industry

The chip industry has its own Lego black market. ASML created it by accident

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Rick Lenssen works as a data analyst at the Dutch company ASML and builds Lego models on the weekends. It could have remained there, a mere hobby shared with his children if the company that employs him did not design and manufacture the lithography machines necessary to produce microchips, one of the key elements of current technology and one of the key suppliers of TSMC, Samsung or Intel. Now, his Lego designs imitating the original machines reach four-digit figures on eBay. 380 million in 851 pieces. It appeared in the ASML online store at the end of November 2024: a Lego model called TWINSCAN EXE:5000, measured 35 centimeters long and cost $227.95. It reproduced the high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet (High-NA EUV) lithography machine that the company delivered to Intel in late 2023 and that allows chips to be printed from its 2 nanometer node. The actual equipment weighs 165 tons, has more than 100,000 parts and had to be transported in three Boeing 747s. The Lego set reproduced it in the style of the popular toy brand, it included a purple ray that represented ultraviolet light and a minifigure with the full clean room suit that technicians wear. The product sheet, perhaps anticipating what was to come, already warned that multiple orders from the same customer would be cancelled. Brick Lenssen. This is the nickname given to Rick Lenssen, a 39-year-old company employee who became interested in Legos. by chanceafter taking his children to a toy fair in the Netherlands. His first personal project was an exact replica of the ASML campus in Veldhoven: two years of work, 2,500 euros out of his pocket and 25,000 pieces, with details as obsessive as the peregrine falcon that nests on a roof of the complex, accompanied by a pigeon that, according to him, acts as food. He designed everything first on the computer and assembled it in the attic of his house. Where do I put this. Lenssen then encountered a drama that will be familiar to any Lego fan: what to do once you finish building the set. He offered it to the campus itself, but they didn’t want it. Lenssen wrote to ASML’s CEO on a Friday night, and within hours he wrote back saying he loved the set. To get the model out of the attic, it had to be dismantled piece by piece (like the real ASML machines), and company workers loaded it into a van. Today it is the first thing visitors see when they arrive at the company’s reception. It’s official. The jump to merchandising officer arrived later, with a model of the skyline of the campus in charge of promoting an internal app, and then the two models of machines. He was not the first: Jeroen Ottens, an ASML engineer who had worked at Lego, I had modeled a previous version. The cheapest model in the current range, the TWINSCAN NXE:3400C, at $166.70, was not born as a commercial product either: it started as internal training tool before becoming a special edition open to the public. It took Lenssen a few weeks to design the current two sets, one with a 61-page instruction manual. Your only compensation is a copy of each model. Employees only. The sales policy is one unit per person and verified ASML email is mandatory. For weeks, some fans managed to place orders bypassing that restriction due to a security hole in networks, and measures had to be taken: in December 2024 ASML began canceling orders from buyers without an actual corporate email. The EXE:5000 file even disappeared and can only be consulted today through the Wayback Machine. The same corporate email restriction covers the rest of the merchandising of the company, yes, much less coveted: sweaters, mugs, pins and Christmas decorations. eBay fever. Of course, speculation was not long in coming, as It usually happens with Lego sets that disappear from the market. Individual sets of those designed by Lenssen have been seen for $600, while the complete collection reaches $4,500. Before closing that section of the store, ASML sold 1,355 units of the latest model (there are 44,000 company employees, possibly not all of them interested in building with toy blocks). Although the comparison is absurd, only six of the real machine have been sold. In Xataka | The great fear of the US is that ASML’s UVP machines will continue to arrive in China. So he is going to intensify his trade war

Our way of eating is experiencing a silent revolution that is already noticeable in the industry: “snackification”

