economy

who are the names that move the country’s economy

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The size of a company is, ultimately, a matter of perspective. For example, Inditex worth more in the stock market than any other Spanish company, but Repsol far surpasses it if what we look at is its income. On the other hand, Mercadona, without being listed in any index, employs more people in Spain than any large multinational based in the country. They are three different data that return three business maps that barely overlap, but together they form the business reality of Spain and about how the Spanish economy is built, revealing which sectors generate wealth for investorswhich ones move the most money and which are those companies that really move the employment needle in our country. The Top 10 companies of the IBEX35 The most common when we talk about large companies is to go to the IBEX35, the Spanish stock ranking which does not measure how much a company invoices or how many people it employs, but rather how much investors trust in your future. With that criterion, Inditex leads the list with a wide difference. At the end of March 2026, after publishing its annual resultsits stock market value was around 163,500 million euros, although in December 2025 it reached 175,155 million, its historical maximum. At that time, investment bank Jefferies revised upwards its target price for the share, which would imply a value greater than 200,000 million euros. Inditex’s capitalization advantage over the rest of the companies does not come from your sales volumebut of what the company founded by Amancio Ortega win with every euro you sell. In its fiscal year of 2025, the textile company obtained a record net profit of 6,220 million, 6% more than the previous year. This explains why large banks, such as Santander, BBVA or CaixaBank and energy companies such as Iberdrola or Endesa, with larger business figures, are left behind on the stock market. In 2025, by first time in historyfive Spanish companies exceeded 100,000 million euros on the stock market at the same time. Despite this, the index continues to be dominated by banks and electricity companies. However, sectors with a very important presence in the daily lives of Spaniards (such as the food industry, hospitality, automotive) barely have a presence in this index. Largest companies in Spain by turnover When the criterion is not investor confidence, but the total income that a company generates, the map turns upside down. The oil, gas and electricity companies They occupy the first positions because they buy and sell enormous quantities of raw materials, although what they keep as profit is a relatively small part of that figure. In this case, Repsol is the clearest example. In 2025, the fall in the price of oil, with a barrel of Brent falling 14.5% to $69.1 on average, took its toll. His operating result It fell 12.2%, to 5,312 million euros, although the final net profit rose 8.1%, to 1,899 million. That is, billing is not the same as entering. The big surprise from the list of companies with the highest turnover in Spain It’s Mercadona. Without being listed on the stock market and with hardly any presence in the financial debate, the Valencian chain founded by Juan Roig closed 2025 with 41,858 million euros in sales (8% more) and a net profit of 1,729 million (25% more). These figures have left Mercadona with 28.5% of market share in food in Spain, six tenths above 2024. Juan Roig qualified the “historical” exercise. Inditex, on the other hand, despite being the most powerful company in market capitalization, remains in a middle position in the income ranking. Largest companies in Spain by number of employees There is a tendency to think that a large company also needs a large workforce, something that large technology companies also insist on denying month and month with their large rounds of layoffs. In fact, the proof of nine for this theory is that the list of largest companies in Spain for the employment they generate subverts the order again. The company that hires the most people in Spain is neither the largest on the stock market nor the one with the most turnover: it is Santander Bank and all the personnel it employs in the operations management area. More than 198,400 employees, despite the cuts to your workforce of branches. Mercadona closed 2025 with 110,000 workers between Spain and Portugal and that year raised salaries of its entire workforce 8.5%. The most striking contrast in the ranking is the one between the extremes with Repsol, which heads the billing list, is located at the bottom of the employment list since its workforce is around 25,000 people thanks to the high level of automation of its activity. Inditex or ACS need staff five or six times larger than Repsol to function due to the nature of their activity. The difference between selling clothes or build roads and extract oil or distribute electricity, explains why the impact on employment of these companies has nothing to do with their weight on the stock market or income. The largest companies in Spain by autonomous community Reading the business map of Spain by autonomous community reveals something that economic or national lists tend to hide: the country’s economy is more decentralized than it seems, and many of the companies that lead the economy or employment in their region are not even listed on the stock market or are those that obtain the most profits. Autonomous Community Company Sector Billing approx. 2025 Madrid Repsol Energy and oil €76.3 billion the Basque Country Iberdrola Electrical energy €45,546 M Com. Valencian Mercadona Food distribution €41,858 M Galicia Inditex Textile retail €39,864 M Cantabria Santander Bank Banking €135,000 M Catalonia seat Automotive €12,000 M Aragon Stellantis Spain Automotive €4,159 M Navarre Volkswagen Navarra Automotive €12,000 M Castile and León Renault Spain Automotive €10,000 M Andalusia Airbus Spain Aeronautics and defense €73,420 M Asturias ArcelorMittal Spain Iron and steel industry €3,749 M Murcia The Well Feeding €2,000 … Read more

We already know what AI contributed to the US economy in 2025: “basically zero”

