industry

Balatro has been the last great breath of fresh air in the independent video game industry. This is its history

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At the end of 2021 a developer with alias “LOCTHUNK“He dedicated his three weeks of vacation to create a multiplayer card game that was based on the poker but went further and created as a Roguelike video game. He called it Balatroand after a year and a half of development he published a first beta version in Steam. Its creation began to call the attention of some increasingly important youtubers, and the snowball was getting bigger and bigger. So much so that in its final launch, on February 20, 2024, Balatro sold 50,000 copies in two hours. At the end of the localshunk day he had sold 119,000 copies of his game in Steam, with total revenues of more than one million dollars. Balatro’s popularity is still exceptional, although its launch was not exempt from problems. The European ages rating system, Pegi, described it as a game not suitable for children under 18. LOCTHUNK He complained of the unfair of that qualification: your card game It does not include bets Or transactions with real money, and finally got the qualification to be Pegi 12, that is, suitable for children aged 12 years old. Since its definitive launch, Balatro has made history. He was nominated for Goty 2024 (Game of the Year), in addition to winning several awards in the independent video game category. By January 2025 I already exceeded the Five million units soldFor example. The game, which was initially available on PC and consoles, ended up appearing for iOS and Android in September 2024. And in all that time, something surprising: Locothunk has managed to maintain its anonymitysomething he confessed had been a success for him. Maybe one day we know its true identity, but what is clear is that Balatro has ended up being a phenomenon within an industry little accustomed to the success of small independent productions. In Xataka | The most addictive game of recent times is ‘Balatro’: construction of decks disguised as a poker and with millionaire sales

The US tariffs are a weapon of mass destruction in the Tech industry. Except for Chinese mobiles

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The 104% tariff Chinese tax By the Trump administration it will shake the foundations of the smartphone industry. Apple and Samsungthe two great actors in the sector, base a good part of their manufacturing strategy in countries especially penalized by these new measures. However, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers could better overcome the blow. Thanks to a strategy focused for years in international expansion and markets outside the United States, their direct exposure to the impact of these tariffs aims to be considerably less. 104%. USA He has officialized a 104% tariff to imports from China, carrying The commercial war between both countries to its peak maximum and leading us to a night of movement in the markets. The consequences have been immediate: Fall of almost 5% in Bag for Apple generalized in the rest of great technology, with the uncertainty of a new commercial scenario that will shake its current strategies. Chinese and United States manufacturers. For Apple and Samsung Import products manufactured in China or Vietnam to the United States will involve an increase in simply unassumable costs without price increases. A case that barely applies Chinese manufacturers, since they have never had too much presence in the country. Giants such as Xiaomi, Oppo or Vivo do not sell smartphones in the United States. However, OnePlus, TCL and Motorola (Property of the China Lenovo) do have a presence in the territory. In fact, Lenovo is the third smartphone manufacturer in the United States. The Lenovo case. Motorola and Lenovo are in the most compromised situation after the entry into force of tariffs. The manufacture of its devices is focused on countries such as China, Brazil and India. Importing the United States with 104% tariffs is simply unfeasible for the company, which would have to move its production chain outside China to survive in the United States. Although not even maintaining a diversified production would be sufficient to partially overcome the impact of tariffs. The Type imposed on Brazil is 10% (the minimum threshold), while that of India amounts to 26%. A 10% tariff is assumed through a light rise hybrid strategy and cost absorption. One of almost 30% requires more drastic measures. The consequences for the rest. On the side of OnePlus and TCL, despite being Chinese manufacturers, they have been making production to countries like India and Brazil for years, diversifying strategy for their product assembly. A diversification that is not enough to overcome tariffs, since the bulk of manufacturing remains in China. The only solution? Move in record time the production outside your native country and centralize efforts in external factories. A withdrawal on time. The most likely scenario after the implementation of tariffs is the disappearance of the little Asian trace that remains in the United States. With the exception of Motorola/Lenovo, this has never been a market to be conquered by China, a position that aims to reaffirm after the crossed commercial war. Beyond mobile phones, companies like Xiaomi, which They sell household products and monitors In the United States, they will have it difficult to maintain presence in the country without raising prices abruptly. A global impact. If manufacturers such as Motorola renounce the US market, with the consequent loss of income that this would entail, an increase in prices globally seems inevitable to alleviate the effects of losing presence in a key territory. Companies such as OnePlus, TCL or Xiaomi, with a minimum presence there, would have it easier to absorb part of this small loss and not end up moving costs to consumers outside the US. Despite this, not everything is so simple. Although Chinese brands do not sell mobiles significantly in the US market, they do have a presence in other categories such as televisions, monitors and home devices. The unknown is whether they will choose to compensate for the blow by increasing prices only in those lines, or if they will end up moving the extra cost to their entire catalog, including smartphones. THE WAR OF COMPONENTS. The main Chinese manufacturers use American components, such as Qualcomm processors or Corning Gorilla Glass crystals. At the moment, this situation would be under doubt, since Qualcomm subcontracts the production of its chips to Taiwanese giants such as TSMC or Samsung Foundry (South Korea). Something similar happens with manufacturers such as Corning, which diversifies production with plants in Asia and Europe to meet global demand. Given that US sanctions They prevent American memoirs from selling their most sophisticated integrated circuits to their Chinese clients, China does not have it easy to reduce dependence on the United States. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Brussels Baraja tariffs of 10% and 25% to US products. The measure aims to take its toll on the European consumer

