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MediaMarkt knocks down the price of the top mobile phone for taking photos. A much cheaper Google Pixel on VAT-free Day

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Once again, MediaMarkt has launched a Day without VAT in which we can find juicy discounts on almost all types of devices, even those that do not usually drop in price frequently. In the field of mobile phones we have the best offer – at least without coupons – that the store has launched to date in the Google Pixel 10 Prowhose discount leaves it for 751.24 euros. Google Pixel 10 Pro (128GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A perfect mobile for taking photos Whether you want it to take photos, for its design or for the software, the Google Pixel 10 Pro It is a high-end mobile phone that is quite interesting for everything it offers. Right now you have the best (or at least one of the best) prices the store has had to dateso it’s a good time to get it if you’ve been looking for a good discount for a while. Especially after Black Friday and the Christmas season. It is an ideal phone if what you are looking for is a fairly compact size, since its screen is 6.3 inches. The panel offers a refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz and the processor is the Google Tensor G5. On the other hand, it includes 16 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage, so it is the basic configuration of the mobile. If you prefer, the 256 GB version reaches 850.41 euros during the MediaMarkt campaign, another minimum price of the store. Among other things, it is worth mentioning that the software will receive updates for six more years, the mobile is resistant to both water and dust (IP68) and at the camera level the Pixel 10 Pro offers very good results thanks to its 50 MP main sensorto its 48 MP wide angle, to the 48 MP 5x telephoto and, of course, to your camera app. You may also be interested Google Pixel Watch 4 (41 mm) – Android Smartwatch with Fitness Tracking and Gemini Help – Polished Silver Aluminum Case – Porcelain Sports Band – Wi-Fi The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel Buds A-Series – Truly Wireless Earbuds – Bluetooth Audio Headphones – White The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Alejandro AlcoleaGoogle In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | The best quality-price mobiles. Their analyzes and videos are here

A tax on billionaires has made the founder of Google seek refuge in Miami. A $173 million shelter

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Larry Page, co-founder of Google and second largest fortune in the world according to Forbespacks his bags after 30 years living in California. It’s not a whim. There is a compelling reason behind this decision: not pay taxes. However, the millionaire moves from state to state. the most millionaire way possiblewhich is none other than spending no less than 173.4 million dollars on two mansions near the sea in Miami. A house with a name and surname in Coconut Grove. According to published The Wall Street Journalthe co-founder of Google has acquired two properties in Coconut Grove, one of the most exclusive and luxurious neighborhoods in Miami, for about $101.5 million and $71.9 million respectively, for a total outlay of $173.4 million. One of the mansions was initially put up for sale for $135 million and extends over a 1.8-hectare beachfront plot, has 13 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, several pools and gardens surrounding the construction. The mansion was owned by Jonathan Lewis, a well-known philanthropist and civil rights activist who died in 2023. The sale of this mansion known in the area as “Banyan Ridge“, closed in mid-December with a significant discount. ​A second retreat close. As and how they point From the specialized real estate portal Realtor, without leaving the neighborhood and just under four minutes by car from his main residence, the millionaire would have bought a second mansion for about 71.9 million dollars. This second property would also be located on the seafront with views of Biscayne Bay. In this case, the construction has about 1,579 square meters, seven rooms and belonged to the journalist and writer Sloan Barnett, heiress of billionaire George L. Lindemann, as he collected The Wall Street Journal. Fleeing the millionaire tax. Larry Page’s hasty move and other Silicon Valley millionaires It comes in the context of California’s plans to vote on approving a tax that would levy 5% to the estates of more than 1 billion dollars. According to what was published by The New York TimesIf the tax is approved, it could be applied retroactively to those billionaires who reside in California as of January 1, 2026. Therefore, in order not to be included in that calculation, Page has packed his bags to start the year as a resident in Florida. Analysts consulted by the American media calculate that, taking into account that it is the second largest fortune in the world with a valuation of 270.1 billion dollars, this tax could mean a tax bill of more than 13 billion dollars. Following in the footsteps of Bezos and Musk. Larry Page’s move is not an isolated or strange case. Jeff Bezos did the same from Seattle in 2023, although at that time justified his move to Miami to be closer to the family and operations of Blue Origin, his aerospace company. Bezos also made a grand landing in Florida, buying several mansions on the artificial island known as Billionaire Bunker for about 237 million. The change of residence (and state) has given you an estimated tax savings of about 1 billion dollars. Something similar happened to Elon Musk who, after his judicial dispute over the payment of his salary bonus of Tesla in Delaware, changed the headquarters of his companies and his residence to Texasavoiding paying 13.3% in California capital gains taxes. Bad news for your neighbors. The exodus of millionaires from California is making local real estate agents make a killing selling luxury homes in areas like Coconut Grove. Dina Gold Thayer, by Douglas Elliman, explained to The Wall Street Journal that “every two days, we show available homes to San Francisco clients. Everyone is in a hurry to buy to avoid the retroactive application of the wealth tax.” This rush to buy is an opportunity for residents, since their potential buyers had less room for negotiation, causing prices in the area to skyrocket even more. In Xataka | In a financial carom, Google has stood up to NVIDIA, leaving an unexpected winner in the crazy AI race: Larry Page Image | Flickr (Fortune Global Forum)

