dragons

Huawei is not the only one seeking to challenge Nvidia. There are four other “little dragons” knocking on the door

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“AI” may be one of the words of the year, but “funding round” is a concept that wouldn’t be far behind in the competition. The unicorn is a OpenAI that, if in 2024 it prepared for exceed 100 billion dollarstoday It is bigger than Coca-Cola or Samsung. He has achieved it thanks to money injected by third partiesand Chinese companies want to follow the same strategy as American companies with only one goal in mind: erase the United States from the equation. It’s the ‘Delete A’ plan. Biren. Talking about Chinese artificial intelligence is talking about deepseek and a few other models, but above all hardware companies like Huawei. Their GPUs are the ones that are helping for the Chinese AI field to flourish, and within those GPU companies is Shanghai Biren Technology. As we read in SCMPhas begun a financing round that seeks to raise more than 620 million dollars. Founded by Nvidia and Alibaba veterans, Biren has to his credit BR100one of China’s promises of raw performance to power the demanding data centers needed to train the artificial intelligence. And, unlike others that have opted for Chinese markets, Biren has chosen Hong Kong to attract international capital more easily. They are not the only ones in this race. Moore Threads. If Biren has Nvidia veterans on his team, Moore Threads is directly led by Zhang Jianzhongwho headed Nvidia in China. Perhaps, it is China’s most accurate response to Nvidia itself, and the reason is that it seeks replicate Jensen Huang’s business model combining 3D graphics, for a growing Chinese ecosystem of gamers, and GPUs for AI. To their credit they have the recent architecture Huaganga series that promises 50% more computing density compared to the company’s previous generation of chips, while being ten times more energy efficient. That efficiency is key to keeping AI operating costs at bay, something of vital importance for a China focusing on cheaper artificial intelligencebut functional as soon as possible. And saying that it is Nvidia’s great Chinese rival is not shooting with blank bullets. On the one hand, they are Huashan chips focused on massive clusters of up to 10,000 cards to train LLMs. On the other hand, the chips Lushan that feature hardware ray tracing for the video game market. New Moore Threads GPUs support major gaming APIs little dragons. When Moore Threads debuted on the Shanghai stock market earlier this month, Its shares skyrocketed 500% on the first day, demonstrating that the Chinese market wants to have “its Nvidia”. Biren and Moore Threads are two of the legs of the table. The other two are MetaX (formed by former members of AMD and focused on computing power) and Enflame (a company backed by Tencent and who develop AI systems in the Cloud for Tencent itself). Are known as the “four little dragons of AI” (although other startups are known the same), four of the most promising GPU startups in China that, together with Huawei that has taken giant steps with its AScend 910Dthey have only one objective. “Delete A“Delete the United States. In 2022, when it was still recent the veto of Huawei by the United States in it escalation of the trade war between the US and China, China’s State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission launched Document 79. It was an initiative to encourage the creation of technology that would turn its hardware companies into heavyweights in the global industry. However, there was something else. According to Wall Street Journalthis document has an unusual level of secrecy and an underlying idea: delete United States. Hence the ‘Delete A’ or ‘Delete America’. As? Making all state-owned companies operating in strategic sectors (such as finance, telecommunications, defense or energy) replace foreign software and hardware with domestic alternatives. When? Before of 2027. To do this, national options must be given, and hence the boost to Huawei and startups like these “little dragons.” Although it has also given headaches to companies that have not been able to access Nvidia chips such as Nvidia H20 because they must opt ​​for native solutions, less powerful or optimized in some aspects. Chinese sovereignty. And this development is not just a whim of China, but a necessity. Huawei, Enflame, Moore Threads and Biren, among many others, are on the Entity List of the US Department of Commerce. This prohibits trading with Western companies and access that foreign technology, although more recently the United States has loosened the rope, allowing Nvidia can sell its H200 chips to China… under certain conditions. It is a clear movement resulting from “if China is going to have the technology anyway, let’s take advantage while we can.” And it is because Huawei is working on a open alternative to Nvidia’s CUDA technologythe real ace up the company’s sleeve. Because it is no longer about technical muscle, but about the “language” that the AI ​​speaks. And when China manages to develop this “interpreter”, that is when they will have taken the real leap forward in the development of their tools and in the search for that sovereignty. Images | BirenMoore In Xataka | Big tech is starting to pawn grandma’s jewels for AI: it’s a worrying symptom

Ten years ago, this man introduced radical changes in ‘Dungeons & Dragons’. Thanks to them, it is now a millionaire fever

