hands

Google has opened the door to its employees so that whoever is not motivated to go voluntarily: Zuckerberg rubs his hands

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Google used to be the place where all software engineers They dreamed of working. However, in recent years that dream It has vanished. The company, known for its conciliatory culture, now surprises with a strategy that invites some workers to leave the company voluntarily To save costs in dismissal, according to an internal email published by The Verge. New voluntary output strategy. As you can read in the memorandum to which you have had access The VergeGoogle is offering a voluntary exit to the employees of its “Knowledge and Information” department (K & I, for its acronym in English), the area that includes those responsible for the search tool, engineering, marketing, research and communications. This document signed by Nick Fox, current responsible of the department, raises the possibility that, those who want to leave the company voluntarilythey can do it with economic incentives, in what is known as the “Voluntary Exit Program” (VEP), a pilot program of voluntary exits that Google put to the test in some departments after the dismissal of 12,000 employees in 2023. In Xataka Of engineers to keyboard operators: AI is converting software programming into a mounting chain Google is only for motivated. In Your statement, Nick Fox, it has been very clear: “If you are excited about your work, full of energy because of the opportunity that you present to you and you yield well, I really hope (really!) That you do not accept this. We have ambitious plans and much to do.” At the same time, Google offers “an exit path with support for those who do not feel aligned with our strategy, do not feel vitalized for their work, or are having difficulty fulfilling the expectations of their role within the company.” Said otherwise, The door has taught them. Welcome to the offices. Since 2022, Google has carried out different rounds of layoffs massive, and has progressively hardening the flexibility to telework through pressures in employee assessments. The filtered document does not let the occasion escape and also remember that employees living less than 80 kilometers from a work center must go to the office three days a week to the office, and encouraging to move closer to them to Those who live further. {“Videid”: “X919SE0”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “The AI ​​and the future of our work Silvia Rivela | 100 years, 100 visions Ep.3”, “Tag”: “”, “Duration”: “2630”} Template reaction. The reaction of the workforce to the new “non-descent” policy It has not been waiting. When associated with a hardening of teleworking policy for that department, many see in it an undercover dismissal that seeks to save dismissal costs. The discomfort has been fed because, while the dismissals and founders were happening demanded 12 -hour daysPichai sundar The salary climbed And the company announced Milmillonarios benefits. Risk leakage risk. Google is running a very high risk that, when opening the door to their employees, the best qualified decide to take the floor and lose their best talent in this operation of Costs. The announcement, in addition, occurs in a delicate moment. Companies as a goal are willing to Offer millionaire figures To capture that talent, especially in areas such as artificial intelligence, so this movement could have unexpected consequences for the competitiveness of the company. In Xataka | A figure shows that the problem is not to find qualified talent, but knowing how to retain it: 24.1% labor rotation Image | Unspash (Adarsh ​​Chauhan) (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news Google has opened the door to its employees so that whoever is not motivated to go voluntarily: Zuckerberg rubs his hands It was originally posted in Xataka by Rubén Andrés .

12 million people delivered their DNA to 23Andme. The company broke and its data are about to change hands