The European car industry has a problem with US tariffs. Your solution is surprising: India

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An attack in a commercial war, a negotiation proposal and a closed door to lime and song. This can be summarized in the last days in the relationship between the United States and the European Union. On April 2, Donald Trump confirmed that the 25% tariffs on cars and the pieces for their production that will go through their borders. At the same time, he also confirmed that he would apply tariffs to almost all countries in the world. The base rate of these last tariffs is 10%. From there, the United States will apply tariffs that climb depending on the commercial deficit that has with those countries and that, according to its president, apply hidden commercial barriers. The European Union will pay 20%. Japan 24%. The threat already amounts to 104% for China. The answers have been diverse. China answered the first tariffs raising commercial barriers, which has cost him the threat we wrote above. Japan has sent emissaries to try to reach an agreement. Europe has put its own proposal on the table: 0% tariffs in the two directions For cars and industrial goods. The answer has been overwhelming. For Donald Trump this is not enough and is not open to negotiate in those terms. In the air a trade is at stake that in 2024 moved 38.9 billion euros. They are the ones paid by the United States for cars from Europe. To them we must add those manufactured by European companies in Mexico and Canada, to which these commercial barriers are also applied. The measure is hard and puts a sector, that of the automobile, which uses more than 13 million people in Europe and did not cross their best moment. In China, European manufacturers are finding huge difficulties in placing their cars now that the market has set their eyes on local manufacturers. In the United States, the production of the product only leaves three ways. One of them is to stop sending cars or stop selling them, as Volkswagen and Mercedes are doing with some models. The second option is manufacture locally But limiting the pieces that arrive from the outside, which is a expensive reinvestment. The third, and last, is to absorb tariffs to a greater or lesser extent and try to limit the rise in the final price. All these options attack the results account of the great European manufacturers. Good because they will sell less, because it will cost them more expensive to manufacture or for the sum of both conditions. Therefore, they already look where their factories or their products can be transferred. India seems to open the arms. 100% to 10% The Indian market is unexplored by large European manufacturers. The difficulties in operating there are maximum. The example is totally contrary to Japanese. In the Japanese country There are no tariffs to the importation of vehicles for local sale. However, the client is particular. In the big cities You can barely sell cars Because regulations on space force a parking space. They do not require Kei Caran extremely narrow and cheap type of car that in Japan dominates perfectly. India, however, is a very protectionist country. Tesla knows the challenge. In 2016 he already tried to enter there opening reserves of their cars for 1,000 euros. Almost a decade later their owners did not have the car or money. Tariffs are 15%… as long as Do not enroll more than 8,000 units When it comes to an electric. An extremely low figure that discourages the industry to sell large amounts of vehicles. Especially since they demand three -year investments seen In addition, so far they have had another problem. The potential client needs extremely cheap cars and with Very specific technical issuesas a free height to the ground higher than usual since the roads are in very poor condition. Adapting cars is a company to spend money on developing a product that must compete in extremely low prices. However, Europe seems to be willing to reach an agreement with India. And India is willing to listen to Europe and open the door. This is what they maintain in Reuters which ensure that the European Union and the Asian country are looking for a Agreement to reduce tariffs of import that are now 100%. In the news agency they point out, however, that although India is willing to reach a 10%tariff. Local manufacturers such as Tata or Mahindra press to impose their conditions. These are not going down 70% in tariffs on gasoline cars and gradually reduce tariffs up to 30% in successive phases. Of course, in the case of the electric car they do not want to reduce tariffs until 2029. Negotiation comes just when the United States has also pointed in the same direction. As we counted, Tesla has long wants to enter the market but Negotiations have intensified Since 2023. A four million vehicle market is juicy enough to seek solutions now that relations between the United States and Europe harden. Manufacturing in India is also an opportunity for manufacturers to give out to their lowest vehicles. The industry has long proclaimed that selling electric cars of 20,000 euros is not profitable in current conditions. That’s why Automotive News He pointed out that the Volkswagen Group has been evaluating this possibility. Carlos Tavares, at the head of Stellantis in 2022, I also pointed that India was one of the markets to conquer. And, according to ReutersByd has also shown interest in entering the country. Photo | Suroor Haider and Volkswagen In Xataka | “A hole we have never seen”: 25% tariff