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‘Dungoons & Dragons’ is the Role game par excellenceand his reign has not turned off the least since 1974, when his most primitive version, still very little affordable because of his rules system, He saw the light. He still had decades ahead and much to evolve to become the accessible entertainment that moves millions of devotees from fantasy of all the world that is today. In the Comic-with Malaga We have had the opportunity to listen to Jeremy Crawford, one of the architects of the fifth edition of the game. It is considered the most modern and affordable: its way of simplifying the classic rules without losing all the richness and complexity that had made ‘D&D This was told by Crawford, a recognized game enthusiast who is also a precise analyst of everything that is attractive to the franchise. The fifth edition broke sales records from its departure, with 3 million copies sold (“It is the first edition of D&D whose sales have not stopped increasing”), But what factors contributed to this unprecedented success? A good part of this is attributed to the explosion of online retransmissions of items, As we count at the time: “Thanks to the fundamental role of Dimension 20 And many other live games programs, now just enter YouTube, Twitch or other services to see how the game is. You can see how fun it is. You can see that it is not as intimidating as it might seem by the extensive regulation “ An important part of this growth is also due to the “analog” part of that diffusion: players shared their enthusiasm for the game with friends and family, inviting them to try it. This made, despite having half a century old, the game was new to many people: “Much of what happened is that you started telling your friends. You started inviting your family,” says Crawford. This emotional connection contributed to the sustained increase in sales, a phenomenon that unusual in previous editions, which normally experienced a decrease after launch. Recommended readings However, all this does not start from the void. There are some previous and foundational elements that had to study before getting to work. Crawford told us that his team “not only studied the previous editions, but that we immerse ourselves in the books that inspired the original games (Elric’s novels, ‘The Lord of the Rings0, HP Lovecraft and Conan stories …) to understand firsthand on what the original D&D creators were based.” Much of that material was “included in the list of readings that Gary Gygax provided in the first edition of the Dungeon Master guide” To this is added that Crawford feels “a deep love for ancient mythology and world history.” This personal interest, together with their trips through Europe and the reading of ancient books about occultism and history, constitutes “a large part of my inspiration when working in any fantastic world.” The objective is to understand “how people thought in the past and then transfer that to the worlds we create, the adventures we design, and incorporate part of that inspiration.” This approach guarantees a large range of options for players, by “resorting to as many sources of inspiration as possible.” Finally, Crawford detailed some steps that had followed to determine which elements of ‘d & d’ conserve and which to let them evolve during the design of the fifth edition: one of the things is “play a lot. There is nothing to play your own game as a designer. And in the case of ‘D & D’, also being the Dungeon Master. “And there is the key to the contagious enthusiasm that Crawford communicated to the audience. Crawford told the public that “any of you who is a game director in ‘D&D’ or other role -playing game, is a game designer. Because being a game designer means creating experiences for other people to enjoy, which is exactly what a master’s degree does.” And he concluded: “Every time someone asks me: ‘What should I do to be a game designer?’ I often say that you have to be a game director, because it is experienced in real time how people respond to what one has created. And also how people usually do what they want in response to what one has created” And that was a bit the summary of what Crawford injected to the fifth edition: all the attendees were designers of the game because to start, the designers of the game were also players. That was the key to an impulse for ‘Dungoons & Dragons’ in its fifth edition and today survives. Header | Gian-Luca Riner in Unspash In Xataka | To play Dungoons & Dragons you just needed ball, paper and dice. Now a course of 2,000 dollars wants to teach you better

‘Dungoons & Dragons’ lives an unprecedented success stage. And the reason is far from the origins of the game

