giant

Carlos Li, CEO of TCL Europe, on the commitment to giant TVs to conquer the high-end

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TCL is in an enviable moment in the television market. In 2025 managed to sell 20% more TVs while other of its competitors such as Hisense fell. Even Samsung, world leader in sales, fell slightly and the separation with TCL, its most direct rival, is already barely 1% share. The striking thing about this growth of TCL is in which segment it has occurred: the high-end. Nobody dispatches more MiniLED TVs than them right now and giant screens (85 inches or more) take up more than 22% of the global market. ​ The coup de effect was the recent announcement of alliance with Sony. The agreement, which is expected to come into operation in April 2027 at the earliest, is the most eloquent sign of how far a company has come that, until not long ago, was seen as good value for money and that’s it. With all this context, we were able to chat with Carlos Li, CEO of TCL Europe, who explained to us the company’s next steps to continue growing in televisions, but also in other segments such as household appliances. TCL has conquered the market thanks to a very good quality-price ratio and now I suppose the challenge is the high-end segment. What is your strategy to convince the European consumer to invest three or four thousand euros in a TCL X955For example? “We are focused on technology and also on giant screens. We believe that bigger, especially if we want to motivate consumers to return to the living room to watch television more often as a family. It takes a good experience to watch games or movies and differentiate itself from other devices, such as phones or tablets. We simply offer bigger screens and better image and sound quality. For more premium products, we are working on improving the experience, both in audio and video, to create an immersive cinema or gaming environment. That’s it which motivates consumers to pay premium prices to get a better product for their daily use.” Do you see this being a trend across Europe or just in some countries? Is it also happening here in Spain? “Yes, it has been proven and has been very successful in many markets. First years ago in China, and now in the United States, Europe, emerging markets, Latin America and also in the Middle East. We see this trend because, thanks to better products and larger screens, people are buying more televisions than before, especially high-end products with higher prices. We think we are very competitive in that area.” The recent news about the manufacturing deal with Sony has generated a lot of buzz. Beyond the volume of business, do you feel that the fact that a brand as demanding as Sony trusts its subsidiary CSOT serves as a definitive validation of TCL’s engineering and all its experience in this field? “First of all, the possible cooperation between TCL and Sony is still in the phase of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). We are still in the process of migrating from the MOU to a contract, so there are many things under discussion. But the good thing is that both Sony and TCL see the synergy that we can create together due to our capabilities in the industry, especially in the supply chain, R&D, resources in terms of CSOT panels, and our continuous investment in new technological innovations. This creates the synergy. perfect between the two companies for a new joint venture. Everything is still in process, but I think it is good proof that both parties see good added value in the other for the business portfolio.” I know everything is under discussion right now and it may take time to talk things out, but is there a tentative date to operate together? “It is a long-term bet, we are at an early stage and the two companies really need to get involved in the new strategy. There will be contracts later, so we do not expect to have an immediate impact on the market in 2026. It is more of a medium-term impact, like five or ten years.” There is a lot of talk about mini RGB or RGB mini LED as the technology that will surpass OLED and even traditional mini LED. What is TCL’s vision regarding this technology? “We have been developing Mini RGB technology for years, although we did not announce it before. We believe that SQD is a better display technology with better quality in terms of brightness and contrast. In the end, RGB is a type of mini LED TV with red, green and blue, but it has a higher cost because instead of a single LED light, you need to have three. This technology is not new for us, we have been developing it for eight years, which is why we are also launching our RGB mini LED TV. However, along with that, we will strongly push our “SQD because it is a unique technology in the industry, very robust and linked to our CSOT panel technology. For the moment, we reserve the SQD technology exclusively for our TCL brand, which creates a much better image quality compared to a Mini RGB. So the Mini RGB will be just one of the products in our portfolio.” Will they prioritize SQD then? “We believe that SQD will be the main trend for the future. We think it is a better solution as a display technology, which can really surprise the end user while maintaining the original price, and that is why we propose this.” Appliances, glasses and other areas where TCL also wants its piece of cake Carlos Li during the inauguration of the new TCL office in Madrid Many people know TCL for their televisions, but they also have appliances and we are seeing a lot of movement from other manufacturers in this segment. What is TCL’s next move in Europe regarding home appliances? “In home appliances, and together with air conditioners, we are … Read more

