investor in the round, surpassing the 30 billion negotiated by another old acquaintance of technological mega-investments, SoftBank. And it does so just two months after OpenAI reached a valuation of half a billion dollars. Between the lines. Amazon has an important alliance with Anthropic from 2023that is, with the direct rival of OpenAI. AWS is its primary cloud provider, and in October inaugurated an 11 billion data center campus exclusively for Anthropic in Indiana. Betting at the same time on two companies that are so competitive with each other sounds like a paradox, but it is not so much if we think of Amazon as one of the sellers of picks and shovels in the AI ​​gold rush. They don’t care who finds the nuggets because they charge for the tools. The money trail. In addition to Amazon’s 50 billion, NVIDIA is negotiating to invest 20 billion and Microsoft “several billion more.” The three companies sell OpenAI just what it needs to exist: chips and computing capacity in data centers. Yes, but. This circular scheme is not going unnoticed and has raised more than one eyebrow: Amazon basically ensures itself many years of guaranteed income (at least as long as OpenAI does not go bankrupt, something no one can afford) while diversifying risks by also betting on Anthropic. Just in case. In detail. Although nothing has been leaked that could take it for granted, this investment could perfectly include clauses for OpenAI to adopt the AWS own chips. Or that Amazon sells ChatGPT Enterprise subscriptions to its enterprise customers. It will be through parallel business channels. OpenAI has insane costs with the dark clouds caused by the arrival of Gemini 3 and its great reception. So they are considering ways to sustain capital-devouring growth, such as the much-rumored IPO. The context. a few days ago, Amazon announced the layoff of 16,000 employees “office”, not warehouse or logistics. It is their second round of layoffs for them after 14,000 in October. In total, 30,000 casualties. Meanwhile, it has projected investments that already total 125 billion by 2026 in data centers alone. There is no other large technology company with such a high spending projection. It is a contradiction that has an overwhelming logic: if with AI you are going to be able to do more with fewer jobs, you choose to cut salaries to allocate them to investment. Go deeper. This movement is another nail in the… pattern: big technology companies no longer compete so much to develop the best AI but to control the infrastructure that supports it. Whoever has control of data centers and chips will have control of the business. Regardless of which chatbot succeeds. Featured image | Dima Solomin In Xataka | There was a time not too long ago when the future of supermarkets seemed like Amazon Go. Now Amazon Go is dead

Canada has opened the door to Chinese electric cars. The US warns: “they are going to regret it”

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Canada has reopened the doors of electric vehicles from China, giving a radical turn to its trade policy. Last Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney reduced tariffs by 100% to 6.1%, which could take the Canadian automobile market to a new horizon. Below these lines we tell you what this may imply. Change. The move comes a year after Canada impose massive tariffs to Chinese electric vehicles, following in the footsteps of the United States under the Biden administration. The argument, as describe from the BBC, was that they considered China to be carrying out ‘a policy of deliberate overproduction’. Now, with relations between Canada and the United States on somewhat delicate ground under the Trump administration, the Canadian government has chosen to diversify its trade alliances. “We take the world as it is, not as we would like it to be,” counted Carney. Quantities. The initial agreement allows the entry of up to 49,000 electric vehicles annually from China with the reduced tariff of 6.1%. This figure represents approximately 3% of the total Canadian market, which is around two million vehicles per year, according to account the Driving medium. According to the prime minister, the quota could increase to 70,000 vehicles within five years. Furthermore, the agreement stipulates that, in that period, more than 50% of these vehicles must be affordable models with an import price of less than 35,000 Canadian dollars (about 21,569 euros at the exchange rate). Date. Although there is no exact confirmed date, several media predict its arrival in the coming weeks. Addisu Lashitew, associate professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, counted to the CBC that Chinese manufacturers have the capacity to accelerate production and ship quickly. BYD, the largest Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles, even operates its own cargo ships, which could shorten shipping times even further. Brands that will arrive first. Curiously, the first brands to benefit from this opening will not necessarily be the purely Chinese ones. Tesla is in a prime position to take advantage of the deal immediately, according to they count from Reuters. Elon Musk’s company had already equipped its Shanghai plant in 2023 to manufacture a specific version of the Model Y destined for Canada, exporting more than 44,000 vehicles that year before the 100% tariffs came into effect. Other brands with a previous presence include Volvo and Polestar, both owned by the Chinese group Geely. For purely Chinese brands like BYD or Nio, the process will be somewhat slower, as they will have to establish dealer networks, service chains and spare parts markets from scratch. Disparate political reaction. The Premier of Saskatchewan (province of Canada), Scott Moe, celebrated the agreement as “very good news,” especially since China has committed to reducing tariffs on Canadian agricultural products such as rapeseed. However, Ontario Premier Doug Ford critical harshly criticized the move, calling Chinese electric vehicles “subsidized spy cars” and warning that the deal would “damage our economy and lead to job losses.” To put it in context, Ontario is the province where the Canadian automobile industry is concentrated. The US response. United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer qualified the agreement “problematic” and warned that Canada might regret it. However, President Trump declared that it was “a good thing” and that “if you can get a deal with China, you should do it.” The reflection of Japan. In 1981, Canada reached a similar agreement with Japan, allocating unit quotas instead of prices. The result was that Japanese manufacturers simply moved up the range: Civics became Accords, Corollas became Camrys. In two or three years, the average price of an imported Japanese car went from $8,000 to $14,000, as remember Greig Mordue, director of the Master of Engineering and Public Policy program at McMaster University, told Driving. However, that agreement also led to Honda and Toyota establishing production plants in Canada, today becoming the two largest vehicle manufacturers in the country. In fact, according to revealed A senior Canadian official told the CBC, the government wants to explore the idea of ​​​​creating joint ventures and investments with Chinese companies in the next three years to build a Canadian electric vehicle with Chinese know-how. More competition. Lashitew emphasize that the entry of cheaper Chinese vehicles will force other manufacturers to lower their prices, which would make electric vehicles more accessible to consumers and help Canada move toward its emissions reduction goals. “With electric vehicles still 30% to 50% more expensive than comparable gasoline cars, reducing trade barriers would significantly ease the affordability constraint,” he noted. Cover image | aboodi vesakaran and Xataka In Xataka | Cars are so absurdly expensive that FIAT already has a plan to solve it: limit them to 117km/h