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New times, new ways to eat. There was a time (not that long ago actually) when the concept “pecking” almost had a negative overtone. A “snack” was the concession that one made between breakfast and lunch or shortly before dinner to indulge in a culinary treat, something that was done exceptionally or knowing that it was not convenient for them. That is changing. As our habits transform, so does the way we organize our diet and how we understand snacks. It is no longer about eating snacks at the wrong time, but rather about considering the meals of the day in a different way. The shift is so clear that there are those who are already talking about snackfication. How many times do you eat a day? That question probably sounds like a platitude to many people. Three. Maybe five if we count the snack and a mid-morning sandwich, right? In 2015, the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) was interested in that same question (how many meals did Spaniards usually eat on a weekday) and discovered that, on average, we were around 3.57 intakes. To be more precise, half of those surveyed (50.4%) recognized three meals a day and another 26.1% extended it to four. Only 17.7% ate five or more meals, a figure in tune with that calculated by the Nestlé Observatory. Is it a still photo? No. As our way of life changes, so do traditional eating patterns that led us to limit ourselves to breakfast, lunch and lunch, adding (perhaps) a mid-morning snack and an afternoon snack. I explained it recently Expansion: instead of three blocks of meals we move to a more distributed intake made up of small quantities. More intakes, smaller portions. Why is it important? The phenomenon goes beyond simple “pecking” for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that these meals replace traditional meals (dinner, for example). Another key is that “pecking” or snack loses its negative nuance. It’s not about indulging in pastries and chips. The phenomenon is accompanied by a growing interest in healthy snacks. Manufacturers know this and often promote them by appealing to their functionality rather than the stomach. Is there data to support it? Yes. The first one is left by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), a Washington, DC-based organization focused on nutrition and food security. Their studies in the US reflect a clear tendency to replace central meals of the day with snacks. If in 2020 38% of those surveyed admitted this change towards smaller intakes, in 2024 they already represented 56%. The last indicator, from 2025, stands at 62%. Most do it occasionally, but the curve is revealing. Does the study say anything else? He notes that “for most Americans” snack consumption is already part of their “daily ritual.” “In 2025, 70% say they eat them at least once a day, which represents a decrease compared to 73% in 2024, but also the fourth consecutive year in which daily consumption of snacks exceeds 70%,” remember the reportwhich details that 12% of those who ‘sting’ daily do so at least three times. “Americans are replacing traditional meals with snacks and lighter meals, a change that continues to gain strength. In 2020, 38% reported having replaced meals with snacks or light foods. In 2024 that figure increased to 56% and in 2025 it stood at 62%,” points out the IFIC. The phenomenon is so clear that Food Navigator either BBC they talk about snackification. Is there data from Spain? We handle tracks. Although they do not address the topic directly and require combining several sources, they must be handled with some caution. In 2004 the INE published a report in which it stated that 58.4% of the population I used to eat three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), a percentage that shot up to 72% among those over 65 years of age. In 2022 Mapfre addressed that same issue again and found that on working days 38.7% We Spaniards eat three meals. Not only is this data lower than that published by the INE in 2004. It is also below the sum of those who eat four (29.9%) or five meals (23.2%). The photo changes on holidays, although there are still more people who eat four or five times. Graphic from the report “Food in post-pandemic 21st century society: food decision”, by Fundación Mapfre. What is it due to? There are many factors at play, such as recognize the consulting firm Circana, which breaks down a few when trying to explain the behavior of American households. One (fundamental) is that we eat more snacks and fewer leisurely meals for a simple matter of comfort. “Consumers are increasingly looking for ways to save time preparing meals,” highlights the firm, recalling that snacks are even gaining weight in main meals. It makes sense if we take into account that there are millions of people who almost never take a frying pan or saucepan to cook and every time we buy more dishes already prepared. Curiously, those who consume the most snacks (at least in the US) are not teenagers, but members of Generation 21% of consumption at home. The list also highlights the millennialswith 15% of the pie. When surveying the market, the firm found that the snacks that were most successful were the sweet and salty ones, not the healthy ones. Are there more factors? Yes. Cultural and dietary changes, changes in homes (some, like Juan Roig, believe that domestic kitchens are doomed), changes when shopping… Some analysts even slide the influence of the new weight loss drugs (GLP-1) and how they influence patients who consume increasingly smaller portions. What seems undeniable is that these changes in our diet are having an impact on the forecasts of companies dedicated to the production of snacks. Food Navigator assures that in 2025 the value of the global market of the snack industry will exceed 269 ​​billion of dollars and the forecast is that it will grow … Read more

The price of meat is through the roof. An industry has a golden opportunity: artificial meat