A Google mobile with an irresistible price and another with a gift, a robot with an arm cheaper than ever and more. Hunting Bargains

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Today is Bargain Hunting Friday, our particular weekly article in which we discuss which ones have been the best deals we have found in recent days. If you want to renew your mobile phone or are looking for a robot vacuum cleaner that will lighten your cleaning load at home, you may be interested in these offers. Google Pixel 9 by 499 eurosa very reasonable price for the previous generation Google mobile. LG OLED55C55LA by 899.10 euros upon registering in the store, a high-end television with an OLED screen. Xiaomi Poco F7 by 379.99 eurosa phone with a 6,500 mAh battery and 512 GB of storage. Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra by 649 eurosa robot vacuum cleaner that incorporates a very practical arm to clean corners. Google Pixel 9a by 549 eurosa smartphone that includes the brand’s headphones as a gift. Google Pixel 9 If you didn’t get to take advantage of the many offers we found during the Christmas season, we can still find very good prices on mobile phones like the Google Pixel 9whose price has fallen on MediaMarkt to 499 euros. It is ideal if you are looking for a small mobile phone (6.3 inches), but that will also be updated for many years—until 2031— and that incorporates a good photographic section. In addition, it is also very attractive both for its screen and its speakers. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG OLED55C55LA By taking advantage of MediaMarkt’s LG Days campaign and registering in the store, you can access double discounts on the LG OLED55C55LAa high-end television that remains 899.10 euros. Its screen is 55 inches and has OLED technology, reaches a refresh rate of 120 Hz, incorporates HDMI ports and is compatible with Dolby Vision and Atmos. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi Poco F7 If you are not convinced by the Google mobile and are looking for a model that has a good battery and a lot of storage, the Little F7 of Xiaomi has dropped on Amazon to 379.99 euros. Comes with a 90W charger, includes a 6,500 mAh batteryhas 512 GB of storage, its screen offers a 1.5K resolution and is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra It won’t be especially cheap, but the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra Right now it has the best price we have seen on Amazon so far. By 649 euros (before 1,099 euros), we are talking about a robot vacuum cleaner that stands out above all for its robotic arm that allows you to clean corners. It is also interesting to mention that its suction power is 10,000 Pa, it has a LiDAR navigation system and comes with a good 5,200 mAh battery. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 9a Maybe the Google Pixel 9a It is not on sale in the official store, but if you buy it right now you can get some headphones Google Pixel Buds 2a totally free. You can select the 128 GB configuration (549 euros) or the 256 GB (649 euros), and after doing so, the option to add headphones will appear. This mobile is also quite compact (6.3 inches), it will be updated for many years (2032) and its screen looks great outdoors. Google Pixel 9a (128GB) + Google Pixel Buds 2a The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Google, LG, Xiaomi, Roborock In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best robot vacuum cleaners in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

Google has decided to touch the heart of Gmail. Gemini aims to transform the inbox into something completely new