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In 2025, in the US, 410 billion were invested in AI and the plan Big technology is to spend about 650,000 million in 2026 (thousand up, thousand down). The promise behind this madness is that AI is synonymous with wealth; With AI we are more productive, we do more and faster, and companies can spend less on staff. Economists have something to say. Zero. It is the impact that investment in AI has had on the United States economy and It was said by none other than Jan Hatziusthe chief economist at Goldman Sachs, a global leader in investment banking. According to Hatzius, there is a lot of misinformation about the impact that AI investment is having on the US GDP and it comes from the error of assuming that because you invest a lot, you gain a lot. As they point out in FuturismGoldman Sachs’ rhetoric has been hardening; First they were subtle warnings about the dangers of investing so wildly in AI and now they directly say that in 2025 the contribution was insignificant or, in their words, “basically zero.” Debate. During 2025, speeches were circulating that placed AI as responsible for a large part of the country’s GDP growth, some with figures as optimistic as 92%. The economist Hanna Rubinton conducted an analysis somewhat more restrained, but also optimistic, in which he stated that spending on AI had contributed 39% to economic growth during the first nine months of 2025. However, he recognizes that it includes spending on software and computers that was not necessarily linked to AI, so the figure could be inflated. Goldman Sachs has not been the only bank to pour cold water on AI enthusiasts, Economists from JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley agree in which the real figure is closer to zero. Distorting the economy. That there is such a variety of analyzes has largely to do with the difficulty of knowing the true impact that AI is having on the economy. Already in November of last year, in Reuters They reported that the investment boom in AI was distorting the figures and making it very difficult to read the true situation of the country’s economy. On the one hand, the GDP registered a growth of 4%, but layoffs increased, perhaps partly due to AI. They called it the “bifurcated economy.” The geographical problem. In his invention, Jan Hatzius pointed out a fact that often goes unnoticed: to build the infrastructure that drives AI, many GPUs, memories and components are needed that are imported from other countries. “A lot of the investment in AI that we are seeing in the US actually adds to the GDP of Taiwan or Korea, but not really that much to the GDP of the US,” he said. The problem of productivity. It is the great promise of AI, that thanks to it we become more productive. However, the speed, quality or quantity of work produced are intangible aspects that do not always translate into an immediate economic return, much less one that has an impact on the global economy, but rather the improvements remain “trapped” within the companies. What is coming. If the 2025 investment was already truly crazy, the forecasts for 2026 are even crazier. The combined capex of large technology companies amounts to around $650 billion, which would be the equivalent of spending $1.2 million per minute for an entire year. There are those who think that the AI ​​bubble does not existbut of course the economic return on this tremendous investment is, at the very least, debatable. Image | Unsplashedited In Xataka | Investing in data centers for AI is insane, and it’s going to get worse. much worse

economy class seats

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No, it’s not your thing. If you think that when you travel by plane you have less space than a few decades ago, it is because (effectively) the airlines they take time rethinking the internal configuration of its aircraft in the interest of greater profitability. That is something known. The curious thing is that the latest studies on the subject show that companies they keep working in that direction, giving more weight to the premium seats in their grids compared to the tourist class. This effort helps to understand some decisions of the sector. Question of ‘classes’. The models may change, but all airplanes share the same characteristic: they force the airlines that manage them to adapt to a reduced space. A passenger cabin measures what it measures. And that is the limited margin that companies have when seeking maximum profitability, distributing travelers by category and designing rates. Recently Visual Approach Analytics he wondered how the airlines are performing in this endeavor and came to a curious conclusion. Between 2020 and 2026 the number of nationally scheduled ‘economy’ class seats in the US grew by 10%. The ‘premium’ places did almost three times as much, 27%. The study focuses on a very specific niche (American national market) but is interesting both for the photo it shows and for the trend it draws. The first time Visual published an analysis on the topic, in 2024the ‘premium’ class believed at 14% and the ‘economic’ class at 4%. Why’s that? In an article On the subject Courtney Miller, founder of Visual Approach Analytics, acknowledges that “the shift towards premium seats in the US market since the pandemic has been constant.” It also confirms that this trend, far from moderating, has strengthened in recent years. Higher category seats (with more space, comforts or services) are sold at higher prices, so it is not difficult to imagine what leads companies to bet on them. The question is another: How are they making this change? For Miller, the key is not so much a “reconfiguration” of the aircraft that already exist as the transformation of the market itself. Expanding. “The increase in premium class seats versus economy class seats is largely due to the type of airlines that are increasing their capacity in the market,” reflects Millerwhich focuses its analysis on the US. “Growth has shifted away from the ultra-airline sector low cost (ULCC) towards the so-called network airlines, where class seats are also found business. In fact, when analyzing the growth at the beginning of the year we observed that it came mainly from traditional companies and very little from low-cost airlines (LCC) or ultra-type airlines. low cost“. Changes in the market. Miller is not the only one who has noticed the changes the sector is experiencing. On Sunday Dean Seal published another analysis in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in which it confirms that, in their continuous search for higher revenue per seat, companies are modernizing their aircraft or directly purchasing others with a higher proportion of premium seats. Seal points out an increase in these seats with extra comforts both in US airlines that have been exploiting them for some time (Delta Air Lines or United Airlines) and in rivals that have grown by focusing on other market niches, such as Southwest Airlines, Spirit either Frontierin profile more low cost. Not all economy class is the same. It is not always about offering preferential or class places businessbut seats with certain advantages, like a few extra centimeters to stretch your legs. The Global Tourism Forum difference for example between “Premium Economy” and plain economy class. In exchange for a little more space or (on longer journeys) better meals, the airline sells the former at double or triple the price of Economy. “Given that the cost increase is moderate but the price increase is significant, Premium Economy class can offer very high profit margins,” the agency notes. Recent data of Cirium published by WSJ show that, overall, the percentage of premium seats has increased in the last decade on Delta, United, American and Alaska airlines. Business decisions. The studies are not the only ones that reveal the change. It is also seen in the advertisements of the airlines. United Airlines poses for example, gain more first-class seats and more spacious seats, even on its smaller planes, and Delta has ordered about thirty of Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner models with larger premium cabins. “It is a financially excellent aircraft,” stood out the company’s commercial director during a conference at the beginning of the year. “It represents a very significant change and a substantial improvement in profit margins.” Is it something new? Not quite. not long ago we told you as the space that airlines dedicate to each seat has been reducing in recent decades: from the average 90 cm between seats in the 80s it has gone to an average of 80 cm in regular companies and 70 cm in low cost airlines. The result: a significant percentage of passengers who fly no longer fit comfortably in standard seats. That has not prevented new ideas from emerging in the sector, such as installing rows of double height seats. Image | Chris Brignola (Unsplash) In Xataka | We have been tying ribbons to suitcases for years to identify them at the airport. Your employees warn that it is a bad idea