It is a giant incubator for resistant bacteria

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The west of Almería is world famous for a colossal structure that can be seen from space itselfas is the ‘sea of ​​plastic’. Thousands of hectares of greenhouses that act as a true agricultural engine for all of Europe, which has a microenvironmental B side that science has just seen when analyzing everything that is on top of this amount of plastics. And the problem is not only visual pollution or the amount of microplastics that can end up in the sea, but the microscopic stowaways that travel in them. The microbiological world. As two recent investigations led by scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid have pointed out, it has been seen that abandoned plastics They are not simple inert garbage; They are perfect vehicles for the development and spread of pathogens. And we are not talking about just any pathogens, but about bacteria that have inside them resistance genes very powerful against antibiotics. A topic that we have talked about on numerous occasions due to the problem it poses for public health and the challenge of searching for new medications to eliminate the bacteria that threaten our health. The first study. Published in 2025 and with a very clear objective ahead: to analyze the plastic samples that were collected in three key points of El Ejido. These points specifically were the interior of a greenhouse, a waste dumping area and the Punta Entinas-Sabinar nature reserve. When investigating the collected plastics, what they could see was a complex biological community, what science calls the “plastisphere“By analyzing biofilms, which are the layers of microorganisms attached to plastic, the researchers identified no less than 295 genes of antibiotic resistance commonly used, such as tetracyclines, macrolides and beta-lactams. The most alarming fact. Having a bacteria resistant to our main pharmacological weapons is honestly worrying, but the real fear comes when the team detects 52 mobile genetic elements. This means that bacteria use plastic as a meeting point where resistance mechanisms are shared among them, making a bacteria that can be destroyed with amoxicillin become resistant when in this contact. It’s literally like trading cards are being exchanged. How they arrive. These bacteria end up on top of the plastics, forming a biofilm precisely due to hazardous water and fertilizers that sometimes contain traces of antibiotics and microorganisms that end up colonizing these canvases. And the reality is that when a microorganism does not stop being in contact with an antibiotic, it eventually develops the mechanisms to block its effect. The second study. If these plastics were left locked in a room, the truth is that they would not cause any problems, but science has put figures on the worrying mobility of this waste. Here science documents how agricultural polymers escape from intensive exploitation and disperse through the soil, water, air and even the fauna of the area. On the nearby coast, the team collected 1,397 plastic fragments, analytically confirming that their composition exactly matches the materials used in local agriculture. And the worst of all is that in all these fragments that ended up elsewhere, associated pathogenic microorganisms were detected. Global health. The WHO itself points out that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats for global public health. Until now, the focus was on hospitals and drug abuse in intensive livestock farming, but now these Spanish researchers have detected a new front on which action should be taken. And it is no wonder, since plastics are acting as reservoirs of resistant bacteria, which not only incubate superbacteria, but can also be transported by wind and water, which are responsible for spreading them throughout protected natural areas, aquatic ecosystems and food chains. Images | Roger Casas-Alatriste CDC In Xataka | Faced with the need to look for weapons against superbacteria, science has opted to send viruses into space

The world needs to get oil out of the Middle East by any means possible. Their only hope is 30 giant ships queuing in Yanbu