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For years, spitting in a tube was the first step of an irresistible promise: discovering your roots, knowing your genetic predispositions, even finding family members lost by the world. Everything without moving home. The company behind that phenomenon was called 23ndmeand achieved something unusual: to turn genetics into a mass consumption product. That story has just turned. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has reached an agreement to acquire the main assets of 23Andme for 256 million dollars, According to the official statement published by the pharmacist. It is a transaction that must still be approved by the Banking Court and by US regulators. At stake is a platform that has managed the DNA of millions of people worldwide. An announced end. The 23Andme fall has not been sudden. In recent years, the company went from being valued at more than 6,000 million dollars to fight for its own survival. His commitment to a more ambitious model – based on developing medicines, offering medical consultations by subscription and expanding digital health services – did not set. As details The Wall Street Journalthe company burned more than one billion dollars and ended up offering part of its assets in limit conditions. The sales agreement does not cover the entire business. Regeneron would keep the essential: the direct genomics service to the consumer, its biobanco of genetic samples and the research and total health divisions. The telemedicine subsidiary Lemonaid Health is left out, acquired in its day for 400 million dollars, whose closure will be made in an orderly manner outside this operation. Privacy: The real battlefield. The operation has re -placed privacy in the center of the debate. Regeneron has promised to respect current data use policies and has committed to undergoing independent scrutiny, as established by the judicial framework of the process. Even so, doubts persist on how one of the world’s largest genetic databases will be managed. The suspicion is not new. In 2023, 23Andme was a victim of a massive data filtration which affected 6.9 million people. As TechCrunch revealedthe attackers accessed the profiles of those who had activated the function of “genetic family”, obtaining names, locations and percentages of shared DNA between relatives. The company attributed the incident to the reuse of passwords by users, but the damage was already done. Anne Wojcicki, the face of an era. The 23Andme story cannot be told without mentioning Anne Wojcicki. Co -founder, visible face, visionary of personalized health and, at the same time, responsible for business decisions that led to collapse. His plan was to convert the company to an integral provider of medical services, but this did not prosper. He tried to recover control, but his power vanished with the beginning of the judicial process. According to WSJtheir actions with preferential vote were annulled and their offers rejected by the Board of Directors. Wojcicki opted everything to DNA as strategic assets. And for a while it seemed right. The company that helped to found transformed the way millions of people related to their health. It also showed to what extent a genetic database can become a mined field of legal, ethical and technological risks. A new stage, the same questions. Regeneron aspires to keep a powerful platform, a still recognized brand and an immense volume of genetic information. In its official statement, he affirms that his intention is to maintain service for current users and continue to develop new ways for personalized medicine. Images | 23ndme In Xataka | We have visited the place where the demographic hopes of Spain are literally deposited: the Semen Bank of Granada

Samsung’s survival in the chips industry is in the hands of its 2 nm technology

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2025 will be the year of 2 Nm semiconductor. The three largest manufacturers of integrated circuits, TSMC, Intel and Samsung, will start the mass manufacture of these chips before the end of this year, but The starting position Of these three companies it is very different. Taiwanese TSMC leads the semiconductor production market with A fee close to 60%has a well -assorted and stable client portfolio, and Your accounts are enviable. Intel and Samsung, however, are in a much more compromised position. The American company currently led by Lip Bu-Tan is trying overcome a very bad economic streak reducing their expenses and developing its technology with the purpose of increasing its competitiveness. Samsung, meanwhile, is also going through a complicated stage, as we are about to check. In any case, for these last two companies Its 2 nm technology It is his real lifeguard. Good news for Samsung: has reached a 50% wafer performance in 2 Nm These statements made in the middle of last March by Han Jong-Hee, Samsung general co-director, They diagnose with precision What is happening to this company: “First of all I sorry for the fact that the performance of our actions has not met their expectations. In the last year our company has not correctly responded to the semiconductor market for artificial intelligence (AI), which quickly evolves. “ “Our technological advantage has been compromised in all our businesses. It is difficult to see that efforts are being made to boost great innovations or assume new challenges” This Mea guilt It is aimed at the company’s shareholders and expresses that the directive dome recognizes not having made the right decisions in recent years. “Our technological advantage has been compromised in all our businesses. It is difficult to see that efforts are being made to Promote great innovations or assume new challenges. There are only attempts to maintain the status quo instead of generating disruptive changes “, Pray an internal statement Written by Jay Y. Lee, the president of the company. However, this is not all. Samsung has led for more than three decades the industry of integrated dram memory circuit LEADS THE HBM Chips Market so much (High Bandwidth Memory) that work side by side with the GPUs for the The one of the DRAM memories. In current circumstances it is evident that Samsung needs to trace as soon as possible. And it seems that it is in it. At the beginning of 2025 several South Korean media anticipated that Large scale manufacturing of 2 nm chips It had already begun In the company’s South Korean plants. However, this does not mean that Samsung already has everything tied. Chips manufacturers need the candle performance of their avant -garde nodes is at least 70%and, according to the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbothis company currently moves in the range of 40 to 50%. There are still more than seven months to finish 2025, and presumably Intel and TSMC still do not produce integrated circuits in a massive way Your nodes 18a and n2 respectively, so in theory Samsung carries a positive inertia. We will see what happens finally, but there is no doubt that this year we will bring us strong emotions in the scope of the semiconductor industry. Image | Samsung More information | Munhwa Ilbo In Xataka | This is the chips war: a former SK Hynix employee is suspected to deliver stolen technology to Huawei