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It is becoming more and more expensive to buy meat in the supermarket. In the midst of widespread inflation, the meat section has stood out and its products are among those that have increased the most. Among beef producers, the trend has been rising for years. According to Eurostat datathe price of live calves rises or falls between 2013 and 2019. But starting this year the rise is continuous. In Spain, for example, 100 kilos of live animal go from costing 226.25 euros in 2019 to having a price of 369 euros in 2023. Another reference: the average price in the EU The price at which producers sold male beef in January 2025 was 570 euros per 100 kilos. A year later, last January, the cost had jumped to 717.11 euros per 100 kilos, an increase of 25.5%. This rise in prices, especially of beef, coincides with a few years in which the artificial meat has progressed. The techniques to obtain a similar texture and achieve flavors and aromas have improved. Production methods have been polished and some companies have gained economies of scale. As a result, your product would have become cheaper. It is the case of Novameat. Giuseppe Sconti, its founder and CEO, says that his company is now capable of producing artificial meat at a much lower price than a few years before. Born in Barcelona in 2018, the startup uses yellow pea protein for its product and has launched its own factory. “We buy a primary ingredient and transform it to have a block of textured protein, which large producers can then mix with minced meat or hamburgers,” he explains. It is no longer about sausages or a hamburger made with plant-based meat. It is an approach that does not aim to create a final product for sale to the public. That’s easier gain scale in production, as long as there are clients to sell it to later, of course. Sconti adds another factor to the decrease in costs. “When we buy our base ingredient in large quantities we can get it at a lower price. In addition, we have diversified the places from which we can get the protein. Now we can get it from Europe, but also from America.” The Novameat facilities. Cheaper raw materials also help. Justo Pedroche Jiménez, senior scientist at the Fat Institute, belonging to the CSIC, has been working with vegetable protein for two decades in research aimed at the food sector. He claims that the diversity of plant protein has increased. “Nowadays we work with a lot of plant raw materials.” He says that before, soy was mainly used as an alternative to animal protein, but now his team is researching lentils, chickpeaslupins, broad beans, even chia and quinoa, among others. “And the more companies there are that work on this, the more competition there is and the more different products on the market, all of this, in the end, leads to lower prices,” he adds. At the exit of the bubble But artificial meat has its own ghosts. It experienced a peak, it became almost a fashion, associated with veganism and healthy habits, and then some of the best-known brands in the sector fell sharply. In response to an email sent by Xataka, Jaime Martín, partner and CEO of the consulting firm Lantern, specialized in the food sector, is skeptical about the phenomenon of meat based on vegetable protein. For him it was a bubble and it is a sector that is devastated. Although he points out that the prices of this type of product are going down in some countries. “It becomes cheaper in countries where there is already a relevant size of consumers, such as Holland or Germany, and a determined commitment by the private label to promote the category.” The two big names in artificial meat, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, chain several years of decline. The losses accumulate, so much so that the first collapsed on the stock market in a spectacular way, while the second saw its valuation shrink in an equally bloody way. There have been bankruptcies, such as that of the British Meatless Farm, which went into bankruptcy more than two years ago. Perhaps the most symbolic thing was that in 2024 McDonald’s, which had promoted a hamburger made with this type of alternative meat, discontinued its sale. There was no place in his letter for McPlant. For Pedroche, positive conclusions can be drawn from everything that has happened. “These companies made a risky bet on a product, perhaps a little sophisticated, for a very specific population niche, but I think that knowledge of vegetables has been created. Now it has stabilized. It is not decreasing but rather there are more and more people who risk, let’s say, trying this type of products that are closely linked to health,” reflects the CSIC researcher. Vegetable protein meatballs. “There has been a bubble that has burst. The question is whether the protein diversification that had already begun will continue. The alternative protein, as it had been defined, in finished products, had created a lot of hype,” says Sconti, referring to the well-known brands that sold packaged products, such as hamburgers and sausages. He talks about them as a commercial proposal, perhaps the most striking in the entire artificial meat sector, but not the only one. “I am optimistic. I think that protein diversification is not going to end. It is going to be like the Internet, when the dotcom bubble burst and then there was consolidation. And now the Internet is much bigger than in the year 2000.” An example of this consolidation would be the movements of the Brazilian JBS, the world’s largest producer of traditional meat. In 2021 acquired the Dutch company specialized in alternative meat Vivera, and last year bought The Vegetarian Butcherthe alternative protein division of Unilever. He has merged both to boost its presence in the European market. The outlook for the sector is encouraging. according to … Read more

70% of the world’s salmon comes from farms and their meat should be gray. The industry has been making sure you don’t notice for decades

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In the heart of Tjuvholmen, a small neighborhood located on an even smaller peninsula that runs from Aker Brygge towards the Oslo Fjord, lies The Salmon. It is a restaurant, yes; but above all, it is an interpretation center for Norwegian salmon. There, just before enjoying two dozen different preparations, facilitators explain in detail “the entire salmon process – from smoking to export” and explain to diners “the historical development of salmon farming.” And it is logical. 70% of the salmon consumed in the world comes from aquaculture. Only in the North Atlantic, farms produced more than three million of metric tons in 2025 and Norway is (by far) the main producer. They explain all this in The Salmon; What they don’t explain is the color. Le Salmon, 1866–1869, by Édouard Manet The color? Salmon, in the cultural imagination of the entire world, has a very specific color: a pinkish-orange which, in short, is what we have been calling salmon color. The curious thing is that, under normal conditions, the meat of farmed salmon would be pale gray or whitish. And the reason is very simple: the characteristic color of wild salmon depends on the diet. They are big fans of krill, shrimp and other crustaceans which, in turn, feed on microalgae that produce astaxanthin. That’s what gives them the color. Instead, farmed salmon are fed feed composed of fishmeal, oil, soy, corn gluten and other poultry by-products. None of them have astaxanthin naturally and, therefore, they could not acquire their iconic color. And that, of course, is a problem. Early farmed salmon producers realized that color was difficult to manage. It is true that there is a wild salmon native to Alaska that does not naturally fix astaxanthin in its meat and is sold as a gourmet product. But that is one thing and trying to convince millions of people that this farmed pale salmon is the same (or better) than the wild one is another. Since the 1980s, researchers and producers got to work, discovered the origin of the problem and introduced chemically synthesized astaxanthin into the food chain of farmed salmon. It’s not cheap: these additives represent between 6 and 20% of the cost total feed. But it is necessary. And, by the way, they “tint” them, like the Astaxanthin is a powerful antioxidantfish improve liver function, immune response, fertility and resistance to oxidative stress. And why should we care about all this? Spain is the second largest consumer of fish and seafood in the EU; Salmon, in fact, is one of the most consumed species. The color of salmon is something well known (and completely safe), but it is not something that is usually advertised: the fear of growing distrust towards farmed fish is always there. One of the great food paradoxes of our time. Producers, in fact, have been saying for years that they would lower the amount of astaxanthin if consumers agreed to buy paler salmon. But that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen: as we’ve seen time and time again, food depends critically on fashions and trends. this pink is in fashion. Image | Katja Ano In Xataka | We are drugging the salmon with cocaine and anxiolytics. And that’s causing them to behave strangely.