Apple has found a way to win in the AI ​​era without having the best AI: be the door

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Apple has just done something that was unthinkable until recently: publicly admit that you don’t have the best AI. That after fifteen years of trying to make Siri work, with the advantage of hitting first, he gives up. That the brains of Apple Intelligence, including the new Siri, Google will put it. And yet, it has just gained momentum to preserve its dominant position for the next decade. A technological paradox. This isn’t a move Apple should be very proud of, but it has a nicer side: in the age of AI, being the best may not be so important. What matters is being the door. For half a century, the value in technology has been in innovation. IBM, Microsoft, Google, Facebook… they were all winning by creating something that no one else had. The reading with this step by Apple is that that era may be over: if AI models are updated every quarter and the difference between the best and the second is indistinguishable for 95% of users, what sense does it make to spend 50,000 kilos on research to go behind? It sounds sexier, especially to investors, to be the one who charges a toll for each interaction. And for that you don’t need the best model, you need the device that people have in their pockets. That’s the bet: Siri will continue to work, being owned by Apple and running on Apple hardware, but the piece that changes is the intelligence, the LLM. The most expensive piece to develop and the one that possibly provides the least differentiation when you have a billion iPhones. Apple does not give up something that matters to it at all, but rather outsources the part in which it cannot compete. Bittersweet for the company, bitter for its devotees, reasonable for its investors. The real deal is not in what Apple pays, but in what it gets. Google pays 20 billion a year for being the default search engine in Safari, and now sells (or delivers, the terms of the agreement have not been made public) the Apple Intelligence feed. But Apple not only charges, it also receive data on how 1 billion users interact with AI in mobile context: You know what they’re asking. When. How they formulate queries. What do they reject? What do they repeat? Google gets better distribution, and Apple gets tremendously valuable training. If having the best AI is no longer a competitive advantage, what is? OpenAI has the best product. Anthropic has the best technology. Google has the best infrastructure. But Apple has the iPhone. And in a world where AI is gone commoditizingin which one model is valid until the next one arrives three months later, the only moat What holds is the device. There is not so much need to innovate if you control access. You just need what comes through your door to be good enough. AND Gemini is fantastic. Therein lies the problem. In the age of AI, whoever controls the device can live off income by letting others innovate. What incentive does Apple have to really improve AI? As long as Gemini works well on iPhones, Apple won’t care if there are models that are 12% better. Their business is collecting the toll, not pushing the border. Innovation still exists and Google / OpenAI / Anthropic / xAI will continue to compete, but Now it is made by companies that do not capture all of its value while it is exploited by those who do not create it.. Welcome to digital rentism. Where the one who controls the door decides how much those who pass through it should improve. AND “Sufficient” always beats “exceptional” when the decider does not pay for the difference. Apple did the rationally right thing. And that, precisely, should scare us. In Xataka | Alphabet has just overtaken Apple in the ranking of the most valuable companies in the world. The reason is in AI Featured image | Rubaitul Azad, Dennis Brendel

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