China’s future in the chips industry is in the hands of a single company almost unknown: Sicarrier

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Sicarrier is not a Chinese company. When we repair the country’s semiconductor industry led by Xi Jinping probably many of us think of companies like Huawei, SMICHua Hong semiconductor or Naura Technologyamong others. But not in Sicarrier. Until just a few weeks this company It was a real unknown Beyond China’s borders, but in a record time it has attracted the attention of the global industry of integrated circuits. And he has done it for a weight reason: it is the authentic responsible for China currently having the ability to produce avant -garde chips. Although it was founded in 2021, during the last four years Sicarrier has maintained a very low profile. Its origin is not entirely clear, but The most reliable sources They collect that this company is probably a huawei split. What we know for sure is that it is a state company administered by the Shenzhen government. Sicarrier’s soul are veteran engineers of ASML and Applyed Materials I will not prolong the mystery more: Sicarrier is dedicated to designing and manufacturing photolithography equipment and wafering processing machines. In fact, the more than 30 products that it has presented just a few weeks ago in SemiCon China 2025 competes with the solutions of the Dutch company ASMLthe Japanese Tokyo Electron or the American Apply materials. It is shocking that a company with just four years already has proposals capable of competing in the market of chips manufacturing equipment. But it seems to have earned it. Whatever this presumable success is not the result of chance. And is that his main team is led by engineers with more than two decades of experience in the ranks of ASML and Applyed Materials. In fact, these technicians are surely responsible for the milestone for which Sicarrier is probably in the spotlight of the US administration: the technology used by Huawei and SMIC for MANUFACT 7 NM INTEGRATED CIRCUITS derives from a patent that seeks to make the production of 5 Nm chips possible using equipment from deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP). The technology used by Huawei and SMIC to make 7 Nm chips derives from a patent from Sicarrier The most ambicious lithography equipment by Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers is the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine (UVE). ASML is the only company that produces them, but THE SANCTIONS TO CHINA DE USA They prevent you from giving it to your Chinese clients. The problem is that this equipment is necessary to produce on a large scale and with a competitive price semiconductors of 7 Nm or with even more advanced integration technologies. Sicarrier has not presented a UVE photolithography team in China 2025. It is very unlikely to have it, but, at the same time, it is reasonable to anticipate that their engineers will be working on a machine of these characteristics. The teams that this company has already made known, or, at least, has officialized, are A 28 Nm immersion lithography machinean engraving equipment for advanced nodes below 7 Nm, diffusion machines for rapid thermal processing, chemical vapor deposition equipment for nodes of 28 to 5 Nm, verification machines and test for advanced integrated circuits, etc. The retahíla of lithography and wafering processing that Sicarrier has presented in Semi -Con China 2025 is long. As I mentioned a few lines above, these products compete with the proposals of ASML, Applied Materials or Tokyo Electron, although the authentic Sicarrier fire test will be the tuning of a UVE lithography machine. Du liqun, the president of this company, has declared that its strategy requires betting on the development of avant -garde lithography equipment, selective deposition machines and latest generation transist technologieslike ga (Gate-alall-around), which is already part of the Porfolio of TSMC, Intel and Samsung. It is still early to identify if Sicarrier will live up to the expectations it has generated, but there is no doubt: there is a new actor in the integrated circuit industry. And it is worth following the track very closely. Image | Sicarrier More information | Nomad semi In Xataka | This is China’s big problem with chips: Huawei will manufacture its Kirin X90 for PC using the 7 Nm of SMIC