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The landscape off the coast of Yanbu on the Red Sea has completely changed in a matter of days. The area is now taken over by VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers), colossal supertankers capable of swallowing two million barrels of crude oil. They are not there just passing through; Its massive concentration responds to a single objective: to carry out the largest and most urgent evacuation of oil in recent times. A fleet to the rescue of the market. To understand the magnitude of this rescue operation, just look at the figures that provides Financial Times: What is happening is a real “flotilla of supertankers” sailing against the clock. About 30 of these giants head to Yanbu, when the usual thing is that only two arrive a month. The reason is that traffic in the Persian Gulf has come to a “stalemate” following the Iranian attacks. The maritime tracking data it handles Bloomberg give an idea of ​​the urgency: In just 48 hours, at least 25 of these giants have headed to the Saudi port. We are talking about a fleet with room to load some 50 million barrels that, otherwise, would have no outlet. It is an essential escape valve right now. The blockade has already caused world production to fall by 6% and the plug is so big that neighbors like Iraq and Kuwait they have had to start closing wells because, simply, they have run out of room in their tanks to store the oil. The “sea bridge” to avoid Iran. How do these ships load oil if they do not enter the Gulf? The answer is in the desert, but the result is seen in the port. Saudi Arabia is using your pipeline East-West like a turnstile. The crude oil travels overland 1,200 kilometers to Yanbu, where the “army” of ships awaits it to distribute it to the world, especially China and India. According to Wall Street Journal, This infrastructure has become “one of the most critical pieces of the world economy” overnight. The CEO of Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, confirmed in this medium that they are reaching their maximum capacity: 7 million barrels per day flowing westward. Of them, 5 million are destined directly to be loaded on these supertankers for global markets. The risk does not disappear, it just changes coordinates. But sailing to Yanbu is not a safe ride. As he warns Financial Times, The ships must now “challenge the notorious hotspot of Houthi attacks.” To leave for Asia, these supertankers have to cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Although the Yemeni group had signaled a pause in its attacks, experts from EOS Risk They assure that the tankers continue to assume an “enormous risk”, since the area is within reach of Iranian missiles. Even the port of Fujairah in the Emirates, which is also trying to act as an escape route, is already has suffered damage from drone attacks last week. The message is clear: the alternative is less dangerous than Hormuz, but it is not immune to war. The limits of the plan. The big question for markets is whether this armada of ships and desert pipelines can prevent economic collapse. The closure of Hormuz has taken 20 million barrels per day off the board and physical reality imposes its limits on the alternative route. On the one hand, there is a critical funnel in the port itself. According to data from the Argus Media agencyalthough the Saudi pipeline manages to transport up to 7 million barrels, the Yanbu terminals only have real capacity to load between 4 and 4.5 million a day on ships. Inevitably, supertankers will have to queue. On the other hand, the distillate crisis looms. As experts cited by Middle East Eyethe East-West pipeline transports crude oil, not refined products. No matter how many ships fill up in Yanbu, markets like Europe are left without their vital supply of diesel and aviation fuel, which is usually processed in the unreachable refineries of the Middle East. According to Sparta Commodities in statements for WSJwith this route only half of the problem has been “solved.” There are another 10 million barrels that are still trapped with no possible way out. Therefore, it is no longer “crazy” for a barrel to reach $200. The demand for oil is “inelastic”; the economy cannot stop consuming it from one day to the next, which generates brutal upward pressure. The geopolitics of “the worse the better” While ships maneuver in the Red Sea, in Washington the focus is purely strategic. Donald Trump has made it clear that stopping Iran is the priority, even above the price of gasoline. “We make a lot of money when prices rise,” the president even published on his social networks, emphasizing that the US, as a large producer, can afford a resistance that other countries do not have. For its part, the historic opening of the IEA’s strategic reserves (400 million barrels) attempts to “buy time,” but as analyst Javier Blas says, nothing replaces to the actual opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Image | Photo by Khristina Sergeychik on Unsplash Xataka | China has just found a hole in the US’s quietest weapon: an algorithm has hacked its B-2s in Iran