Mexico is getting its foot in the door in the semiconductor industry. It will take more than good intentions

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The return of donald trump to the White House it was like an alarm clock for the rest of the countries. It caused the rise of the feeling of European technological sovereigntybut also the awakening of his neighbors. That feeling was captured in the ‘Mexico Plan‘, a strategy for the country to stop depending so much on others and where technology plays a fundamental role. Because Mexico has decided to get into the conversation of the semiconductor industry, and the OECD He just said there is potential. But also some other problems. Intentions. Mexico’s intention is to complete a series of objectives to become the tenth economy in the world and, within that strategy, there are objectives such as reducing poverty and inequality, promoting tourism and promoting vaccines made in Mexico. Also generate 1.5 million jobs and enhance the technological network. Among the various initiatives to achieve this, there are two that stand out: electric cars for urban mobility (the Olinia project of which We expect news this summer) and semiconductors (the Kutsari project). Mexico has experience in both fields because there are powerful companies that manufacture their products in the country, but from being the factory to having all the legs of the chain there is one step. How things are going. However, without making much noise, the institutions are moving. Puebla, Sonora and Jalisco are the three proper names, the three headquarters chosen to develop this plan that allows Mexico to go from being a country that assembles chips for others to one that designs, manufactures and sells them. The three states are reinforcing investment and consolidation of already established infrastructure, as well as the construction of new buildings and agreements to attract and retain talent. In Sonora, for example, it is in the Mexico-US Trade Corridor. In Jalisco there is the Intel Design Center, so there are contacts and experience in integrated circuits. And Puebla will have one of the semiconductor production plants. Strengths. The idea is to start producing chips by 2028 with an eye toward commercialization by 2029. And beyond what Mexico says, it is interesting to see what other organizations have to say. Here the OECD comes in with a optimistic message in which he points out that Mexico already has that experience in the assembly and testing of chips, so it has a base on which to scale. They assure that the country has “a promising future” and a favorable position due to its geographical proximity to the main world market, a large and experienced workforce and an industrial network that, as we say, has already been tested by manufacturing chips for others. They also have data centers and plenty of land for renewable energy to power the industry. Something that the OECD also highlights is the talented labor base because 17% of Mexican graduates are from engineering areas, three points above the average for the OECD as a whole. The least optimistic face. Now, not everything is so optimistic. There is a difference between “potential and concrete execution” and there is critical positions with the country’s ability to meet energy and transportation requirements. security when developing this industry. Regarding education, although the OECD indicates that number of engineering graduates, only 16% of young people between 15 and 19 years old are enrolled in technical programs related to the sector compared to the average 23% of the organization. Water can also be a problem, but if there is one thing clear, it is that the country is more on track with its future as a producer of semiconductors than, for example, as a creator of mass electric cars with its own batteries. Because that’s where lithium comes into play and, although there is plenty of it in Mexico, It’s one thing to have it and another thing to refine it.. Images | mister rfflag of Mexico, Data Center (edited) In Xataka | The avocado “war”: the product that has brutally confronted Mexico and the United States for 80 years

The industry does not stop raising the price of games and I have gotten hooked on this free movie guessing game