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Email has been there for decades, functioning almost silently, as a basic piece of digital life that we rarely question. We use it for studies, work, registering for services, coordinating our personal life and resolving procedures that continue to pass, to a large extent, through the inbox. Precisely for this reason, the changes in this section are usually minimal and prudent. Gmail has been a good example of that stability for years. Now, Google has decided intervene in a more profound way and do so relying on artificial intelligence. From the Mountain View company, the argument is clear: the problem is no longer just receiving emails, but managing the volume and context that accumulate in the inbox. Gmail was born in 2004 in a very different scenario, and today it coexists with endless threads, cross conversations and an information load that never stops growing. In this framework, the company presents the so-called “Gemini era” as a logical step, a way to turn the inbox into something more than a chronological file and begin to treat it as an active system to understand, prioritize and act on information. Google links a good part of these changes to Gemini 3the model that claims to be behind the new capabilities. Search less, ask more. The traditional logic of email has always been the same: search, filter and read. AI Overviews breaks that sequence by introducing a layer of automatic synthesis. When a thread gets longer, Gmail can generate a summary with the important points, avoiding having to go through message by message. And when what is needed is specific information, the proposal is even more direct: ask the inbox. Gemini interprets the query, reviews the relevant emails and returns a summarized response. Google separates the scope of these features: automatic thread summaries gradually roll out to everyone, while the option to ask inbox questions with AI Overviews is tied to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions. Write with help and understand what goes into each plan. Beyond reading email better, Google also wants to make writing it take less effort. Help me write is free and allows you to both polish existing messages and write them from scratch based on a brief indication. Added to that are the new Suggested Replies, which evolve the classic quick replies by taking into account the full context of the thread and the user’s own style. The most advanced layer, Proofread, adds grammar, tone, and style checking, but is reserved for those who subscribe to Google AI Pro and Ultra. According to Google, the rollout begins today in the United States and starts in English, with the promise of expanding languages ​​and regions in the coming months. The new inbox. AI Inbox is the most ambitious bet of this change. Gmail introduces an alternative view that transforms the inbox into a combination of task list and summary of active topics. Artificial intelligence promises to detect pending commitments, payments, appointments or responses and present them as suggested actions, while grouping long conversations together for easy catch-up. The idea is not to replace email, but to reinterpret it, making what is important emerge without the need to manually scroll through messages that, although relevant, are buried by the volume. At the moment, AI Inbox does not come as a function open to everyone. Google is testing it with “trusted testers” in the United States and only through the browser, with priority for personal Gmail accounts and not for Workspace accounts. Furthermore, the proposal still has visible shortcomings: there is no system to mark suggested actions as completed, which limits its usefulness as a task manager. Control in the hands of the user. New features powered by Gemini can be turned on or off, and the classic inbox is still available. However, that control is not completely granular: turning off AI also means you lose other smart features that many users already took for granted. Regarding privacy, Google states that it does not use Gmail emails to train its artificial intelligence models, a key guarantee so that this new layer does not generate distrust in such a sensitive space. This movement makes it clear that Google has decided not to stand still in a field that had been operating for years without profound changes. If this new way of understanding email proves to be useful on a daily basis, it is reasonable to think that other providers will end up following a similar path. In technological careers, not moving or reacting late usually has a cost. But email is also governed by a very different logic: if something works, touching it involves risks. Gmail now enters a real testing phase, where it will be necessary to see if this bet manages to simplify the experience or adds unnecessary complexity. Images | Google In Xataka | Alphabet has just overtaken Apple in the ranking of the most valuable companies in the world. The reason is in AI

OpenAI, Google and Anthropic fight among themselves. Samsung fights everyone else elsewhere