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Many years ago that ‘Dungoons & Dragons’the legendary role of paper, pencil and dice (among other things) is not a marginal entertainment for rare people with little social life. Recall that in the eighties, the franchise already had an animation series, video games and supervantant books based on your Lore. But for a few years he has made a new leap of implantation in the mainstream. And it has been thanks to content creators and their overwhelming dissemination work of a hobby with millions of followers. A triumph that does not cease. ‘D & d’ has today More than 50 million players registered worldwide. Only in 202o, the sales of official products of ‘d & d’ grew 33% compared to the previous yearconsolidating seven consecutive years of double digit growth. In 2021, Wizards of the Coast entered more than one billion dollars, even when Hasbro, owner of the company, had spectacular losses that year. And that impact has set in a presence in more massive media than ever: one of Netflix’s greatest successes, ‘Stranger Things’, starts its mythology in the games, and its last season bases its argument around the game and “satanic panic“That in the eighties, it was partly linked to the role. One of the best -selling games of 2023 was’ Baldur’s Gate III ‘. And also in 2023, the first adaptation of the game in a long time to the big screen,’Honor between thieves‘, He resulted in a respectable box office of 208 million dollars. The usual success. To understand us, ‘D&D’ has always been a successful game: I remember how in the eighties there were already stores dedicated to role -playing games in Murcia. And believe me: If someone in Murcia considered in the eighties that it was worth dedicating a trade to the subject, there was a considerable potential audience. But the truth is that a unique rebirth has lived in recent times, and is not a product of a traditional marketing campaign: it is the result of a unique convergence between the natural evolution of the game, the massification of digital platforms and the appearance of content creators who have transformed private games into shared experiences. The turning point. Just at the same time that the first content of ‘D&D’ content appeared, in the edition of the game itself another revolution took place: the launch of the fifth edition in 2014 represented much more than a simple rules update. It was a strategic restart that laid the foundations for the digital phenomenon that was to come: an unprecedented redesign process that would last two years and that was revolutionary for its collaborative approach. An open “Playtest” process not only democratized development, but also established a crucial precedent: extending the idea of ​​the community as co-creator, which again settled the foundations for this new way of living the game that shaped the programs. In addition, the mechanics were drastically simplified: where the previous editions required to consult multiple complex tables and modifiers, the fifth edition adopted a unified system based on the 20 -sides dice that was consistently applied to everything that happened in the game. The fifth edition prioritized the narrative on the simulation: field paid for content creators where the basics is to tell a story, and the simplified rules thus expedite the videos. In addition, Wizard of the Coast launched the “Basic Rules” completely free: A free access PDF containing complete rules to start immediately to play. The first wave. The first of these content programs linked to real items (current play in the codes that classify these videos) was Critical role: In 2012, a group of American dubbing actors played ‘D&D’ on Twitch to have fun at home, and over time it has become a media empire with an animated series in Prime Video that already has three seasons, official books published by the same Wizards of the Coast that edit the role game, and a global audience of more than 10 million subscribers. But Critical Role is just the tip of the iceberg of a much broader and more diverse ecosystem. Soon others followed as The Adventure Zone (in podcast format) or Candela darkthat revealed how fun it is to invent stories with friends. A very studied timing. The launch of the fifth edition coincided with a point of effervescence of the streaming platforms: Twitch was acquired by Amazon just a month after the launch of the rules, YouTube improved its tools for creators and Discord would arrive very soon, in 2015. In addition, an open license was implemented and, later, a reference system of Dungeons & Dragons. These tools explicitly allowed content creators, application developers and media producers create derived content without fear of legal problems. The scene grows. Since then, they have not stopped being born channels that spread role games. There are those that have exceeded Critical Role, such as Dimension 20that already do live shows in the Madison Square Garden and that stand out for their absence of prejudices by introducing elements of genres and franchises that go beyond the classic ‘D&D’. And also in Spanish this type of content has grown a lot: Streamers such as Orslokx, Elrubius or Alexby11 introduced in their usual programs of D%D, those who have followed channels as Lynx’s such, The dragon mansion, Within says either Churros & Dragons among many others. It is ironic and significant that a completely analog game system has found its main fame springboard today through technology. If it demonstrates something, it is that ‘Dungoons & Dragons’ is one of the most universal and versatile games that exist. And that, without a doubt, we will continue to see it evolve. Header | Timothy Dykes in Unspash In Xataka | ‘Magic’ is reborn in popularity and there is a reason: franchises and multiverse have flooded the game

Welcome to Hangzhou, the house of the ‘Six Little Dragons’