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There’s something perversely satisfying about spending weeks thinking more about Al Pacino movies because of one game than any recent AAA release. This movie guessing game has no cutscenes spectacular nor does it come with an ambitious built-in trailer. This is a free website, without invasive advertising, that makes you chain movies with an unknown rival from the other side of the world. Is called ‘Cine2Nerdle‘, and its Battle 2.0 mode is, right now, the hardest thing for me to leave in the browser. How to play. The daily puzzle puts you in front of a grid of 4×4 tiles. Each card contains a word or phrase. The objective is to rearrange them by exchanging positions until each row or column alludes to or describes a movie. There are between four and five movies hidden on each board. When you have three tiles of the same movie lined up, they light up yellow; when you complete all four, the row is resolved. And when you have four horizontally you have to reorganize in search of the fifth. All with limited movements, of course. What makes Cine2Nerdle genuinely interesting in its single-player mode is its constant cheating. A card can belong to a row because it is the place where a movie takes place, and simultaneously to a column because it is the last name of the leading actor in another. This game of polysemy also affects false paths; A proper name can have multiple owners, an initial can be a title or the name of a character. Each puzzle is more like a crossword puzzle than a logic test. Its secret: Battle Mode. The daily puzzle is already good enough, but what makes ‘Cine2Nerdle’ a diabolical invention is the Battle mode, and more specifically its second version. The basic idea is a 1vs1 duel in real time: both players start from an initial film and have 25 seconds, taking turns to chain together others that share at least one member of the artistic team: actor, director, screenwriter, director of photography. And so on until someone is left without an answer or runs out of time. What Battle 2.0 added over the previous version is a layer of strategy that transforms the game. Before, games could last about an hour if both players knew cinema well. Now each player carries a “battle kit” that includes items as a condition for immediate victory (for example, mentioning four science fiction films from the eighties or connecting films with an actor without using him as a direct connector), life savers (small helps, such as revealing facts about the films) and the possibility of banning films or actors to the rival. Thus the games are resolved in about five minutes. The good thing: before each game you prepare the kit of aids and objectives that you have gained while playing, and thus you can make up for your film-loving shortcomings. Pure RPG mechanics. The strategy. You have to use the aspects in which you are strong and have knowledge to drag the rival there. For example: are you an expert in horror films from the eighties? Mention long career directors who take the game from the present, where everyone knows titles, to decades past (e.g. John Carpenter). Take the game to your territory, and there, begin to uncover increasingly rare films, and reinforce your choices with prohibitions on using the best-known actors in the cast. The remains of ‘Wordle’. When the New York Times bought ‘Wordle’ for more than a million dollars By early 2022, the game already had millions of daily users. The formula was simple: one word per day, shareable on networks, without unnecessary additives. What followed was an avalanche of thematic derivatives: geography (Worldle), music (Heardle), mathematics (Nerdle)… Most did not survive a year. Cine2Nerdle He is one of the survivors. It was created by Nilanth Yogadasan, who had already published CineNerdle (a puzzle of film frames that were revealed little by little). The jump to “2” completely changed the mechanics and also, as its creator recognizesis a nod to the style of titles like ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’: the sequel that puts the number in the middle. The kind of winks for coffee lovers that turn a game for film nerds into an accessible and fun experience. In Xataka | The Spanish Puzzle Championship exists, real professionals participate and there are prizes of up to 1,000 euros

After visiting a Chinese factory, the CEO of Honda loudly admitted the noise of the industry

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We are witnessing a great change in the automobile industry, led above all by the great presence of China in more and more global markets and a transition to electric which seems to still be difficult for him. The traditional automobile industry is going through a delicate point, and the president of Honda saw it clearly when visiting a supplier factory in Shanghai. The surprise. At the end of February, Toshihiro Mibe, president of Honda, visited the facilities of a large Chinese manufacturer of components in Shanghai. What he found was a completely automated plant, without workers on the production line, and capable of supplying parts to both Tesla and local builders, minimizing labor costs and operating constantly. “We have no chance against this,” counted Mibe when leaving, according to statements reported by the Nikkei Asia media. It is certainly not the type of statement that one would expect from someone who runs one of the most historic brands in world motorsport. Why does it matter? Honda is not an isolated case. It is the latest symptom of an industry that has been looking at China with concern for years. Chinese manufacturers have managed to compress the development time of a new model to between 18 and 24 monthsabout half of what the Japanese or Europeans need. And it’s not just speed: it’s cost, automation and software. It is a change that is costing the traditional automobile industry, and that is not easy to replicate either. Numbers. In 2020, Honda sold 1.62 million vehicles in China. In 2025, that figure fell to 640,000 units, a decrease of 24% in the last year alone and the fifth consecutive year of decline, according to data published by the media. Its factories in the country operate at 50-60% capacity, well below the 70-80% necessary to be profitable. By 2026, the planned production is less than 600,000 units. “It is an extremely disappointing plan,” acknowledged an executive from a Chinese supplier company to Nikkei Asia. “But it doesn’t surprise me either,” he continued. Honda is not alone in this. Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, warned in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning last October that China has enough production capacity to “supply the entire North American market and put us all out of business.” “Unless things change, we will not survive,” counted for his part, also the then president of Toyota, Koji Sato. And coming from Toyota, which is basically the largest automaker in the world, that says a lot. Vgo back to the past to go towards the future. Honda’s reaction goes through resurrect your R&D division as an autonomous entity, something that has already existed since 1960 and that in 2020 was dismantled in favor of centralized management. It was that independent structure that, in 1972, developed the low-emission CVCC engine (the first to meet US regulations) and turned the original Civic into a global success. Now, thousands of engineers return to a subsidiary with greater operational freedom. “Five or six years ago it was good for the headquarters to take the reins,” recognized a Honda executive to Nikkei Asia. “But now the world has changed drastically,” he continued. Doubts. The movement does not convince everyone. Takaki Nakanishi, chief analyst at the Nakanishi Research Institute, said to the media that “it is doubtful what will change just by restoring the organization.” Honda’s own management team admits that recovering the structure does not guarantee winning China. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to raise the white flag,” added a company executive, according to Nikkei Asia. In parallel, Honda cancels two of its electric planned for the US, the 0 SUV and the 0 Sedan, and assumes losses of up to 15.8 billion dollars. Also have been left in the air the two vehicles under the Afeela brand, the joint project with Sony. The alternative bet: India. While Toyota and Nissan choose to ally with Chinese partners to learn from their speed and launch affordable electric cars, Honda prefers another path. The brand is betting on India as a manufacturing base for its next generation of electric cars. The Model 0 Alpha, its global strategic EV planned for 2027, will be produced there. In mid-March, the Indian subsidiary shared images of the Alpha in rolling tests, describing the moment as “a new milestone in Honda’s electrification journey.” Imbalance. The automobile sector is going through one of its most profound transformations. China has stopped being just a market to become the main global competitor, with brands like BYD already reaching 1.8% share in Europe in the first two months of 2026, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Honda, with just 0.5% in the same period, illustrates this imbalance well. Cover image | Sling In Xataka | Sensors, luminous tires and fish scales: the crazy (and stinky) story of the first “autonomous” car