clean less in economy class

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Airlines are finding increasingly creative ways to save costs. A while ago we knew the West Jet casewho did a test to end reclining seats in economy class. Now the protagonist is Lufthansa. And the German airline is experimenting with a new model to save costs and take advantage of its staff’s shifts: reducing cleaning in economy class. Cost reduction. Lufthansa has been going through an internal restructuring process called “Turnaround”, a plan with which they intend to apply up to 700 different measures aimed at reducing operating expenses. In this context, the company has begun to test a new way of cleaning its planes on short-haul flights within Europe. What exactly is happening. Between March 16 and 29, Lufthansa is carrying out a pilot test on about 20 intra-European routes. The objective is to evaluate whether reducing cleaning in economy class during layover time saves time and money without harming the passenger experience. The airline has called it internally “light cleaning.” What the change consists of. On flights included in the test, economy class no longer receives a complete cleaning between flights. Instead, ground staff only intervene where cabin crew deem it necessary: ​​sinks are cleaned only if requested, and seatback bags are only emptied if there is something to remove. The systematic review is replaced by a selective inspection. In business and first class, however, they are not affected and maintain their usual cleanliness. Which is also being evaluated. Beyond the frequency of cleaning, Lufthansa is also measuring whether it can reduce the number of operators per plane on these stops. The hypothesis is to go from four to two people, but extending the work time from five to ten minutes. What they have already had to rectify. The test has already had some friction, as could be expected. According to counted aeroTELEGRAPH, the company had also initially proposed that cabin staff stop crossing the seat belts in economy before boarding. After complaints from the crew, Lufthansa reversed the measure. Tightening the belt. The company’s financial results were nothing to write home about. In the first half of 2025, Lufthansa’s main division posted losses of $317 million, according to Simple Flyingdespite the fact that the group as a whole closed the year with its highest historical turnover, with an increase of 5% compared to 2024. Profitability continues to be the weak point, and this mammoth restructuring plan aims to solve part of that problem. What will happen next. Lufthansa confirmed to the medium that will evaluate the results of the test comprehensively, taking into account not only the economic savings, but also the satisfaction of the passengers and the opinion of the crews. For now, the large airports of Frankfurt and Munich are left out of the experiment. Cover image | Nick Herasimenka In Xataka | Chinese airlines are the only ones still flying over Russia. And that is why they are the winners of the Iran crisis