Intel has a new ‘Roadmap’. And reveals why his future is in the hands of lithographs 18 and 14th

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Intel’s short -term competitiveness is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: The photolithography 18a. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that The 18A node already has the necessary maturity to enter large -scale production in 2025. And he also assured that he will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated from the 20A node. Right now this is the asset that Intel has to compete with TSMC and Samsung in the market for the production of integrated circuits in a year in which 2 Nm photolithographies They will take off yes or yes. Lithography 18a is erected above all about two essential innovations: Ribbonfet transistors Gate-alall-around (GAA) and energy delivery technology Powervia. We already knew this, but now thanks to Roadmap Updated that has just published Intel, we know much more. Lithographs 18A-PT and 14A will seal the future of Intel until 2028 Litography 14a will be the first in which Intel will use UVE High Opening Teams asml. In it Roadmap That we publish a little below in this article we can see that this integration technology will arrive in 2027, and shortly after, although that same year, the 14A-E node will also be ready, which will be nothing other than a review of the original integration technology. An important note: when Intel tells us about his 18th or 14th nodes what he is telling us is that These integration technologies are comparablealways according to Intel itself, to the lithographs of 1.8 Nm and 1.4 Nm of TSMC or Samsung, which are its main competitors. The 18A-PT photolithography will be compatible with advanced technology of Foveros Direct 3D The most relevant novelties that we can see in the new itinerary of this company are the 18A-P photolithography, which is a high performance review of the 18A node, and the 18A-PT integration technology. The first one will arrive in 2026. In fact, it is already being tested for the purpose of start large -scale production next year. The 18A-PT photolithography will be ready much later, in 2028, but it has a very important feature: it will be compatible with advanced packaging technology FOVERS DIRECT 3D Thanks to a hybrid interconnection system that allows you to stack chips in the vertical dimension. This packaging technique will be very important for Intel because it will allow the company currently led by Lip Bu-Tan compete with Advanced packaging technologies Cowos de TSMC and I-Cube, H-Cube and X-Cube of Samsung. The main difference between these implementations lies in the way in which integrated circuits on the substrate are distributed or stacked, a decision that deeply conditions the performance of the interconnections. Anyway, Intel’s current itinerary does not conclude with the 14A node. Keyvan Esfarjani, which is one of the top responsible for the subsidiary of this company that specializes in the manufacture of integrated circuits, confirmed In February 2024 that the production of chips in the 10A node (which will presumably be equivalent to the lithographs of 1 Nm of its competitors) will begin at the end of 2027. It makes sense if we are in mind that on that date Intel plans to start large -scale manufacturing in the 14A node, although, yes, the mass production of 1 Nm semiconductors will arrive later (possibly well entered 2028). Image | ASML More information | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