the Chinese battery giant is becoming more and more giant

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CATL, the world’s largest manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles, closed 2025 with a net profit of 10.4 billion euros at the exchange rate, 42% more than the previous year. It controls almost 40% of the global market and there is no rival in sight that can overshadow it. It is also a consequence of the transition we are experiencing. We tell you all the details. Why does it matter? When talking about the transition to electric vehicles, the focus usually falls on car manufacturers, but there is a company that makes money from practically all of them, regardless of who sells the most cars. And CATL It’s something like NVIDIA of the automotive sector. If an electric car has a battery, there is almost a 40% chance that it is yours. And the percentage is increasing. The numbers. The company recently published its annual results. The report showed total revenues of 423.7 billion yuan (about 58 billion euros), 17% more than in 2024. Net profit reached 72.2 billion yuan, nearly 10.4 billion euros, which represents a jump of 42% and the highest annual growth in three years. In the fourth quarter alone, profit increased 57% year-on-year, beating forecasts by a wide margin. The electric car battery business represents 75% of revenue. On the other hand, energy storage, another of its businesses, contributes another 15%. As a consequence, its cash flow grows by 37%, to 133.2 billion yuan. Market share. According to data According to South Korean analysis firm SNE Research, CATL closed 2025 with a 39.2% share of the global electric vehicle battery market, up from 38% the previous year. It is the ninth consecutive year in which it leads the global ranking. In fact, it is the only company in the world with a share greater than 30%. Its sales of lithium ion batteries have reached 661 GWh, 39% more. Power batteries (those in cars) totaled 541 GWh, and stationary storage batteries, 121 GWh. Korea loses ground. The three large South Korean battery manufacturers, LG Energy Solution, SK On and Samsung SDI, have seen their accumulated share fall by 10.4% last January, according to collect Automotive World analysis. There are several reasons for this, but the most notable have to do above all with changes in US trade policy, which have weakened supply chains in its local market, and increasing dependency of global automakers on Chinese suppliers for offering lower-cost products. CATL gains share abroad and on top of that its direct competitors lose it. Your most profitable business is outside China. Precisely, income from abroad represents more than 30% of CATL’s total, and its gross margin in those markets reaches 31.4%, compared to the 24% it obtains in China. In other words, the more you sell abroad, the more you earn for each battery. And that turns its international expansion not only into a volume growth strategy, but also into an engine that offers increasingly greater profitability. Beyond the electric car. “The new energy industry is at a new historic turning point,” counted the company’s president, Zeng Yuqun, at the meeting with investors. Here he points to electric aviation, ships, data centers and large-scale energy storage as new fronts for the company’s expansion. CATL already leads the global market for batteries for stationary storage for the fifth consecutive year. At the end of 2025, it had six large R&D centers and 24 factories around the world, with an installed capacity of 772 GWh and another 321 GWh under construction. Two shadows in the painting. Although it is all good news for the company, there are also nuances. And the gross margins in car batteries and storage were slightly reduced in 2025 due to pressure on raw material costs and the price war in the sector. The company has also recorded asset impairment losses of around 9 billion yuan, linked in part to the suspension of its activity at the Jianxiawo lithium mine, paralyzed since August due to a licensing conflict. Production is expected to resume in June this year. On the other hand, we must not lose sight of its direct competitor in the domestic market: BYD and its new Blade battery second generation, which according to the company, is capable of charging from 10% to 97% in nine minutes, which could put CATL in a bind in the ultra-fast charging segment. Although for now BYD too has its own problems in China, since its share in batteries has fallen slightly and has accumulated six consecutive months of decline in domestic sales. Cover image | CHUTTERSNAP and CATL In Xataka | Finding the cheapest gas station in your area is very simple thanks to this very powerful tool

We don’t know what to do with the old coal mines. Switzerland’s idea is to turn them into a giant “battery”