They are not more taxes, they are updating them in the new digital economy

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On March 12, it was published in the Official State Gazette the resolution which approves the general guidelines of the Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan of 2026. The text does not announce any new taxes, any additional fees and any direct obligations for the average citizen. What it does do is much more relevant for the fiscal control of Spaniards: the Treasury is updating the digital economy that citizens were already using. The Tax Agency has expanded the amount of information it receives on how money moves in the digital economy: mobile payments, neobank accounts and Fintech platforms or sales on second-hand platforms. The difference is not what you will pay in taxes, but how much the treasury now knows about your income and the new ways to receive it. ​New financial information. The most important novelty of Plan 2026 is not regulatory, but informative, and has raised a lot of controversy even before coming into force. Starting this year, the Tax Agency will have information every month on the ownership of bank accounts and also on the income obtained by businessmen and professionals who use any collection management system through POS cards and payments associated with mobile phone numbers. This directly includes payments through Bizum. That is, the Treasury now equates Bizum to credit cards. What has changed is which platforms are now required to report to the Treasury. Previously, this duty fell mainly on traditional banking entities. But the economy it is becoming more digital and neobanking, Fintech and digital payment systems platforms have increasingly become most common among Spaniards. Therefore, the Treasury has now extended that obligation also to companies in the new digital economy. All of them must periodically report data on certain professional profiles or important financial movements, which gives the Treasury a much more complete and updated view of money flows that were previously off its radar. Neobanks under the radar. The Plan dedicates a specific section to controlling the activity of digital financial entities, or neobanks. The BOE text recognizes that these entities, which offer services through technological platforms in many cases without physical presence in Spain, have transformed the banking landscape and pose challenges for tax control. The concrete response of the plan is that the checks will be focused on those taxpayers in which improper use of neobank accounts is detected to hide income or assets abroad. The objective declared by the Treasury is to improve the traceability of operations in a digital and cross-border environment, without implying any direct restriction or penalty for the user for the simple fact of having an account in one of these neobanks such as Revolut. or N26. Wallapop and the DAC7: selling online leaves a tax trail. Electronic commerce and sales platforms are another priority objective of the 2026 Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan. The BOE itself states that the operations carried out through these platforms sale of items between individualslike Wallapop or Vinted, have grown by double digits between 2020 and 2025, and that its trading volumes have doubled in that period. This growth is precisely what justifies the Treasury pay more attention to what happens in them. The tool that makes this control possible is the European DAC7 directivewhich forces platforms like Wallapop to communicate to the Treasury the income that their sellers obtain from selling products, providing services or renting goods through these apps. With that information, the treasury can compare the income that a person declares with what the platform has reported, and open an investigation if the numbers do not add up. ​Individual or professional: the distinction that changes everything. The new Treasury measures are aimed at controlling fraud by obtaining more information from the platforms that move money. That does not mean that the platform must send information about all its users. You should only do it from those to use them professionally or who, although they are not professionals, have a very intensive activity (hidden economy). If you use Wallapop to sell your bicycle or Vinted to get rid of clothes that you no longer wear, this measure does not affect you. However, if you have a clothing store and sell through this platform without declaring income, the Treasury will knock on your door. The same happens with payment platforms. If you use Bizum to pay your share of dinner to a friend (or have it paid for you), Treasury will not receive information about these movements between individuals. On the other hand, for self-employed professionals and companies the scenario has changed. The Tax Agency will receive the data on what they charge by card or Bizum. This allows you to compare that income with what you declare in the quarterly VAT more efficiently and quickly than before. In Xataka | Income Simulator 2025: how to use it to know if the declaration you make in 2026 will pay or return Image | Revolut