We have tried them and they are not good news for big hands

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Naturally, certain aspects of a device do not reveal all its possibilities until they are tested. This is the case of the Joycon of The Switch 2 In mouse mode. Although its operation was very clear in Nintendo’s ads (the Joycon, turned with the back towards the table, can move like a mouse, with trigger and buttons turned into buttons), its possibilities have not been clear until The presentation in Paris, Where we have been able to feel them. Many mysteries have been resolved. Two tests. And so it has been thanks to a couple of games that we have commented on our Review to the titles presented In this pair of days, but that we are going to review with a little more detail, because that is where the keys of the command are. It is, on the one hand, by ‘Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’, where the right command acts as a mouse in a First Person Shooter; And in ‘Drag X Drive’, where both are used at the same time with a purely Nintendo style, that is, in a way that would never have occurred to us, and squeezing the possibilities of the device based on lateral thought. In search of precision. The goal of playing a First Person Shooter With mouse is the search for precision in the pointed one: the saga ‘Metroid Prime’ traditionally solved the problem that the control with command (heir of time in which it was not usual) with a system of Lock-on of the point of view in the enemies. But now, thanks to the new command, ‘Metroid Prime 4’ is more precise than ever before in the saga. The Samus Aran’s settings movement is executed in this case with the left hand, holding the Joycon half as a conventional console command, while the right hand points. For small hands. What is the problem? The size of the control used as a mouse. For large hands such as mine, the grip position that forces to adopt the pseudo-oatón leads to a certain grab that ends up becoming annoyance in a few minutes. Especially if, as in this case, the side buttons must be clicking on the side (which make Samus a sphere or activate the way of scanning objects) twisting the fingers, because they are too together. It is a command that, obviously, has been designed first as PAD: the arrangement of the buttons is comfortable when used in classic mode. As a mouse is an extra use. One solution: alternate the mouse mode. But Nintendo has thought about everything, and the Joycon have a special characteristic: it is not necessary to activate the mouse mode in a menu from the game, but simply disconnecting the control of the console and placing it on the table. Employment as a mouse is immediate, and this allows us to use the right hand as a mouse when more precision is exiled, in the parts of action; and volting it again to its original position, to explore. That is the alternation system that suggested: of course, it can always be done with a mouse or always with sticks, and each player can find the one that most interests him Basket Fever. This discomfort is nuanced, curiously, with ‘Drag X Drive’, the curious wheelchair’s futuristic basketball game that is mandatory with the two joycon as mice. Although sometimes the game has a certain air of technical demo, it is very hilarious in large part by its control system, based on firm movements of the mice on the table, which mimic the movements of the players controlling the wheels of their chairs. The robustness and, at the same time, the versatility of the controls (which allow us to accelerate or turn our chair with enough immediacy) stand out in a game that, not demanding the precision of a ‘metroid’, does not generate so much discomfort in the controls. An intermediate solution. The usefulness of these mouse controls will be outlined, without a doubt, with the appearance of new games, or giving renewed life to ancient titles such as Bethesda’s ‘doom’. Our current feeling is that it is more a Gimmick (such as the camera) or an extra that a proposal that allows an intensive and prolonged game, as is the pro command. But as is logical, the more options exist for a very varied, the better. Especially if, for once, it is included in the price, no one is going to charge an extra for using this grip. Header | Nintendo In Xataka | Nintendo has not said if the switch 2 uses AI to reach 4K UHD and 60 Hz. This is our bet

AI agents are promising. But as in Tesla’s FSD, you better not take your hands from the steering wheel