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In the bowels of the Bierzo region of León, where coal was the absolute king for decades, the silence of the abandoned and flooded galleries is about to be broken. But this time there will be no pickaxes, no minecarts, no black ore. The new gold of the mining basin is water, and those in charge of extracting its potential come from the Alps. The Swiss energy company Alpiq has set its eyes on this ruined industrial legacy to transform it into a colossal natural “battery” that promises to be the energy engine of the future in Spain. A million-dollar purchase in El Bierzo. The news that has shaken the local and international energy panorama is the acquisition of the “CDR Navaleo” macroproject by the Swiss multinational Alpiq, as detailed in their press release. However, as local media describethis pumped hydroelectric energy storage project had initially been developed by Erbiergía, a company promoted and controlled by the well-known mining businessman Manuel Lamelas Viloria. Despite the sale, the Bercian promoter will maintain a stake in the company to continue collaborating and supporting its development on the ground. The project figures are colossal. Although two years ago the project has already obtained a powerful grant Of 35.5 million euros from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (Miteco), the total investment necessary to build this megastructure is much greater. Now, as advanced in ElDiario.esthe estimated budget exceeds 300 million euros, but other sources raise the investment figure above 400 million, placing it in a range of between 420 and 450 million euros. And why Spain? To understand the magnitude of Navaleo, you have to look at the sky. Spain has very ambitious goals of penetration of renewable energies, such as solar and wind, but these sources are intermittent: it is not always sunny or the wind blows when we turn on the switch at home. Therefore, the electrical system urgently needs “storage and flexibility to guarantee the stability of the network,” explained by the Swiss company. That is where this plant comes in, which will contribute 535 megawatts (MW) of flexible capacity to the Spanish grid, according to local media. To get an idea of ​​its size, the current third vice president, Sara Aagesen, noted during a visit to the area that “all residential buildings in the province of León could be supplied with the annual production of this CDR from Navaleo”, as they have collected in The Economist. The impact transcends Spanish borders. To understand the phenomenon, the importance of infrastructure must be configured. The European Commission has included Navaleo on its list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI)highlighting its strategic value for the energy security of the entire continent, which also opens the door to better financing through the European Investment Bank. For the Swiss company, which has been operating in the Spanish market for 25 years, this is a major milestone: This is its first large-scale hydroelectric project outside of Switzerland. The engineering behind the “battery”. The technical mechanism is as fascinating as it is colossal. The facility will operate through a closed-circuit pumped hydroelectric energy storage system. In practice, it consists of taking advantage of groundwater from old mining operations, as explained in the local media. The system will pump water from the Tremor River area to a higher elevation, where it will be stored in a pond. When the country needs electricity, that water will be released through a large pipe so that it passes through a turbine and generates energy. This closed-loop design will provide the electrical grid with at least eight hours of uninterrupted energy storage, literally acting as an immense rechargeable water battery. But an abandoned mine? Used old coal mine poses obvious doubts about toxicity. Currently, abandoned mines are flooded and their waters contain minerals and contaminants. Far from being a problem, this is one of the greatest added values ​​of the project. The plant is called “CDR” precisely because it is a Reversible Treatment Plant. “Through our asset we are going to offer flexibility and storage, but we are also going to offer an environmental benefit. We are going to drain the contaminated water from the mines and purify it,” explains Amédée Murisier, director of Alpiq in statements to The Economist. In this way, an environmental liability and degraded land is transformed into a clean energy asset. Furthermore, viability is assured: the company already has a water concession granted for a period of 75 years, which guarantees long-term operational continuity. Forecasts and deadlines. The macroproject will extend through the Bercian municipalities of Torre del Bierzo, Castropodame, Congosto and Molinaseca, areas hard hit by the closure of mining. As for the deadlines, there are certain nuances. While the Viloria Group I hoped to start construction this year, the new Swiss owners apply their well-known precision and caution. Amédée Murisier warns that there is still a year and a half of work ahead to refine the geological studies and detailed engineering before making the final investment decision. What is certain, and what all actors agree on, is that the plant will enter commercial operation in the early 2030s. Where before Leonese miners went down into the bowels of the earth to extract coal with their pickaxes, in a few years thousands of liters of purified water will flow, pushed by Swiss technology. The Navaleo project is not only a work of pharaonic engineering; It is the perfect metaphor for the energy transition. A textbook circular economy that demonstrates how the old industrial ghosts of Bierzo can be reconverted, given a facelift and end up being the master key to ensuring the green and electric future of Spain. Image | freepik Xataka | Far from Grazalema and the reservoirs, Andalusia has another serious problem: completely collapsed mining ponds

If we want to live on the Moon we need oxygen and NASA already knows how to extract it: with a giant mirror

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Goodbye, Mars, the Moon has returned make it a priority. Really, except for an Elon Musk obsessed with terraform the red planetthe rest of the countries and even NASA had something between their minds: returning to the Moon. And come back in a big way, too, laying the foundations to create a settlement. For this we need oxygen, and NASA has just taken a great leap for humanity in the project to harvest oxygen from the lunar regolith. And all thanks to a giant mirror. In short. The Moon is a mine. Not only does it have enormous potential to obtain energy through photovoltaics, but it also has a huge amount of resources in its soil. The satellite is covered in ‘lunar dust’, also known as regolith, and part of its composition is oxygen. With current technology you can’t separate the chaff from the grain, but that’s where NASA’s carbothermal oxygen production reactor, or CaRD, project comes into play. The mirror | Photo: NASA The prototype installed on Earth is a reactor that has a huge precision mirror that concentrates a beam of sunlight on a reactor, heating its interior to temperatures of about 1,800ºC. The enormous amount of energy generated causes a carbothermic reaction which produces, among other elements, oxygen. It is the evolution of the high-power laser that NASA development in 2023, but unlike that tool that needs an enormous amount of energy, and other solutions based on electrolysismirrors are nourished by the sunlight they can concentrate. Regolith. According to According to the US agency, the technology “has the potential to produce several times its own weight in oxygen each year and in an automated manner, which will allow for a sustained human presence and the creation of a lunar economy.” And that lunar dust not only has oxygen. The regolith is composed of O2, but also metals. If the different components can be separated, we can obtain other resources and, in addition, the resulting dust as waste can be used as construction material for make bricks and roads. In fact, there are projects to ‘dope the regolith with bacteria to be able to cultivate directly in the lunar soil. The ESA approach. These advances by NASA occur while the rugged steps of the Artemis program which plans to take humans to lunar orbit this year, with future missions in which we will set foot on the satellite again. But as we said, the ESA also wants its piece of the pieand relies on electrolysis to separate metals from oxygen. Regolith and urine cement: the best cement | Photo: ESA The problem, as we said before, is the enormous amount of energy necessary to carry out the process. This molten salt electrolysis heats the regolith to 950ºC with calcium chloride to achieve the same objective that NASA has: release oxygen and separate it from iron and aluminum. And it is also collaborating with NASA to ensure that human presence in the medium term, experimenting with a mixture between human urine and regolith to create cement. Everyone wants a piece of cheese. But the one who has plans as ambitious as those of the United States with the Moon is… China. The Asian giant is completing phases of the space race dizzying speedwith launches every two by three and some very aggressive plans. Before 2030 it wants to send its first astronauts to orbit the satellite, with a manned moon landing scheduled for 2029/2030. Furthermore, together with Russia, they are building the International Lunar Research Station that they want to have in operation by 2030, complete by 2035 with thousands of scientists on board and with a nuclear reactor as a heart to get stable energy. When the enormous problem posed by the get oxygen stably on the Moona giant step will have been taken in international ambitions to place a long-term base on the satellite. That is, furthermore, SpaceX’s new plan. Elon Musk confirmed a few days ago that Mars was no longer the priority because quick results are needed, and the Moon is a much more favorable scenario. There are many eyes focused on the same objective, one we haven’t stepped on since 1972. Images | NASA, ESA In Xataka | Faced with the need to look for weapons against superbacteria, science has opted to send viruses into space