when geography suffocates the world economy

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Seeing a barrel of oil at $200 has gone from being an apocalyptic scenario to an option on the table. The mirage of recent days, with Brent relaxing around 90 dollars after the initial scare of 120, does not deceive the experts because the physical reality of the market is broken. As detailed in The Energy Newspaperconsulting firm Wood Mackenzie estimates that the market will need prices of at least $150 in the coming weeks to force a rebalancing of demand. At the $200 mark, his conclusion is devastating: it is no longer crazy. It was already being announced. From the Iranian military command itself Khatam al-Anbiya, its spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari has issued a direct warning: the world must “prepare for a barrel of oil to reach $200.” To put this figure in perspective, an opinion column Financial Times Remember that the historical peak of $147 reached in 2008 would be equivalent to about $222 today if we adjust it for current inflation. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been blunt in his last reportcalling the current scenario “the largest supply disruption in the history of the world oil market.” The physical blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has taken 20 million barrels a day off the boardan impact that multiplies by five the losses caused by the historic Arab embargo of 1973. How is it possible? In his first official message, Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, confirmed that the lever of closing the Strait of Hormuz will continue to be used against its adversaries and attacks are becoming a tangible reality. As has been advanced oil price, Iranian drones have hit storage tanks in the port of Salalah, in Oman, and two oil tankers (the Vishnu and the Zefyros) caught fire in Iraqi waters after being attacked by underwater drones. The lack of maritime exit is collapsing the logistics chain from its origin. Iraq have been forced to close wells and reduce their production by 70% simply because they have run out of physical space in their storage tanks. Paradoxically, Iran’s oil heart, Kharg Island—which channels 90% of its exports—remains intact; However, a direct attack by the US or Israel on this facility would fire automatically a barrel above $150. But we have strategic reserves. And yes, the 32 member countries of the IEA have agreed to a historic and unprecedented release of 400 million barrels of their emergency reserves. According to data from the IEA monthly reportobserved global inventories are high and amount to 8.21 billion barrels. However, this desperate release just buy timebut it does not solve the immense physical blockage. According to Financial Times, oil demand is extremely inelastic; That is to say, it is very difficult for people to stop consuming it suddenly even if it is more expensive. Therefore, a real shortage of just 2% in global supply is capable of triggering massive price increases, neutralizing the reserve shield. So what’s going to happen? The military solution at sea seems very limited. According to Lloyd’s Listestablishing a Western naval escort system would limit tanker traffic to less than 10% of its usual volume, as convoys would be restricted to groups of 5 to 10 commercial vessels per transit. Added to this is that the biggest current threatsea mines scattered in a bottleneck just 34 kilometers wide. Faced with this maritime plug, the main escape valve is the pipes in the desert. Saudi Arabia is operating against the clock its East-West (Petroline) pipeline to divert up to 5 million barrels per day to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, completely bypassing Iran. The United Arab Emirates supports the maneuver by injecting almost 2 million additional barrels through its pipeline to Fujairah. As confirmed Financial Times, The Saudi route has successfully managed to register a record of exports through its western ports of 5.9 million barrels per day on March 9. An unprecedented escalation. To this complex logistical puzzle we must add the political variable in Washington, which does not seem to be in a hurry to force a de-escalation that will alleviate the markets. Through their social networksDonald Trump has made it clear that the cost of energy is not his main concern right now. “The United States is the largest oil producer in the world, by far, so when prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the president posted. His absolute priority, he explained, is to stop Iran, an objective to which he attaches “much greater interest and importance.” With these words, the current administration publicly assumes that it prefers to deal with rising gasoline prices rather than loosen the strategic noose on Tehran. In short, the desert pipelines and strategic reserves act as a tourniquet, but they do not stop the bleeding. As long as diplomacy remains stagnant, Washington prioritizes the fall of the Iranian regime over lowering crude oil prices, and the Hormuz Pass remains a 34-kilometer-wide minefield, the world economy will continue to dry up. In this scenario, a barrel reaching $200 is not a catastrophic prediction; It is simply the next logical step if ships remain unable to sail. Image | Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash Xataka | Saudi Arabia has an ace up its sleeve to tackle the oil crisis: a 1,200-kilometer oil pipeline through the desert

Iran is planting sea mines in Hormuz. And what threatens to blow up is not ships: it is the world economy

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On the maps it looks like just a gap of water between deserts, but it passes through that narrow corridor every day. a gigantic portion of the energy that moves the planet. So narrow that in some sections the ships navigate in maritime lanes of just a few kilometers, constantly monitored by radars, drones and military fleets. For decades, any tension at that point in the Persian Gulf has been capable of shake up prices of oil in a matter of minutes. Imagine if will plant mines. A war also at sea. As bombings and missiles focus attention on the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran, a parallel battle has begun to unfold in the Persian Gulf. From the start of the warUS intelligence services They detected signs that Tehran could try to disrupt maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz by deploying naval mines and small fast boats. The threat is serious enough to have triggered public warnings of Washington and preventive military operations against Iranian ships suspected of participating in these maneuvers. In this context, the control of this narrow maritime corridor has become one of the strategic points more delicate of the conflict, because any disturbance there has immediate repercussions on the global energy supply. The strait, the global energy artery. There is no doubt, the tension is explained by the central role that Hormuz plays in the global energy system. Approximately a fifth of the oil consumed by the planet circulates through this strait of just a few dozen kilometers, in addition to a similar proportion of the international trade in liquefied natural gas. Every day they go through it in normal conditions about twenty million of barrels of crude oil from the producing countries of the Gulf heading to Asia, Europe and America. Powers like China, India, Japan or South Korea depend largely of this step to secure its energy supply, which turns any threat in these waters into an immediate global problem. It is no coincidence that even rumors or minor incidents in the area provoke immediate reactions in the oil markets. The new war. In that scenario it has begun a new phase of the conflict: that of oil tankers navigating between the risk of mines capable of shaking the planet’s economies. American intelligence reports indicate that Iran has begun deploying dozens of these explosives in the strait and keeps intact most of its fleet of small boats capable of planting hundreds more in a short time. The Revolutionary Guard controls much of the area next to the Iranian navy and has a combination of speedboats, minelayer boats, drones and coastal missile batteries that can turn the sea passage into a navigation trap. The goal would not necessarily be to sink large numbers of ships, that too, but to create enough uncertainty enough to paralyze global energy traffic, raise transportation costs and trigger a shock in international markets. In other words, a well-placed mine in these waters can have an economic impact that goes much further of the ship that hits it. First shocks. Faced with this threat, Washington has chosen for acting before mine deployment reaches a larger scale. The US military has confirmed (with videos included) a few hours ago the destruction of at least sixteen Iranian vessels involved in mining operations near the strait, in what US officials describe as pre-emptive strikes based on intelligence about Tehran’s operational plans. These actions seek to prevent Iran from turning the strait into a practically closed area to navigation before the deployment of explosives multiplies. At the same time, the White House has warned that any attempt to block the flow of oil will provoke a much more forceful military response than the operations carried out so far. Trapped oil and markets in panic. The economic consequences are already beginning to become visible. Since the start of the war, oil transit from the Gulf has seriously upsetwith millions of barrels per day that cannot leave the region normally. Countries like Iraq or Kuwait depend almost exclusively of this route to export its crude, which amplifies the potential impact of any interruption. Energy companies have started diverting ships or to look for alternative routeswhile Saudi Arabia tries to compensate for part of the problem by increasing the use of its oil pipeline to the Red Sea. In parallel, the International Energy Agency studies a massive liberation of strategic reserves to contain the impact of the energy crisis. A few kilometers to shake the world. The fragility of the situation is also explained by the geography of the enclave itself. At its narrowest point it barely has 34 kilometers wide and the navigation lanes through which the ships circulate barely exceed three kilometers in each direction. This narrowness makes the place extremely vulnerable to mines, drone attacks or coastal missiles. It is not the first time this has happened, in fact, since how do we countduring the so-called “tanker war” in the eighties, Iran already used mines in these same waters to pressure its adversaries during the conflict with Iraq. History, therefore, suggests that these types of tactics can be surprisingly effective in destabilizing global trade. A planetary blow. The extreme sensitivity of the energy markets to any news coming from Hormuz was fully demonstrated very recently, when a wrong message on social media suggested that the US Navy had successfully escorted a tanker through the strait. The simple rumor caused an immediate collapse of crude oil prices and a shake-up in financial markets before authorities clarified that no such operation had occurred. The episode illustrates the extent to which the world watches every movement in these waters with nervousness. In a global energy system so dependent on a few strategic corridors, the mine threat in the Strait of Hormuz has opened a new dimension of war: one in which fate of the world economy it may depend on a maritime corridor just a few kilometers wide. Image | nara, Picryl, naraNZ … Read more