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The Chinese city of Shenzhen is still one technological centers most prominent in the country. There they have their headquarters giants such as Huawei, Tencent or DJI. However, with the Boom of AI there is another city that is concentrating some of the most innovative companies of the moment and already stands like the new Chinese Valley Silicon. Welcome to Hangzhou. Alibaba. Jack Ma chose his hometown as the headquarters of the one who would become the Chinese giant of electronic commerce. Without knowing it, he put the seed of what Hangzhou is now. Alibaba attracted investors and encouraged the creation of a culture tech local; even former employees have formed other companies In the city. Alibaba Cloud Technology has also been key in the development of many AI startups. With Eight data centers In the region, Alibaba has made Hangzhou fertile land for the birth of numerous startups IA. The ‘Six Little Dragons’. This is how the group formed by the six most leading companies of the moment in China is nicknamed, all of them based in Hangzhou: University of Zhejiang. They call her the “Stanford of the East,”. Stanford University in California formed many of Silicon Valley’s outstanding figures and Zhejiang University is doing the same with the leaders of these companies. Deepseek, Manycore and Deep Robotics were covers by students of this university. According to SCMPuntil September 2024 the university had produced 102 Chinese startup executives. Government support. The city is home to numerous investment funds dedicated to incubating new technology companies and have very favorable policies that do not exist in other Chinese cities. They count on this SCMP video That students who want to form a company can get a loan of up to 500,000 Yuan (about 60,000 euros). If the company fails, the government covers up to 100,000 yuan and if it is more, up to 80% of the total loan. An example is that of Game Science, to whom the government paid the rental of the offices during the first three years and also helped them get the license to launch the game. Also the case of Brainco, a startup that as we said was based in Boston, but thanks to the incentives offered by the Chinese government, they managed to move to Hangzhou. Administrative efficiency. Another of the points where Hangzhou has stood out on other cities is its bureaucratic efficiency. Here was born Initiative called “A visit at most.” It means that if you have to do paperwork to set up a company or request some help, you just need to visit the administration once. It has worked so well that they are taking it to more cities. Return. The efforts to make Hangzhou a technological hub of reference are paying fruits. Official data indicates that Hangzhou’s technology industry It grew by 7.1% in 2024 and produced 630,000 million yuan (approximately 75,000 million euros), which is a third of the gross domestic product of the city. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | China wants to win the AI race at all costs. The striking how you are doing it: creating another career among its cities

To play Dungoons & Dragons you just needed ball, paper and dice. Now a course of 2,000 dollars wants to teach you better

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To direct a game of Dungoons & Dragons, the legendary role -playing gamejust a dice, a paper and a pencil. Okay, you need to know basic rules, but essentially traditional role -playing games are a lot of friends using their imagination to develop stories. the D & D Dungeon Master University It is willing to end that: one thousand euros for an accelerated and official role of role in a luxury environment and surrounded by experts in the field. It is not an eccentricity: it is the last sample of the tendency to become the luxury experiences of the simplest hobbys. What is this university. A luxury retreat that teaches you all the secrets of the role of role games. There are subjects such as skill development, campaign creation, world construction and professional development. It will take place at the Oglethorpe University of Atlanta. The courses will be on January 2 and 3 of next year, although students who are from January 1 to 4 are asked (a bit complicated dates, if they ask us). As for prices, they range from $ 995 to 2,250, which includes private meetings and games with teachers and other advantages (such as an exclusive jacket). But who are these people. The event is organized by the people of D&D in A A A A, organizers of immersive retirement events that they offer Dungeons & Dragons experiences within real castles (All officially and in collaboration with the owners of the brand). For four days, players of all levels play the role in marathons that arrive at 24 hours and with all the comforts (food, accommodation) inspired by the game. Of course, there are parallel activities (workshops, miniatures, Escape Roomsarchery …) to foster the community, in what becomes a kind of thematic cruise, but dry. Make community. In principle it seems an eccentric luxury, but it is only another way to create new physical ties in hobbies. As he counted This great article about The Verge Comic-Con, Sharing our hobbies is an extremely healthy attitude and the Dungeon Master University and his older sister, D&D in A Castle, are ways of promoting them. Increasingly, conventions, courses and encounters are ways of prolonging our leisure and free time, and there are even websites, such as Meetup, Classbento in the United Kingdom or Fancoons in the US that are responsible for listing and announcing these types of activities. Hobby is a luxury. But beyond conventions and encounters, there is another trend behind these wealthy role -playing courses: to convert simple, traditionally cheap and accessible activities for everyone, in luxury artifacts. Reading clubs are transformed into part of the activities of select clubs at 2500 euros of fee per year; embroidery is the opportunity to make a Exotic and luxury trip which includes workshops and talks about technique; The paint is carried in the calls Art Holidays, where natural can be painted in exquisite landscapes; And something similar happens with photography, to extremes such as expeditions Capture Earth To photograph wildlife. The meaning of luxury. Luxury experiences They have always been there to corroborate social status or to fantasize with what is no more than A couple of days a yearbut this trend goes one step further: it converts our more conventional hobbies into unique experiences. One more step in the transformation of our life into a showcase, including such little distinguished activity (until now) How to play role. In Xataka | Paper, pencil and a messaging app: this is all you need to play ‘Dungoons & Dragons’ and other role -playing games

In the fierce war for augmented reality, China has five “dragons” willing to win it