after buying EA it is the turn of a mobile giant

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The Saudi Sovereign Fund, through Savvy Games Group, continues to expand its gaming empire. After announce the purchase of Electronic Arts for $50 billionis now negotiating to acquire Moonton Technology for a price that could reach 7 billion, consolidating its dominance in the lucrative mobile gaming market. The purchase. Just four months after announcing the purchase of EA, Saudi Arabia returns to the negotiating table. This time the target is Moonton Technology, the developer of ‘Mobile Legends: Bang Bang‘, one of the most successful mobile MOBAs on the planet. Savvy Games Group, subsidiary of the Saudi Sovereign Fund, is finalizing an operation valued between 6,000 and 7,000 million dollars to acquire the studio, currently owned by ByteDancethe parent company of TikTok. The strategy. The figure may seem modest compared to EA’s mega purchase, but it accurately reflects the strategic value of the Asian mobile market. Mobile Legends has accumulated more than a billion global downloads and dominates Southeast Asia, where it has managed to capitalize on a massive player base despite having faced multiple Riot Games legal lawsuits for violation of the intellectual property of ‘League of Legends’. The sentences forced Moonton to pay million-dollar compensation, but did not stop its growth in territories where access to consoles and PCs is limited. Why the mobile? Observers who believe that the mobile market is not what it was in the days of ‘Angry Birds’ are wrong: The sector generated more revenue in 2025 than PC and consoles combinedwith the model free-to-play demonstrating enormous profitability. ‘Monopoly GO‘, developed by Scopely (also Saudi owned since 2023), has generated approximately 6 billion dollars since its launch. A single application whose billing alone covers the price of Moonton. This equation explains why the kingdom looks with such interest towards mobile gaming: the relationship between initial investment and potential return far exceeds that of traditional AAA blockbusters. Controlling cell phones. With Moonton under its control, Saudi Arabia would manage three of the most lucrative mobile developers in the world (along with Scopely and the division gaming of Niantic), positioning itself as a dominant player in a segment where until now the Chinese Tencent exercised almost absolute hegemony. The operation could be closed during this first quarter of 2026, consolidating a movement that began as economic diversification and evolves towards something much more ambitious: the vertical control of entire segments of the video game industry. And more than mobile phones. The Saudi Sovereign Fund’s investment catalog in the video game industry draws a control map that encompasses SNK (‘The King of Fighters’, ‘Metal Slug’), Scopely (‘Monopoly GO’, ‘Star Trek Fleet Command’), Niantic’s gaming division (‘Peridot’, ‘Monster Hunter Now’) and ESL FaceIt Group (the largest organizer of esports competitions in the world). Five companies that alone generate billions annually and, above all, cover completely different markets. The power of actions. But the true dimension of Saudi power is revealed when its shareholding is analyzed. The fund maintains between 5% and 10% of shares at Nintendo, Koei Tecmo, Embracer Group, Nexon, Capcom, Take-Two Interactive, NCSoft, Square Enix and Bandai Namco. They are not testimonial investments: in several cases it is the second or third largest shareholder after the founders or traditional Japanese funds. This gives it influence on boards of directors, veto power over strategic decisions and privileged access to sensitive corporate information. At Ubisoft and Microsoft. The links with Ubisoft and Microsoft are more opaque. There is a 2022 agreement after which Savvy acquired minority stakes in Ubi as the Guillemot family fought hostile takeover attempts by activist investors, but the exact terms of the pact were never made public. With Microsoft, the relationship transcends the purely financial: Saudi Arabia has maintained investments in the technology matrix since 2016 and collaborates with Xbox on server infrastructure for the Middle East. Leaving Tencent behind. At the time, Tencent’s strategy generated regulatory alarms in the West due to concentration of power, but the Saudi approach is more aggressive in a key aspect: while the Chinese company sought majority stakes that would give it operational control but respected brands and structures, the kingdom has absolute ownership of medium-sized studios and also strategic stakes in consolidated giants. This hybridization allows for vertical influence without triggering antitrust alerts. The European Commission investigated for 18 months Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but authorities have not publicly questioned that a single actor controls significant stakes in nine of the twenty publishers largest in the world while directly owning three mobile developers that bill more than $10 billion annually combined. With the imminent incorporation of EA and Moonton, Saudi Arabia will have spent more than 70 billion dollars on gaming from 2021. To put it in perspective: that figure exceeds the current market value of Ubisoft, Capcom and Square Enix combined. A future of acquisitions. It is an entire recreational empire that could increase in the future: it is less supervised by regulatory authorities than other sectors and, for the moment, it has a very wide margin for growth. Few acquisitions comparable in magnitude remain in the pipeline, but the project Saudi Vision 2030which wants to diversify the country’s economy so as not to depend so much on oil, makes the nation look to the future. And this is a very financially attractive future. In Xataka | How Saudi Arabia and China are dividing up the video game industry with a checkbook