AI agents have indeed changed work and the economy forever. But for now only in one sector: programming

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AI agents are beginning to demonstrate their capabilities, but the only area in which they do so is programming. An Anthropic report reveals how software engineering is where half of the activity of AI agents is currently concentrated, and that proves two things. The first, that AI can effectively enhance work. The second, that there is a huge opportunity for hundreds of verticals where AI has barely landed. what has happened. If there is a sector that has embraced AI and AI agents, it is programming. Platforms like Cursor or WindSurf first and like Claude Code, OpenAI Codex or Antigravity today have made all kinds of people —whether they know programming or not— can turn their projects into reality in a really simple way. It’s a clear case of how AI can contribute to a field, but there’s a problem: it’s practically the only case where it has actually done so. Distribution of requests to AI tools by segment. Software engineering is almost responsible for 50% of those calls or requests, at least in the case of the Claude platform. Source: Anthropic. Verticals with a lot of margin. As can be seen in this graph, the presence of AI agents is very reduced or practically non-existent in a large number of verticals in which it is evident that there is a notable opportunity to take advantage of these tools. The automation of office tasks is the second main protagonist with 9.1% of the function calls of the Anthropic AI model in this report. Below it we find segments such as marketing, sales, finance, business analysis or scientific research. And others who are ignoring AI. There are quite a few sectors in which AI agents seem to be barely present. The travel, legal, medical, e-commerce or education segments seem perfect to start taking advantage of these tools, but at the moment this is not the case and this presence is very, very small in all of them. Claude Code can work longer and longer. Double what it was three months ago, in fact. Source: Anthropic. Models can now work autonomously for a long time. In these scenarios it is true that the models used to be limited by the time they could function autonomously and “chain” actions and self-analyze progress to continue acting. That’s not so true now. Claude Code, for example, has doubled the time of his longest sessions in just three months: from 25 minutes in October 2025 to 45 minutes in January 2026. And they need less human intervention. Another of the revealing data of the study is that the evolution of these agents not only means that they can function autonomously for longer periods of time, but that this also implies fewer human interventions. Those situations in which an agent “needs human help” to continue with the process are becoming limited. In August 2025, the average was 5.4 human interventions per session. In December that average dropped to 3.3 interventions. We trust more and more in AI. At Anthropic they have also noticed a unique behavior among users: they are increasingly trusting AI agents. In programming, novices approve each new step before it is executed, but veterans delegate and intervene when something goes wrong: they have gone from pre-approving everything to exercising active and constant monitoring. As they say at Anthropic“Users develop confidence as they work with the model, and change their monitoring strategy based on that growing confidence.” From programming to other fields. What has happened with programming could happen in other scenarios. The challenge is to build AI agents that adapt to each segment using that specific data from said vertical. If an AI wants to help in the legal segment, it must be specifically trained for that segment. What the AI ​​did when trained with thousands of code repositories on GitHub It was learning and improving. Well, the same can be applied to other verticals, although the challenge is certainly notable because programming was a perfect segment for the application of AI: it is very deterministic. It either works or it doesn’t, and whether it does or not, execution logs allow you to fine-tune that operation. The new unicorns await. As entrepreneur Garry Tan points out in your newsletterin the last two decades SaaS platforms have managed to capture 40% of venture capital investments and that industry has more than 170 unicorns. “The thesis is simple,” Tan concludes, “all of those unicorns have an equivalent in the form of vertical AI waiting.” Promises and realities. The AI ​​agent segment therefore promises many changes in a multitude of segments, but the reality is that today the practical success (there is no economic success at the moment) of AI is limited to the world of programming. Will we be able to transfer it to other segments? The opportunity is there, but it is one thing to say it, and quite another to do it… even if it is with AI. Image | Joshua Reddekopp In Xataka | Every time Facebook had a competitor, it bought it: it is exactly the same thing that OpenAI is doing