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I’ve been observing from the barrier how the career of The augmented reality. And, I must be Franco: so far no one had taken it seriously, not even Apple. Vision Pro It is a brilliant product, but niche. Very niche. Google herself renocated in her most important event of the year, the I/or 2025 which believes to recognize as a key to democratize access to this product category. “We know that glasses can only be really useful if you want to wear them all day.” And Android XR arrived Android XR marks a before and after. It is the first real effort to create an accessible mass platform for every manufacturer that bets on augmented or mixed reality glasses. What seemed An initial project in conjunction with Samsung To develop a VR helmet, it has ended up materializing in a paradisiacal garden on which any manufacturer can walk. This operating system will play a fundamental role in the popularization of A format with great sale potential: Traditional glasses with augmented reality. A platform through which users can use (naturally) apps such as Google Maps, photos and, the most important, Gemini, on reduced size devices. Google is not winning only the race when developing an open platform that gives life to a product that free us (at least partially) of the smartphone, is also leading Who offers the best assistant driven by AI. The Gemini native integration In augmented reality glasses it makes even more sense than a mobile. The voice command becomes almost an essential when the physical interaction with the device is minimized. It is, in fact, Google’s goal. Free ourselves from the smartphone in daily tasks How to call, follow addresses towards some point or something as simple as adding a reminder to the calendar. The friction is minimized to remove the mobile from the pocket for any of these purposes. Glasses, voice command, effective execution. THE BATTLE FOR PRICE AND FORMAT Vision Pro or even Quest target are born as niche products. Apple sells mixed reality at almost 4,000 dollars (taxes included), with results below analysts’ predictions. About 175,000 units sold in a year. Goal has been Selling the Oculus Quest as hot breadwith an accumulated of 20 million units. Perhaps the quality-price has something to do. So much that Apple considers to focus efforts on more economical vision. “We know that glasses can only be really useful if you wanttake them all day. “ Virtual reality has its niche, But the augmented opens to products mainstream (glasses that you can wear almost all day), a formula that starts working. Not satisfied with Meta Quest figures, the company started four years ago an incursion into the world of traditional format glasses next to Ray-Ban. First with Ray-Ban Storiesand Three years later with Ray-Ban Meta. A new product, a “new” format, and One million sales in their first year of life. The “traditional glasses with headphones and things” works. But the goal is missing a platform adapted to this format and less limited hardware (these glasses can barely record some video, receive notifications and call). And there China comes into play China has been engaged in a career to lead the technologies necessary to create traditional format glasses with augmented reality. And there are five big names in it: XREAL Rayneo Rokid Immobile Meizu It is curious how, beyond giants like Huawei (whose platform Harmonyos does not currently prioritize AR devices) innovation in this territory is in the hands of small businesses. XREAL It is a start-up that already works in some Badge glasses Under the Android XR platform. It will be a product to take into account and relevant to China, since Most hardware is produced nationwide (currently 65%, with the aim of reaching 100% on a two -year horizon). Instead of betting on Qualcomm technologies, Xreal has its own chip for glasses, the X1. Rayneo It may sound more, and it is a subsidiary of the Chinese giant TCL. He is working with Alibaba to take AI models to smart glasses and, for the 2028 Olympic Games, they plan collaborate with COI to create promotional videos in which the perspective of athletes (which will wear scratch glasses) is the protagonist. A look at your website It lets us see that they are focused on markets beyond the Chinese, with the focus currently on the projection of content. Rokid It is founded by an ex-alibaba, and manufactures glasses that use the QWAN model (precisely Alibaba) to translate into real time. It has enough state support, and works with national companies. Although it has a consumer product, it is quite focused on specific solutions. Immobile He is one of China Mobile’s main collaborators in his attempt to develop one of the great national language models. Jiutian LLMone of the first models, and is being tested in the glasses of augmented reality of immobile. Their abilities are multimodal (voice, text, compression of what you are seeing), and the connection is direct by 5G to the cloud of China Mobile, without the mobile as an intermediary. Finally we have Meizua historic Chinese manufacturer who tried in Spain with its mobiles but could not with Huawei and Xiaomi. The company has developed Llm Flyme a multimodal AI engine that vertebra both its XR devices and its connected car systems. They also combine text, voice and visual recognition, integrated in recent launch glasses, such as their Starv Air 2. A company recently acquired by the Geely engine giant, with expansion plans outside China. The keys to winning this format race Although Google has put the platform on the table and has set your hand to companies that want to collaborate with it, this It is still a war to dispute And in which there are still no proposals for attack to the generalist public, beyond the first goal approach with Rayban … with glasses that do not even execute augmented reality. Google has important strategic advantages: its Android ecosystem is unbeatable … Read more

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