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AI agents are one of the great trends of AI This year. There are many expectations put in these models of AI capable of completing a task from beginning to end for us and almost if our intervention. And yet, one thing seems clear: for the moment it will be better “not to remove your hands from the steering wheel” and watch every step they take to prevent the AI ​​agent from being starring. Autonomy and trust. The Tesla driving assistance system –badly called Total autonomous driving (FSD For its acronym in English) – it requires that the user trust him to get carried away and that the car takes us from a point of origin to a destination without human intervention. IA agents propose a similar idea, to complete a task from beginning to end autonomously, but for this we must trust that they are able to do so. decision making. The agents will require huge data amounts and access to updated sources of information to analyze such data and then make decisions. In the past we have seen how AI models are especially good at the time of Summarize concrete information Or to draw conclusions from limited data, which is very useful for that decision making. Learn from mistakes. Tesla cars receive FSD frequent updates to improve their behavior. These updates are nourished by the data collected by the company when your FSD system is used, what allows you to polish the service. Something similar is expected to happen with AI agents, which will improve – especially at the beginning – when they are updated and “learn from their mistakes” when processing user requests. AI and companies agents. These types of solutions will be especially striking in companies that can thus automate processes that previously required total or partial human intervention. And precisely that is why this type of integration must be done in a very controlled way, because let’s admit it: we cannot trust 100% of the current AI models. Tesla knows that FSD is imperfect. It happens of course in the FSD of Tesla, which since its inception has been involved in various accidents, some of them with fatalities. One of the most recent was notified in October 2024: the low visibility made a TESLA with FSD activated a few months ago will run a pedestrian. Tesla has been criticized on numerous occasions of misleading advertising and of save the maximum on radars and sensors To achieve greater profit margin. AI agents can be equally dangerous if they are used incorrectly and “without having their hands in the steering wheel.” Users and companies that begin to use them must keep these risks very present. The hands behind the wheel, please. The conclusion was already clear in the Tesla FSD system, but also in the case of agents. They have barely done only appear on the market shyly, but everything indicates that this is one of the great trends of AI by 2025. And the problem is that the models of AI are imperfect and therefore can make mistakes, but it is that in the agents of that error it will increase. That they tell Air Canada, who had to return money to a passenger which obtained an erroneous response from the airline chatbot. Or to Chevrolet, whose chatbot was “deceived” by a user who achieved Buy one of your cars for a dollar. Domino effect. The accumulation of errors in sequential tasks is a fundamental problem in current AI models. We could say that it is something like the domino effect or the compound error: an error in an initial action distorts all subsequent decisions, generating results increasingly far from what expected. Imagine that in applications such as finance, medicine or logistics: consequences could be terrible. Solution: Constant supervision. To avoid this problem there are several proposed solutions. One of them is the establishment of check points. Thus, at the end of each subtarte the system-and ideally, a human user, what is called Human-In-The-Loop (Hitl)-should verify that everything is going well. It is also possible to minimize the risk using redundant systems – for example, using different models of AI so that the AI ​​agent uses them separately – or taking advantage of the information of the standard limits: if an intermediate fact thrown by an AI agent is too diverted from what is expected, we should rebound that process. And for the moment, spent (very) bounded. We are in a preliminary phase, and AI agents are “learning to drive alone”, so to speak. And the best way they learn is to go step by step and always starting with relatively simple and very limited scenarios. Thus, the ideal is to try to apply them to very specific cases and with a limited and known casuistry, so that their answers are as precise. Image | Erik Witsoe In Xataka | Microsoft is very important that the agents of AI are the great ball of the year. And is being reorganized to achieve it

“If our hands unleashed, we will score goals”