There is so much energy left over that we are using the reservoirs like giant batteries

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Not long ago, the news in Spain was the dust, the dry land and the anguish of starving reservoirs. Today, the story has taken a turn as violent as it was unexpected. The background sound in the Spanish electrical system is no longer the drought alarm, but the roar of the floodgates opening to release excess water. What the meteorology has given in the form of torrential rains during this beginning of 2026 has become a financial paradox: there is so much energy left over that the market, designed to manage scarcity, has begun to show its seams in the face of abundance. The price of electricity has not only dropped; has been broken. A perfect storm. And this time, literally. A succession of Atlantic storms (Goretti, Harry, Ingrid…) and an extraordinarily rainy start to the year They have brought the hydraulic reserve to 77.3%. This scenario has forced hydroelectric plants to work on a piece-rate basis. It is not an option: many are “flow-through” plants, which means they cannot store water and must turbine it to avoid overflows, flooding the electrical grid with cheap energy. This situation has drawn two opposite realities. On the one hand, for households with a regulated (PVPC) or indexed rate, the saying “year of snow, year of goods” is literally fulfilled. The bill plummets thanks to the massive entry of renewables. On the other hand, nuclear energy, designed to operate 24/7 as a base load, has become the collateral victim. The technical data of Red Eléctrica corroborate this trend. In the generation records of February 12, it is observed how nuclear energy remains on a flat line of about 5,770 MW, but operating in an environment where wind energy exceeds 17,000 MW at peak hours, pushing prices down and displacing other technologies. The mechanics of a “broken” market. The excess of water and wind has caused the price of electricity to “break” during the hours of lowest consumption. We’re no longer just talking about the solar “duck curve” at noon; now zero or negative prices also appear at dawn. According to The Spanishin the first ten days of February, 69 hours were accumulated with zero or negative prices. The system is so saturated with energy that it needs “sponges” to absorb it. Here pumping hydroelectricity comes into play (using electricity to raise water from a lower reservoir to a higher one), which acts as the system’s large battery. REE reports They are revealing about it.. During the early hours of February 12, the system recorded massive pumping consumption to prevent the collapse of the network, reaching consumption values ​​(energy withdrawn from the network) greater than 1,800 MW: At 04:05 on February 12, pumping consumption was -1,850 MW. At 04:55 hours, it remained at -1,848 MW. This confirms that Spain is using its reversible reservoirs to “drink” the excess electricity produced by wind and flowing water while demand sleeps. An x-ray of the price. As a result, the wholesale price has plummeted. According to Expansionthe average price for this February 13 is €4.38/MWh in the wholesale market (pool), a ridiculous figure compared to previous years. However, the market presents a time “trap” for the consumer. Although the average is low, the volatility is extreme. OMIE graphs show a flat curve close to zero for almost the entire day, which shoots up vertically at dusk. The valley: On February 12, the price remained practically flat and low for most of the day. The peak (The forbidden hour): When the sun goes down and the photovoltaics stop providing, and coinciding with dinner, the price skyrockets. Between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. the most expensive section is concentratedexceeding €35/MWh in the wholesale market, which translates into more than €170/MWh for the final consumer due to tolls and system charges. For the intelligent consumer, the “bargain hours” are now between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. (with negative prices in the pool of -€0.03/MWh) and during the early hours of the morning. Forecasts. Is this an anecdote or a trend? The experts consulted by The Energy Newspaper, like Javier Revuelta from the consulting firm AFRYthey believe it is structural. Futures markets (forwards) for March and April are already trading lower (€40 and €25 respectively). The forecast is that 2026 will close with an average price of around €55/MWh. This strongly reopens the energy debate: if renewable energy is capable of covering demand at zero prices, the economic viability of maintaining the nuclear park—which cannot stop and start at will—becomes complicated. The “problem” of full reservoirs is, in reality, the sign that the marginalist electricity market creaks when the raw material is free and abundant. For the citizen, the lesson is clear: electricity is almost free, but only if you know how to look at the clock before turning on the switch. Image | freepik and freepik Xataka | The reservoir that would “never be filled” is opening its floodgates: 23 years later, the largest swamp in Western Europe is completely full