The AI ​​industry fell in love with OpenAI, but doesn’t trust its CEO one bit

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At OpenAI they see a future in which the work week should have four days. Not only that: every citizen should receive a share of the economic growth generated by AI. These are some of the proposals that the company has published yesterday with the aim of preparing us for the “age of intelligence.” And just the day they published that proposal full of good and reassuring intentions, a blow arrived for the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman. An investigation published in The New Yorker once again called into question his way of acting, highly criticized by experts and engineers who worked with him. The conclusion of all of them: better not trust Sam Altman. The arrival of the age of intelligence. What they call the “age of intelligence” will undoubtedly have a negative impact in some areas, but OpenAI proposes with their document to make changes that mitigate these problems. Among the most striking measures is the creation of a “public wealth fund” that will distribute dividends from AI directly among citizens, regardless of their employment status. Let the machines work (and pay us for it). They also suggest taxes on automated labor to finance social security, and also pilot projects of four-day work weeks without salary reduction. The proposal is striking and seeks, of course, to reassure citizens in the face of threats such as job loss that can be caused by the mass adoption of AI. The problem is that this proposal comes at a delicate moment for an OpenAI in the midst of a reputational crisis. Smokescreen? This optimistic proposal contrasts with the report published in The New Yorker and in which the authors interviewed more than 100 people “with first-hand knowledge of how Altman behaves in business.” And among them, rivals like Ilya Sutskever or above all Dario Amodei who founded their own startups. Both harshly criticized Altman. Sutskever accumulated internal documents and messages showing deception and manipulation. Amodei stated that the obstacle to AI security is Altman himself, who leaves that area in the background compared to the company’s ambition for personal power and excessive growth. For his former partners, Altman is not a visionary, but an actor with a calculated pose. Says one thing, does another. The scandal of dismissal and later return of Altman was due precisely to that attitude in which the council accused him of having “not been consistently frank in his communications.” It’s the same thing we’ve read on other occasions: Altman has a dual personality. In him, the pathological desire to be liked and accepted is mixed with a total lack of concern for the long-term consequences of his misdeeds. He tells his interlocutors what they want to hear, and then does what he really wanted from the beginning. It is something that, for example, Karen Hao narrates over and over again. in his book ‘Empire of AI’in which, it must be said, it erred in calculating the water consumption of data centers mentioned in its studies. In the report they mention how the well-known programmer Aaron Swartz met him before die in 2013 and commented about him even then that “he is a sociopath.” Public image is everything. The publication of the OpenAI document occurs at a particularly critical time for the company, which is involved in a reputational and strategic crisis. Anthropic has managed to become the darling of the AI ​​industry —without being much less perfect— and OpenAI has realized that it was experimenting with too many AI applications that were not profitable and now wants to refocus on what makes it profitable. The good intentions shown in the document try to get public opinion on their side just when the company plans its IPO. Learning from the past. Altman’s critics reveal that he is an expert at designing control mechanisms that go up in smoke. Support AI regulations (at least those that favor you) and publicly promotes ethics committees and alignment and security of the AI ​​that in reality later knocks down internally, at least according to those who work with it. It happened when he promised to allocate 20% of the computing capacity to the super-alignment team, and then actually gave up only between 1 and 2% of that capacity. Jan Leike, who was named co-leader of that team along with Sutskever, resigned in May 2024 indicating that “safety culture and processes have been relegated to the background compared to flashy products,” he explained in a thread in X. He ended up signing for Anthropic. Interested reviews. Although Altman’s career at the head of OpenAI –with what happened to the Pentagon as a recent example—reinforces the comments of those who criticize him, it must be remembered that competition in this industry is currently fierce. Many of those who participate in the report are direct rivals and therefore their criticism, veiled or not, is partly self-serving because it harms their competitor. In Xataka | There is a new generation of AI models at the doors and Anthropic has to sell them: “The biggest and smartest”