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Samsung has presented at the CES 2026 its “AI philosophy,” a grandiloquent concept that sums up its strategy: using its 430 million SmartThings users as moat (or ‘defensive moat’) against the invasion of AI in homes. Why is it important. OpenAI, Google and company remain focused on announcing the most powerful model. There is little to do against them on that side if you haven’t been doing it for years, so Samsung is playing something else that is not about winning the algorithm war, but about controlling where those algorithms live. SmartThings is not just an app. It is a platform Matter compatible that connects hundreds of millions of devices already in homes around the world. That means Samsung can add AI to products people already use, without asking them to buy anything new or change their habits. Others have to convince you to put a smart speaker in the kitchen. Samsung already has your refrigerator, your television, your washing machine and your vacuum cleaner. And everyone talks to each other. Between the lines. Samsung’s “AI philosophy” seems, above all, a response to Amazon with its Alexa+. Both proposals have things in common: they understand that if AI models tend to commoditize (to be technically equal until they are not easily distinguishable), the value is in who has the speaker in your kitchen, the TV in your living room and the refrigerator that knows what you eat. Samsung has been building that ecosystem for years and now it is activating it for something else. Implementation makes the difference: Family Hubwith AI and Gemini vision, recognizes what you put in and out of the refrigerator, suggests recipes and connects with other appliances. It’s real tracking so that when you ask yourself “what can I make for snack-dinner?”, the system suggests recipes based on what you have, not on an inventory you made by hand three weeks ago. Vision AI Companion It recognizes what you’re watching on TV and suggests recipes if food appears on the screen. Then send that recipe to the Family Hub in your refrigerator, which checks what ingredients you have and tells you what you’re missing. If you decide to cook it, send the instructions to the oven so that it is preheated to the exact temperature. AI Soccer Mode Pro Automatically adjusts image and sound when it detects that you are watching football. You can turn up the audience volume, turn down the commentators, or balance both. It’s AI applied to something as specific as “I want to enhance the field atmosphere” or “I want to prioritize the narrator’s voice.” It is perhaps not as attractive an approach as the war of chatbots that are increasingly capable of more, but maybe (just maybe) it will end up being more profitable. And something else: SmartThings as a Matter-compatible standard. That expands the potential ecosystem far beyond Samsung’s own products. Yes, but. There are two weak points in that strategy: Samsung depends on third-party models. Gemini is your main partner, also for the home, for the smart component. If the models run out commoditizingwe will have to compete on price. And in the price war there always appears a Chinese manufacturer willing to go lower. privacy. An ecosystem that knows what you eat, what you see, when you sleep or how you move is also an ecosystem that can monetize that data. The last threat It’s called Dreame. and there is a red flag On that second point: Samsung has announced an agreement with the insurer HSB to give discounts on home insurance in exchange for connecting home appliances to SmartThings. That is, saving some money in exchange for handing over your behavioral data. As what we already saw with health insurance and wearables. It’s a double-edged sword: if your behavior reduces your premium, it can also increase it. Or directly invalidate coverage. The bet. If it works, Apple will speed up with Home (previously HomeKit), Google will push with its Nest and Amazon will double down with Alexa+ and Ring. The battle is no longer for the best language model. It’s because more devices in more homes capturing more data. Samsung has been losing ground in mobile phones for years fruit of Apple’s clamp in premium and Chinese manufacturers in price. Also against LG in some appliances not to mention Chinese baking for the home. But in the sum of connected devices per home, it does not have so many rivals. That is its trump card: converting the fragmentation of its catalog into the advantage of its ecosystem. The question is whether consumers will give up control of their home in exchange for convenience. The answer determines whether Samsung ends up being the silent winner of the AI ​​era or simply the maker of gadgets that run other people’s intelligence. In Xataka | I would never have imagined answering a call from the washing machine. Until I tried the latest from Samsung Featured image | Screens even in washing machines and appliances that talk to each other: this is how Samsung imagines the future of the connected home

Apple, Google and Samsung promised them happily with 5,000mAh batteries. Until China came to rub their hands on their faces