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

They have found the first giant lava tube under their land

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Venus can be considered Earth’s evil twin because it has overwhelming pressure, sulfuric acid clouds and temperatures on its surface capable of melt lead. However, beneath that infernal façade, the planet could hide fascinating geological secrets. The first of these secrets has already been discovered, since we have proof that there is a huge underground lava tube. More than volcanoes. This finding was published at the beginning of February in the magazine Nature confirming what planetary geologists have suspected for decades. And Venus not only has volcanoes, but it has a magmatic ‘plumbing’ system that makes those on Earth look ridiculous. The finding focuses on the Nyx Monsa massive shield volcano 362 kilometers in diameter, where researchers from the University of Trento have identified a structure that changes our understanding of Venusian volcanism. What have they seen? In short, experts have seen a kind of well or skylight that they have designated as ‘A’. But it is not a simple crack in the ground of the planet, but rather it is the entrance to an underground world. This tunnel is not exactly small, since it has a diameter of more or less 1 kilometer and leads to a cave with a minimum height of 375 meters and an extension of at least 300 meters from the entrance. Although in this case estimates suggest that it could be up to 45 km long. It’s not small. To put it in perspective: these dimensions far exceed the lava tubes that we find on the Moon, Mars or Earth. The physical reason behind this gigantism is the unique conditions of Venus: low gravity compared to Earth and its very dense atmosphere allow lava flows to create massive structures without collapsing so easily. How they have done it. To achieve this, it is not that we have recently sent a new probe, but that the Italian team has carried out a reanalysis of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images captured by the NASA Magellan probe between 1990 and 1992. This already tells us that we should not throw away data no matter how much data we have. For decades, those images were there, waiting for processing technology and human expertise to know where to look. Until finally these researchers detected a unique asymmetric radar reflection. In this way, by analyzing how the waves bounced off the western slope of Nyx Mons, they were able to infer the existence of the underground void. A Spanish similarity. Something curious is that the authors of the study compare this training with the Green Cave in Lanzarotea terrestrial analogy that helps us understand morphology, although the Venusian version operates on a monumentally larger scale. Its importance. Until now, volcanic activity on Venus was intuited by changes in the atmosphere or surface characteristics. This discovery is the first direct evidence of an empty underground conduit, validating theories about recent and intense volcanic activity that has shaped the planet as a geological “twin” of our own. But the most interesting thing is in the future, since there are missions like VERITAS and EnVision that are about to leave our planet and that have much more modern and precise radar systems than that of the old Magellan. That is why they now have a great objective: to map the subsoil that we are beginning to know. Images | SIMON LEE Marc Szeglat In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury

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