Japan is advancing like a steamroller in the chip industry. It is already looking towards 1.4 nm and threatens Taiwan’s dominance

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If we stick to the field of technology, Japan has missed two very important trains that it should not have missed: the manufacturing of cutting-edge semiconductors and the development of models of artificial intelligence (AI) pointers. In its “Summary of the Strategy for the Revitalization of Semiconductors in Japan” of 2024, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry recognized the decline of its chip industry. Furthermore, Fumio Kishida, former Prime Minister of Japan, has declared openly that his country depends excessively on the US in the critical scenario of AI. Be that as it may, Japan wants to make up for lost time. And Fujitsu is one of its best assets to regain its former glory. In fact, this company has announced, according to Nikkei Asiawhich is going to develop cutting-edge 1.4nm chips for AI that are entirely Japanese. This project will have a development cost of approximately 363 million dollars, although, and this is what is really important, the manufacturing of these integrated circuits Rapidus will take carea company that seeks to compete face to face in the medium term with TSMC and Samsung in the semiconductor production market for third parties. Rapidus advances with firm step Japan is currently investing more money in its integrated circuits sector than the US, Germany, France or the UK. Not in terms of net value, but their effort is greater if we weight the investment of these countries over their gross domestic product (GDP). The US dedicates 0.21% of its GDP to its semiconductor industry, and Germany 0.41%. France, according Nikkei Asia0.2%, and, finally, the United Kingdom 0.04%. The difference is very significant and highlights the effort that Japan is making with 0.71% of its GDP. As expected, Japanese companies have a leading role in the reconstruction plan for the Japanese chip industry. Tokyo Electron, Canon and Nikon are the leading designers and manufacturers of integrated circuit production equipment. AND JSR Corporation leads the production of photoresist materials. Curiously, it is necessary to pour these fluids over the silicon wafers in order to prepare them for the transfer of the geometric pattern that delimits the distribution of the transistors, the connections and the other elements that make up an integrated circuit. Rapidus Corporation has been created expressly to put Japan back at the forefront of chips The surprising thing is that, in reality, none of the companies I just mentioned are Japan’s best asset to catapult the competitiveness of its semiconductor industry. Not even JSR, which, as we have just seen, leads the manufacture of photoresist materials. The company that is destined to compete face to face with TSMC, Intel or Samsung in the chip production market is Rapidus Corporation. In fact, it has been created expressly to once again place Japan at the forefront of integrated circuits. Rapidus is a very young company. It was founded on August 10, 2022 by the Japanese Government with an initial capital of 7,346 million yen (just under 46 million euros) contributed by, and here comes the interesting part, Sony, Toyota, NEC, SoftBank, Kioxia, Denso, Nippon Telegraph and MUFG Bank. The initial capital invested in the constitution of this company is not very large, but there is no doubt that the companies that participate in it have unquestionable relevance in the technology, automotive and telecommunications sectors. The state-of-the-art semiconductor production plant that this company has set up in northern Japan, in the city of Chitose (Hokkaido), began wafer processing tests in a pilot line in April 2025. The plan of the management of this factory is to begin large-scale production of 2nm semiconductors in 2027. What is causing this Rapidus plant to attract the attention of the semiconductor sector is that, according to Atsuyoshi Koikewho is the president of the company, will be completely automated. Its purpose is to use robots and AI to set up an automated production line that will be specialized in the manufacture of 2nm chips for AI applications. Their plan is, ultimately, to produce integrated circuits faster, at a lower cost and with higher quality. And after 2 nm, as we have seen, 1.4 nm integrated circuits will arrive. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Nikkei Asia In Xataka | Japan takes the lead with nuclear fusion and sets an extremely ambitious date: the 2030s In Xataka | Japan has taken out the checkbook to once again dominate the chip industry. Prepare a plan of 325,000 million dollars