Mexico hoped that the Mayan Train would change the country’s economy. It is not convincing either tourists or locals

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Their locomotives started between promises of wealth generationemployment and progress, but almost two years after its first inauguration he Mayan Train (one of the most ambitious projects of former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador) is far from the expectations of its promoters. It does not seem to be arousing special interest among tourists. Nor among the locals. In fact The Country just revealed a figure that gives an idea of ​​the extent to which it has started with modest results: it moves 5% of the expected demand. The big question is… Why? What is the Mayan Train? One of López Obrador’s star projects and probably one of the most ambitious infrastructures developed in recent years in Mexico. He Mayan Train It is a railway circuit of more than 1,500 km that crosses Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo, states located in the southeast, where some of the poorest regions of the country are located. Is it operational? Yes. After a construction marked by the controversychanges and a billion dollar investment which multiplied the initial budget, the trains began to circulate almost two years ago, although they were launched in a phased manner. In December 2023 A smiling López Obrador participated in the inaugural route on the Campeche-Cancún section. A year later, with Sheinbaum at the head of the Government, the implementation of the rest of routesincluded the lastbetween Campeche and the Chetumal airport. To celebrate and give an extra push to the structure, the Executive launched a tourist package especially to attract users for Christmas. Why is it news now? Because things don’t seem to be going especially well for the Mayan Train. This is what the revealed data by The Countrywhich claims to have accessed a report from the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) which confirms that the start of the service has not aroused the expected interest. During its first year of operations, it transported an average of 3,200 passengers daily. The initial forecasts were for this figure to be around 74,000, which did not even reach 5% of what was expected. The reporters who write the report from Mexico they assure that in the middle of high season it is not unusual to find trains that run almost empty in some sections and that at the stations it is common to come across more guards and cleaning employees than visitors. When talking to tourists who visit the region, some admit that they had not heard of the Mayan Train. What is the cause of this puncture? The million dollar question. And it is not easy to answer it. The testimonies collected by The Country They suggest that the train has not yet managed to catch on in either of the two markets in which it should attract passengers: domestic and international. It does not convince locals to travel through the southeast of Mexico, but neither does it convince foreign tourists who want to get to know the region. The reason is a combination of economic, logistical, cultural factors and habits that are difficult to change. If we talk about locals, the Mayan Train loses appeal for a simple reason: the location of the stations. The military company that operates it offers them discounts, but they must add the transportation price to get to the terminal to the ticket price. “The train to my town is far away. If I wanted to travel by train, I would basically have to spend twice as much. To go to Mérida I take the bus, which is more direct and cheaper,” explains a tour guide. Added to this is the deep-rooted use of other means of transport, such as the bus itself, motorcycles or taxis. And what about tourists? Despite the efforts to establish the service among foreign tourists, the Mayan Train does not seem to be succeeding in that market niche either. The visitors they keep coming to the Yucatan Peninsula, but their travel depends largely on travel companies and their itineraries, often agreed with bus companies and hoteliers. Although users highlight that trains are generally comfortable and safe and has been invested Already in the promotion of the service, there are still tourists who come to the Yucatán without having heard not even talk about the Mayan Train. Others do not quite see its advantages over traditional alternatives, such as renting a car to move freely or paying for tours in advance. Why is it important? For several reasons. To begin with, because the Mayan Train has not been just an ambitious project. It has also been marked by controversy. Recently National Geographic published a report in which he explains how its implementation has polarized part of Mexican society, with positions divided between those who believe it will help energize the region and those who focus on the impact it has had on the environment. Beyond this debate about the pros and cons of the train, what is undeniable is that the project has cost a lot more than initially planned. In 2023 the BBC network assured that from the between 120,000 and 150,000 million Mexican pesos that were initially spoken of, it went to nearly 500,000 million. This great investment effort was accompanied by promises of its economic return. What is expected from the train? “It is a magnum opus, we are not exaggerating if we say that there is no one like it in the world today,” stood out two years ago, during his inauguration, López Obrador. And at the time it was even proposed that the train would help encourage tourism and employment in some of the most impoverished regions of Mexico, with a project that, in addition to the railway, includes museums, hotels, archaeological zones and hotels. In 2020, a UN-Habitat study even suggested that it would help lift people out of poverty. 1.1 million of people. What does the Government say? He claims that the start-up of the train has not been bad. In summer the Government assured that the service … Read more