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The person writing these lines has an American mobile phone—made in China—with a little more 5,000mAh. A figure in which giants like Apple, Samsung or Google have been comfortably installed for years. Meanwhile, in China, Honor has just made official a phone with a 10,000 mAh battery. The launch is not surprising just because it has managed to literally introduce a powerbank inside a smartphone. It is surprising because it breaks a barrier that until now no one had dared to cross. Not due to lack of possibilities, but due to industrial inertia. The aforementioned. Honor has made the Honor Win and Honor Win RT. Two phones that, in addition to having the best Qualcomm processorshave a 10,000mAh battery made of silicon-carbon technology. The message is clear: this is not a typical high-end, it is proof that China is the leading benchmark in batteries for smartphones. thickness. For years there has been an unwritten but unquestionable rule: more battery means more thickness. The 10,000 mAh were reserved for rugged, bulky mobile phones designed for very specific uses. These Honor Win break that logic. They are thinner than a iPhone 17 Pro Maxbut with double the energy capacity. There are no gimmicks, fine print or marketing exercises: it’s a real leap in energy density. How did they achieve it?. Honor has not specified how they have managed to take the capacity to such an extreme but the person responsible is clear: silicon-carbon. This technology has been demonstrating for years that it is possible to introduce much denser batteries in the sizes in which lithium has already reached its ceiling. Chinese mobile phones have been standardizing for more than a year batteries over 7,000mAhand Honor’s move to reach five figures marks what aspires to be a new standard. The cons. Silicon-carbon poses certain challenges, and the first is degradation. These batteries, especially in their first generations, They seemed not to be at the same level as classic lithium batteries. Over time, the promised charge cycles are virtually identical to those of traditional lithium batteries (more than 1,500). The second is the cost: producing this type of cells is more expensivewhich partially explains why, for the moment, these figures reach China first and not global markets. In fact, a common practice is to find models whose Chinese version has more battery than the global version, reserved for the rest of the markets. A third key point is related to security and regulation. Denser batteries require stricter controls, and Western regulatory frameworks are not always prepared to adopt these types of advances so quickly. None of this invalidates progress. It simply explains why Apple, Samsung or Google have not yet made the leap. It’s not that they can’t: it’s that they haven’t wanted to take the risk… yet. China is going to force a move. The 10,000mAh batteries are, without much room for doubt, one of the biggest technological leaps in the world of smartphones after the arrival of AI. A figure that will allow us to normalize the three days of average use without going through the charger. The leap is so relevant that, whether they like it or not, “traditional” manufacturers will have to start making a move, as they had to start doing with fast charging systems. Samsung has already started implementing the 7,000mAh in phones like the Galaxy M51but its high-end is still at the 5,000mAh barrier. Google also moves in the 5,200mAh and Apple… is Apple. With a greater or lesser pace of implementation, these manufacturers are forced to keep pace with China in these advances. And that translates into admitting that we were wrong about lithium. Image | Honor In Xataka | The Android phones with the best battery of 2025: which one to buy and recommended models

Google Maps to find out how it has changed from the 50s to today

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Looking back to see what the maps of yesteryear were like can be fascinating because, well, you may find that In the Roman Empire they had a whole tangle of highwaysbut it is not necessary to go that far: the road infrastructure of the Spanish state has changed enormously in recent decades. You can ask your grandfather, but you can also see it in the latest and ambitious project of the National Geographic Institute. Spain in the 1950s was eminently rural, but agrarian modernization, industrialization and poverty led to the exodus of a significant part of the population from the towns to the cities. Throughout those 70 years, a dense and complex network of infrastructure and urban centers has been developed that did not exist before. Towns, cultivated areas and fields have been left along the way. For this ‘Google Maps of Spain from the 50s to today‘The IGN relies on Telespazio Ibérica, a geographic information company with satellite services. Its objective for nine months will be to launch the Historical Information System on Land Occupation in Spain (SIOSE). The new Historical Information System on Land Occupation in Spain (SIOSE) will be the most complete, precise and exhaustive tool to analyze the effects of climate change on the state’s ecosystem, the changes in territorial planning and land use in recent decades. As explains the director of cartography of Telespazio Ibérica, Óscar Muñoz: “The Historical SIOSE will not only include a complete database, but also a statistical and visual validation report that will guarantee the reliability of the results for scientific, urban and environmental uses. Thanks to this we will be able to see, objectively, how the Spanish ecosystem has changed and know which green areas have been lost, which urban areas have grown and how our landscape has evolved in the last 70 years.” The idea is to capture how its territory and landscape have evolved that period of time painstakingly rebuilding cities and towns, forests, crops, roads and buildings, among others. This Information System on Land Occupation in Historical Spain will be made up of 572 sheets of the National Topographic Map, ranging from the first complete aerial record of the territory (the american flight of ’56) and cartography generated later, both at the regional and state levels. In addition, Telespazio Ibérica is based on a pilot developed for the IGN and will have to refine it with a more precise and functional land coverage. To do this, they will use both digitization and automated image analysis and AI algorithms, which guarantee reproducibility throughout the entire territory. In Xataka | Castilla-La Mancha is about to shrink 2,000 hectares in favor of Aragon. All because of a 19th century dispute In Xataka | Who owns the maps in the world?