China has responded to the US by putting the global chip industry against the strings. This is your strategy

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Last April 4 The Chinese government formalized its response to the tariffs approved by the administration led by Donald Trump. On April 10 China will impose a 34% tariff To all Imports from the US. The choice of that day is not casual. And is that the tariffs approved by the Donald Trump administration will take effect on April 9. Just a day before. Presumably the Chinese government has chosen to keep a few days of margin in the hope of reaching an agreement with its American counterpart and relax a little tension. However, China’s response to the US does not only happen to establish new tariffs; He has also chosen to suspend the import licenses of products belonging to six US companies, as well as imposing More export controls of some rare earths. This is not at all the first time that the Xi Jinping government decides to pressure the US and its allies establishing limitations to the export of these raw materials. In fact, on December 21, 2023 the Chinese administration decided to restrict export of some of its rare earth processing technologies, shaping a maneuver that seeks to defend their strategic interests in full confrontation with the US and its allies. And at the beginning of December 2024 He chose to prohibit The export of critical minerals to the nation currently governed by Donald Trump. The US is going to run out of the scandio and beaming from China Since last December China does not export to the US three essential chemical elements for the semiconductor industry (Galio, Germanio and Antimony), as well as some materials that are characterized by their extreme hardness, and which, therefore, can be used for military applications. However, in response to the last tariffs approved by the US The Chinese government has decided Include in its list of transition metals subjected to export controls the Scandio and Disposio. China’s export controls will further tension the global supply chains of the chips These chemical elements are probably less known than metals prohibited by China previously, such as Gallium or Germanio, but are at least as important as the latter. In fact, the Xi Jinping administration has chosen them because it is fully aware of the deep impact that these restrictions will have Not only in telecommunications industries and the manufacture of storage devices, which directly affect, but in the entire global supply chain linked to the semiconductor industry. The scandio is usually used in the radiofrequency modules used by smartphones, base stations and Wi-Fi modules, while the Disprosius is involved in the manufacture of reading and writing heads used by hard discs, and also in the manufacture of electric cars. He China Ministry of Commerce It has prohibited the US export of these metals with immediate effect, so Chinese companies can no longer export products containing scandio, disposium, gadolinio, terbio, lutecio, samarium and ititrio. Presumably the export licenses of these critical minerals will only be granted under certain very strict conditions. However, the ban not only conditions the export of finished products containing these metals; also Denies the export of these gross mineralsin the form of metal or as compounds. Some of the companies that will with all likelihood suffer from the new prohibitions of China’s critical minerals are American, such as Broadcom, Qualcomm, Seagate or Western Digital. But there are also Taiwanese and South Korean companies, such as TSMC or Samsung. In the short term it seems that global geopolitical tensions will not love. Image | Skyater More information | China Ministry of Commerce In Xataka | The US will not be able to contain the technological development of China. Experts from the chips industry forecast it