The damage to the oil and gas industry will take years to repair

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The Third Gulf War is here, and while financial markets cling to the hope of a quick resolution, the physical reality tells a much darker story. The world is currently facing the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market. As detailed The New York Timesbased on the analyzes of energy expert Jason Bordoff, the de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has taken about 20 million barrels per day off the board, which represents 20% of world consumption. To put this in perspective, the International Energy Agency (IEA) recalls that the historic Arab embargo of 1973 “barely” withdrew 4.5 million barrels per day. The logistical, political and infrastructure damage that Operation Epic Fury has unleashed in the Persian Gulf is so profound that, regardless of what is signed in the dispatches, it will take years to return to normality. The new global funnel. Even if the war ended today and the Strait were 100% reopened, untangling the monumental logjam would take months. As Rory Johnston, oil market researcher, explains, to the magazine New Statesman“we are talking about two to three months just to renormalize the global system.” Oil tankers are piled up on both sides of the strait, and a sudden restart would cause a collapse at unloading terminals, reminiscent of the worst bottlenecks of the Covid-19 pandemic. It won’t be suddenly. To this we must add a key factor: the ships will not sail again the day peace is signed. Maritime insurers will require months of proof that the Strait is safe before returning to cover oil tankers without imposing unaffordable premiums. But the situation is even more complex. As detailed in a recent analysis by my colleague Miguel Jorge in Xatakathe dynamics of the Strait have drastically mutated. Iran has turned this artery into a kind of maritime “VIP discotheque.” It is no longer a free international transit route, but rather a selective access system where Tehran decides who passes. While US allies and Israel are banned, countries like Spain – which refused to participate in the military coalition – have received “passes” for their ships. The root of the problem. If the recovery will be so slow it is, fundamentally, because the infrastructure is burning. Unlike previous conflicts, Iran’s strategy is based on an asymmetric war that seeks to destroy the energy pillars of its neighbors. The most devastating example is found in Qatar, where the Iranian drone attack on the Ras Laffan facilities—the largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export plant in the world— has caused damage which will take between three and five years to repair. Furthermore, we must add temporary closures in Saudi refineries like Ras Tanura that guarantee long-term disruption. The domino effect has already reached the earth. Given the impossibility of removing the crude oil by sea, the storage tanks are bursting. Iraq has been forced to close wells and cut production by 70% simply because there is nowhere to put the oil. This is what is known in the industry as “locked-in” oil, and reactivating all that stopped machinery requires weeks of complex technical work. The specter of chronic inflation. The impact of this paralysis goes far beyond the gasoline pump and will condition the economy for the next five years. As he warns The Economistthe sustained rise in energy prices threatens to entrench global inflation, quickly pushing it to an unbearable 5% or 6%. This means that the cost of living, interest rates and commodity prices will be marked by this crisis for years, slowing down any attempt at real recovery. Added to this is a silent time bomb: food. Not only crude oil transits through the Strait of Hormuz, but a third of the world’s fertilizers. If global agriculture runs out of this vital input, we face a global food crisis that will distort harvests and supermarket prices in the coming seasons. On the threshold of $200 per barrel. If the blockade persists, economic pain will be inevitable. Macquarie Group analysts warn in Bloomberg that if the conflict extends until June, the price of crude oil could reach a whopping 200 dollars. The objective of this extreme price is none other than to force the “demand destruction“: that it be so expensive that people and industries simply stop consuming. The most pessimistic voices warn of an economic catastrophe. Larry Fink, the CEO of the financial giant BlackRock, warned in an interview with the BBC that if the barrel settles at $150, the world will plunge into a “severe and deep recession.” And the consequences are already visible, as jet fuel in Asia has already exceeded $200. Meanwhile, magazines as Fortune report that Goldman Sachs has raised the probability of a recession in the US to 30%. The Wall Street mirage and useless patches. It is fascinating and terrifying to observe the disconnection between physical reality and financial markets. Wall Street lives “spellbound” by algorithms and verbal intervention (jawboning) by Donald Trump. All it takes is a tweet from the American president announcing vague peace plans—quickly denied by Iran—for the stock markets to rise and the price of a barrel to drop momentarily. Investors blindly trust the phenomenon WAD (“Trump Always Chickens Out”), believing that the president will back down before sinking the economy. But tweets don’t fill the tanks. To try to mitigate the blow, the International Energy Agency has coordinated the historic release of 400 million barrels of its strategic reserves. It sounds like a lot, but as the experts consulted by Al Jazeerathat amount barely covers 20 days of the oil that has stopped flowing through Hormuz. It’s a band-aid for an arterial bleed. In fact, such is the desperation of the West that the US administration has gone so far as to temporarily lift sanctions on Russiaallowing it to sell its crude oil on the open market in order to try to relieve the pumps. The big silent winner. While the West is suffocating with inflation and supply problems, just a few … Read more

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