120 inches, Google TV and speakers. Now it’s on sale at MediaMarkt

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Winter is the perfect time of year to spend afternoons at home watching series and movies. If you want to do it in a big way, like in a movie theater, MediaMarkt has a discounted device that will be very interesting for you. It is about the Xiaomi Smart Projector L1 Pro. At MediaMarkt (although also in other stores) it is discounted to 269.99 euros. Although the advantage of buying it in this store is that you get a extra discount of 27 euros if you join myMediaMarkt. Xiaomi Smart Projector L1 Pro The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A cheap projector capable of reaching up to 120 inches This Xiaomi Smart Projector L1 Pro It has a compact size and a discreet yet elegant design, so you can place it practically anywhere. One of its star features is its luminosity of 400 ISO lumensso you can use it in rooms with little ambient light. Another of the hallmarks of this Xiaomi projector is that it integrates four speakers that offer a 5W poweralthough you can enhance the sound section with a sound bar or wireless speaker. Works under the operating system Google TVso it includes Google Assistant and Google Cast, so you can send content directly from your tablet or smartphone. Last, but not least, it can be highlighted that its light source is LCD type and allows project in size from 40 to 120 inches with resolution of 1,920 x 1,080p. Some alternatives that may also interest you 30000 Lumens Projector Supported WiFi Bluetooth AMEELA The price could vary. We earn commission from these links XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro (New) 1080P Mini Portable Projector The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Xiaomi In Xataka | Best home cinema projectors: which one to buy and five recommended models from 299 to 18,000 euros In Xataka | Mega-guide to set up a home theater: projector, screen, sound system and more

AI doesn’t just live on chips, it also requires massive energy, so Google has bought an energy company

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The AI needs a lot of energy and technology companies are already planning how to power their huge data centers. On the table there are such creative ideas as take them to space either submerge them in the sea to reduce its consumption. Google has opted for a more immediate solution: it has purchased an electricity company for data centers. The agreement. Google has purchased Intersect Powera company dedicated to developing energy infrastructure, including renewable energy sources, for data centers. Google has paid $4.75 billion for the San Francisco-based company, in addition to assuming its debt. According to Sundar Pichai: “Intersect will help us expand our capacity, operate with greater agility in the construction of new power generation facilities in line with the new load of data centers, and reinvent energy solutions to drive innovation and American leadership” Why it is important. The agreements of AI companies are usually focused on computing capacity, not energy. This agreement underscores the importance of energy in AI infrastructure, putting it on the same level as the very chips it powers. Data centers are being developed at a brutal pace and energy is presenting itself as a bottleneck. Satya Nadella already said it: there is no power for so many chips. It’s Google ensuring enough “food” for its chips. Yontersec. Google’s relationship with Intersect began just a year ago, when big tech acquired a minority stake in the company. Under this collaboration, several projects have come to light in their data centers. Both these projects and all Intersect personnel are part of the agreement. What the agreement does not include are other company assets, mainly located in Texas and California, worth 15 billion. These will continue to operate under the Intersect brand. Energy. In 2023, data centers already accounted for 4% of the energy consumption of the entire United States, and at the rate at which they are being built, the figure will continue to increase (there is talk of 12% by 2028). The problem is that US electrical infrastructure cannot support that pace and is having consequences for consumers through price increases in electricity. Google assures that with this agreement it will be able to guarantee “an abundant, reliable and affordable energy supply that allows the construction of data center infrastructures without passing on costs to network customers.” Image | Wikipedia, Intersect In Xataka | Talking about artificial intelligence is talking about energy, and the fashionable term is ‘bragawatts’

For Google, 2025 could have been a terrifying year. It’s going to end up being one of the best in its history