SpaceX changed the space economy. Now he wants to do the same with the cost of satellites

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The cost of launching cargo into space was, for years, one of the great limits of the aerospace industry. LaNASA documents in several works, including the analyzes of Harry W. Jonesthat during the last decades of the 20th century many pitchers moved in a typical range of between 10,000 and more than 20,000 dollars per kilowith an average cost of around $18,500/kg in low orbit, with the space shuttle far above due to its complexity and operating expense. It was not just the price of the launch systems, but of a model based on disposable components, manual processes and highly specialized operations. The situation remained stable for decades, until SpaceX decided to rethink how the economics of orbital launch should work. Instead of assuming these costs as inevitable, the company opted to reuse stages, optimize processes and manufacture its own engines and systems from scratch. This combination allowed the price per kilo to be reduced to unprecedented levels, although the change did not occur immediately. What is relevant is that, for the first time, a private actor demonstrated that launches could be much cheaper and that price did not have to be a structural barrier for the industry. When launch is no longer the limit, attention shifts to satellites The resulting prices began to change behavior in the sector. With Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, the cost per kilo became in the range of 3,000 to 1,500 dollars, according to NASA calculations based on catalog prices. These figures not only mark a reduction, but a turning point: for the first time, companies, institutions and even governments could rethink the design of missions knowing that launch was no longer the main economic barrier. From there a question arose that until then had no answer: if the trip had been made cheaper, what would happen to what was sent into space? The traditional satellite model was built on the idea of ​​optimizing each unit. It was not important to produce many, but to produce one that could operate for years, with high capacity and low probability of failure. Manufacturers and operators were investing in complex systems, with long development cycles, exhaustive testing and specialized structures to fulfill specific and prolonged missions. This strategy responded to an environment in which launch was so costly and infrequent that it was more profitable to prioritize reliability and durability than to think about scalability or rapid replenishment. One of the first companies to help change this approach was OneWeb, that introduced a manufacturing model designed for scale. Instead of ordering each satellite as an individual piece, the company designed a common architecture and partnered with Airbus to produce repeatable unitswith standardized processes and shorter manufacturing times. The plant installed in Florida in 2019 was presented as the first factory of satellite serial production on a large scale, with two lines capable of removing up to two units a day. It was not about building a better satellite, but about building many. SpaceX took the satellite constellation idea and turned it into its own industrial system. With Starlink, it not only replicated the use of mass-produced satellites, but also linked that production to its launch capacity with Falcon 9, operated by the company itself. This integration allowed the deployment to be accelerated without depending on external release windows or commercial suppliers. The constellation began to grow at an unprecedented rate and, in a few years, it vastly surpassed any other similar project in number and pace. The difference was not only in manufacturing satellites, but in being able to launch them at will. Although OneWeb was one of the first players to apply industrial logic to satellite manufacturing, its constellation has grown at a very different pace than Starlink. At the end of 2025, OneWeb has around 648 satellites in orbit, while SpaceX exceeds 8,000 operational satellitesaccording to the most recent data published by orbital monitoring firms. The difference is not only due to the number of launches, but also to the mode of production. According to an economic analysis published in 2025the estimated manufacturing cost of OneWeb satellites is around $14,000 per kilo, compared to approximately $2,500 per kilo for Starlink satellites. These figures reflect a gap that has more to do with the integration model than with the technology itself. The estimated manufacturing cost of OneWeb satellites is around $14,000 per kilo, compared to approximately $2,500 per kilo for Starlink satellites. The reaction of the sector did not take long to arrive. With the advancement of Starlink, both companies and public institutions Similar projects began to be considered based on constellations with a high number of satellites and sustained deployments. Amazon launched KuiperEutelsat and OneWeb reinforced their alliance to maintain presence in the market and the European Union approved the IRIS2 program with institutional support.China is also working on its own large systems. It is not just about competing in numbers, but about accepting that scale and replacement capacity are part of the new spatial model. When the satellite becomes a replicable product, the way of planning its presence in orbit also changes. It is no longer about launching a mission and hoping it works for as long as possible, but rather about building a structure that can grow, modernize and replace units regularly. The satellite becomes a component of a network, not the center of the mission. This logic favors models based on scalability and continuous replacement, similar to those of other technological infrastructures. Space stops being a destination and becomes a platform. SpaceX demonstrated that the cost of the launch was not a technical limit, but rather a model one. Now it is trying to apply that same logic to satellites, with an approach based on scale, continuous manufacturing and integration with its own launch systems. The result is not only a larger constellation, but a different way of understanding what it means. operate in orbit. The question is no longer how much it costs to get to space, but who can … Read more

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