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The top managers of Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange and Deutsche Telekom have joined forces in the MWC 2025 With a clear message: or Europe allows the consolidation of the European sector or telecos will die slowly against American and Asian giants. A cry of help that intensifies last year’s tone and raises the debate from the business to geopolitical. According to its unanimous message, Europe is trapped in a contradiction that is gradually suffocating its telecommunications sector. While regulators applaud the multitude of operators as a sign of healthy markets, financial figures tell something very different: a fragmented, weakened and unable sector to compete on a global scale. The new president of Telefónica, Marc Murtra, It had already been direct about it in the inaugural session of the Mobile World Congress 2025: “It is time for large European telecommunications companies to consolidate and grow to create technological capacity,” he said a few hours before. And during the CEOs panel of the sector, it was even more graphic: “We operated in a fragmented market, it’s like playing football with a hand tied to the back. If we unleash our hands, we will score a few goals.” From the regret to strategic warning It is not a new theme, but has reached a critical point. The combined stock value of all European telecos has been joining while that of the Americans, such as AT&T, have been growing for years. Meanwhile, giants such as Microsoft, Apple or Alphabet – which use telecommunications networks as highways for their services – exceed them alone the billion dollars of valuation. Long The change in tone is evident to the MWC 2024, when the CEOs of these same telecos also demanded regulatory changes, but With a more focused approach to asking for contributions to Big Tech. This year the speech has hardening and reoriented towards the existential need for consolidation for survivaltransmitting more urgency and appealing directly to European technological sovereignty. The Vodafone CEO, Margherita Della Valle, said it without windows: “Europe needs a new pact, which passes through a European regulatory framework.” And he added that “the time has come to move from Marmota to the European Digital Renaissance,” in allusion to repeated regulatory change requests that make year after year without results. The European regulatory trap European rules have created A perfect trap: They prioritize the immediate benefit for the consumer (low prices) sacrificing the future viability of the sector and its ability to invest. This vision, anchored in ideas of the 90s about competition, ignores that the world has completely changed. Murtra, in his first public act as executive president of Telefónica, has been devastating in his diagnosis: “We must be aware that the excessive fragmentation of European TMT, excess regulation and insufficient profitability of the sector have weighed Europe, which has been technologically lagging behind.” The CEOs of the four major European operators during the panel in the MWC 2025. Image: Telefónica. Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, was the most explicit when putting numbers to the disadvantage: “In the US, the average income per customer is at 42 euros per mobile and 58 euros for the fiber, while in Europe 15 euros are entered for the mobile and 13 euros for the fiber.” And he added a rather revealing fact about the bureaucratization of the sector: “I have told how many regulators served as Deutsche Telekom. Do you know how many? 270 regulators. We have media regulation, cybersecurity, privacy, telecommunications … at the local level and European level.” In the United States, consolidation has left three major national operators that compete with each other, but with enough size to spend massively in infrastructure. In Europe, with 34 main and 351 virtual operators, no company reaches the size necessary to compete globally. Each European country has 3 or 4 average operators, but the problem is another: each operator is usually strong only in some markets. The result is a European industry with tight margins, little investment capacity and a constant drop in its value. Deutsche Telekom has only been able to grow thanks to his American T-Mobile subsidiary. “Today we make 65% of our income in the US,” Höttges revealed, admitting that his company’s solution has been precisely “to fold the bet” in the American market. Consolidation: inevitable but blocked The consolidation of the sector is mathematically inevitable. Technology markets tend naturally towards structures with few actors due to economies of scale. Resisting this only delays the inevitable while weakens everyone. However, European regulators remain firm: in the last five years They have blocked or imposed very hard conditions to almost all important fuses proposals. The operation between O2 and Three in the United Kingdom It was rejectedthe TPG and Vodafone fusion In Australia it took years to approve, and here in Spain we saw how The Orange-Másmobo union only crystallized after concessions that risked their profitability. Della Valle highlighted the British case as an example of what should be: “In the United Kingdom, Vodafone has just launched a massive investment plan to build one of the best networks in the world. 11,000 million invested. Why could we do this? Because we had managed to scale through a fusion.” This resistance comes from European institutional cultureto. The commission has built its reputation as a consumer defender, maintaining seemingly competitive markets, mainly measured by the number of companies competing. Changing this would mean that the policies of the last two decades have been counterproductive. The price of doing nothing The effects are already noticed. Investment in new networks per inhabitant in Europe is much lower than in the United States. European 5G coverage (81%) It is delayed with respect to the American and China (More than 95%). Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, has stressed that “today our investors punish us when we invest more. What we want are investments that we know that they will boost scale, and the scale brings a smaller cost for jigwhich means lower prices for consumers and ability to … Read more

China has in his hands the world production of chips and batteries thanks to the gallium

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On December 2, one of the most aggressive Chinese sanctions packages of those who have deployed USA so far entered into force. And is that the government led by Joe Biden included 140 more companies on your blacklist. These prohibitions are aimed as Chinese companies that design and produce The lithography equipment involved in the manufacture of advanced semiconductors, hence the impact they are presumably having on the Chinese chips industry is deep. As expected, China soon react. Just one day later the government led by Xi Jinping announced the prohibition of export of critical minerals to the US. Among them are three essential chemical elements for the semiconductor industry, as well as some materials that are characterized by their extreme hardness, and that, therefore, can be used for military applications, such as gallium, Germanio and antimony. According to Japan, restrictions will affect the supply chains of chips and batteries China currently produces 59.2% of Germanio, 48% of the antimony and nothing less than 98.8% of the gallium. “This measure entails a considerable escalation of the tension to which supply chains are already subjected. It is difficult to access some raw materials,” Jack Bedder holdsco -founder of the Project Blue consultant. “It is logical that China responds to the growing restrictions of current and imminent US authorities with their own restrictions on these strategic minerals,” Peter Arkell points outPresident of the Global Chinese Mining Association. “It is a commercial war without winners.” Japanese Gallium imports since China have fallen no less than 85% between August 2023 and the same month of 2024 Several Japanese officials and executives linked to the semiconductor industry are aligned with Jack Bedder’s thesis. According to Financial Timesthese experts are warning of the US governments, Japan and their allies that the restrictions imposed by China on Galio’s export and other strategic raw materials will affect deeply to the supply chains of semiconductors and batteries. However, this is not all. Japanese officials suspect that the Chinese government could force them to inform them about all the products that contain Gallic exported by Japan to the US. Otherwise the administration of Xi Jinping could even more harden the measures that have caused that Japanese Gauling imports from China have fallen no less than 85% between August 2023 and the same month of 2024. Japanese companies are the ones that most Gallic, Germanio and Grafito consume. More than US, European, Taiwanese or South Korean companies. If the Beijing Government hardens its control over the Gallium the electric motors of Tesla cars from Japan, the lasers of Gallium Arseniuro used by Broadcom or some of the chips integrated in Apple’s iPhone could be affected by China’s export licenses. This situation reminds us of something important: no industrialized country can remain outside the economic and commercial war that the US and China hold. More information | Financial Times In Xataka | The era of supermaterials is about to begin. And we can thank the AI