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It’s not how it starts but how it ends. If Google is having a Christmas dinner, that might be a good phrase to sum up what your year has been like as you raise your glass in a toast. And the Mountain View-based company began 2025 with several dark clouds on the horizon that threatened both its present and its hegemony for the future. But of course, it seems Google still has some time left. Google entered 2025 knowing that it had three major legal battles ahead that could end up amputating precious members like Chrome or its advertising business, with OpenAI in the rearview mirror in the AI ​​race and a troublesome new US president to adapt to. However, Google has not only emerged victorious, but has also managed to maintain the status quo of your structure (for now) and has emerged as the most cutting-edge AI company there is. And furthermore, the accounts come out: is breaking profit records. What has Google done to change its 2025 like this? Being in Google’s shoes in January of this year was not easy. Going through the courts was inevitable and the consequences were potentially devastating for their main sources of income. Declared a monopoly, there were possibilities before it such as the forced sale of Chrome. He also had to give explanations for anti-competitive practices in advertising and his battle with Epic Games It could have resulted in the drastic reduction of commissions in the Play Store on Android, opening the doors to other payment methods and third-party stores. Facing the Justice Department of Trump’s new era was not the best of scenarios either: it is not the first time that the new US president is critical of Google. AI has made them leave their comfort zone. After years of dominating with its combination of Google and Chrome, today the focus has been on artificial intelligence and here it could not be left out, among other things, because it is disrupting its search business. ChatGPT launched a new long-distance race, that of AI, where it started behind technologically speaking and has had to face new and old rivals: the veterans Microsoft and Meta, but also OpenAI and Anthropic. Billions of investment in R&D&I and data centers just to try to keep up. Google has made a huge bet with AI in every way with the hope that it ends up: 1. being profitable. 2. being one of the companies that survive to benefit from it. Because AI is in this phase of filming and expansion and is anything but profitable. And he is risking everything, even cannibalizing his goose that lays the golden eggs: his search business. However, its position is privileged: it has enormous economic muscle, an entire ecosystem and sectors where it leads. This 2025 the wolf was coming for Google, but it was not like that: You have avoided the sale of Chrome. Yes, the judge ruled that Google was a search monopoly, but he did not uphold the Justice Department’s most critical move. The DOJ defended that separating Google from its browser would eliminate one of the company’s great ways to attract users and direct them to its search engine. And be careful, because there was no shortage of buyers. The judge considered that this operation would be “incredibly complex and very risky.” It also allowed Google to continue paying Apple to ensure the prominent presence of its search products. But it did not emerge unscathed: the ruling requires it to share data with competitors (once, not continuously) and to limit exclusive contracts. The future of your advertising business is an unknown. Google yes lost its other big antitrust trial and here the DOJ wants to force you to sell your advertising exchange market and your Ad Manager tool. However, the judge’s predisposition seems to indicate that there will be an agreement that brings a change in behavior before touching the structure of Google, a slower process that could be delayed longer with an appeal from the company licensed by Sundar Pichai. Your (eternal) dispute with Epic. Google lost the case two years ago and this summer it was defeated again… and appealed again. Of course, along the way it has had to allow alternative payment methods and list alternative app stores. As in the previous case, Google hopes to soften the measures: for now it has already negotiated with Epic to reduce commissions and add a new category of registered app stores. Furthermore, it will do so globally. This is decided next month and if it goes ahead, Android will change but Google will still have control. It is not trivial, considering that a new operating system for PC based on Android will arrive in 2026. With Trump, a clean slate. The Mountain View company has had to use diplomacy and open its wallet. It should be remembered that after the capitol incident, Google banned Trump’s account from YouTube. Well, the president of the United States sued them and this year the soap opera has come to an end with YouTube paying 22 million dollars to close the agreement. On the other hand, Google was among the big tech companies that financially supported at the inauguration of the current president of the United States. If Google has had to defend itself in court, in technology it has gone on the attack. We could talk about the advances of the Pixel (which there have been), but the hardware It is not the company’s priority at all. Google has had a fantastic year in AI both in data and in story. Because with AI it is not enough to be the best, you also have to lead the conversation. Its video generator Veo 3 took over social networks, Nano Banana (and later, its Pro version) has starred in trends such as become a Stranger Things character either in an action figure. But it’s not just fashion: it’s that its video models, images and, ultimately, Gemini 3 … Read more

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