Now it is more likely that Intel ends up chopped. TSMC and Broadcom are already rubbing their hands

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In the middle of last September, just two and a half months before leaving Intel, Pat Gelsinger revealed that the company’s board of directors was wearing the possibility of Escind your manufacturing business of semiconductors in A movement very similar to the AMD In 2009. This last company broke up its integrated circuit production subsidiary and created GlobalFoundries. Since then It has been objectively well. Intel pursues the same: recover financial health and increase its competitiveness. Gelsinger is already completely disconnected from Intel, but the possibility of separating the chips manufacturing subsidiary from the rest of the company is still on the table. However, like We explain to you At the end of November, if you finally decide to do so, you will not have complete freedom. And he will not have it because he has contracted obligations with the US government as a result of the reception of the 7,860 million dollars given by the Department of Commerce as a subsidy. And also of the 3.5 billion dollars which will receive from the Department of Defense to make chips for military applications. TSMC and Broadcom are interested in getting two essential parts of Intel Intel’s commitment to the US administration directly involves the splitting of its semiconductor manufacturing division in the form of an independent subsidiary. The US government has asked Intel to maintain the property of at least 50.1% of Intel Foundry if this business unit finally got to separate and acquire the form of a new private legal entity. And now more than ever this possibility is very tangible. TSMC is preparing an offer that would allow you to control the integrated circuit manufacturing plants of Intel According to The Wall Street Journal (TWSJ), which in the field of relations between companies does not usually give stitch without thread, TSMC and Broadcom are interested in getting two fundamental parts of Intel. The Taiwanese manufacturer of semiconductors, which leads the global market with A fee close to 60%you are preparing, always according to TWSJ, an offer that would allow you Control manufacturing plants Intel integrated circuits. At the current situation this strategic decision makes sense. TSMC is interested in developing its manufacturing infrastructure beyond Taiwan’s borders with the purpose of protecting its business if a war conflict between China and its country of origin is triggered. This company currently is building new plants of semiconductor production in Arizona (USA), Germany and Japan, but adding the factories that Intel has not only in the US, but also in Europe, Israel and Asia would allow him to consolidate his expansion very quickly. Interestingly in the middle of last October CC Wei, the current president and general director of TSMC, declared that he did not contemplate The possibility of buying Intel factories. However, it is reasonable that an executive with his responsibility Do not confirm an operation of this size until it is essentially closed. Whatever TSMC is not at all the only company that is interested in getting a piece of Intel. And is that, According to TWSJthe American chip designer Broadcom is also preparing an offer to get the integrated circuit design and marketing divisions of Intel. In any case, if the TSMC initiative will finally prosper will stumble in all likelihood with the government’s opposition led by Donald Trump. Currently it is unlikely that the administration approves the purchase of such an important division of an American company by a foreign company. Especially if, in addition, your business develops in a strategic industry such as semiconductors. Image | Intel More information | The Wall Street Journal In Xataka | Bill Gates has radiographed Intel. And his diagnosis is overwhelmingly accurate

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