The new US tariffs penalize Taiwan almost as much as China. And its chips industry is the most damaged

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The tariffs imposed by the administration led by Donald Trump They are here. The current US president has used this pressure tool throughout his electoral campaign, and just two and a half months after returning to the White House is running your promise. These taxes affect most of the countries with which the US maintains a commercial relationship, among which Spain is, but Taiwan presumably is One of the most damaged. And it is that the Trump government is determined to do everything necessary for the US to recover leadership in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. At the moment In Asia they occur 90% of memory chips, 75% of microprocessors and 80% of silicon wafers. However, the most outstanding country in this continent in this sector is Taiwan, with a production of 90% of high integration chips and 41% of microprocessors. This is the exemplary punishment to Taiwan: some tariffs of 32% The US administration is already taking the necessary measures to cause US companies to buy integrated circuits made of homeland. The tariffs you are approving They largely pursue this objective, and, despite the alignment in the geopolitical field that support the US and Taiwan, the manufacturers of Taiwanese chips are not at all safe from the tariffs. In fact, Donald Trump made a statement at the end of January which he presented his intentions with total. “In the very close future we will impose tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceutical products to return the manufacture of these essential goods to the US” “In the very close future we will impose tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceutical products to return the manufacture of these essential goods to the US (…) went to Taiwan; Now we want them to return. We do not want to give them billions of dollars in the ridiculous Biden program. They already have billions of dollars. They don’t need money; They need an incentive. And the incentive will be that they do not want to pay a tax of 25, 50, or even 100%, ” The current US president declared. The near future of which speech has already arrived. As explained The countryon Vietnam there are 46%tariffs; About Cambodia, 49%; over China, 34%; and about Taiwan, 32%. The case of the nation led by Xi Jinping is a bit special because the new tariffs approved by the administration of Donald Trump are added to those who had been deployed by the US government previously, which makes a total of 54%. Even so, to some extent it is surprising that Taiwan comes out so disadvantaged. In any case, in regard to this last country, this measure is consistent with the statements in which Donald Trump anticipated that he wants the US to recover leadership in the semiconductor industry. However, Taiwan still has an oxygen ball, although It seems that it will not last long. And is that an epigraph of the newly announced tariff plan Expressalthough in an unclear way, that tariffs for some specific products, such as semiconductors or medicines, will not yet come into force. In that case they will presumably be temporarily subject to the universal tariff of 10%. In Xataka | The USA hits China again with a double purpose: to stop the development of its hypersonic superorders and missiles In Xataka | What’s behind the chips megafabrica that TSMC and Samsung plan to build in Arab Emirates

How YouTube is devouring the audiovisual industry

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YouTube turns twenty years old and does so exhibiting some data that proclaim its domination of the audiovisual panorama. We are not talking about the social network most seen and followed by the world: it is that the platform owned by Google is about to advance giants like Disney. At least if we attend to the forecasts of the firm specialized in Moffettnathanson market analysis. A juicy 2024. What we know so far, According to the prestigious moffettnathansonIt is that YouTube has become 2024 in the second largest company specialized in audiovisual content, with revenues of more than 54,000 million dollars. In front of her is only Disney, to which YouTube will advance in 2025 if two premises are fulfilled: that YouTube does not stop its current upward rate of income and that we only have audiovisual income (excluding other businesses, as thematic parks) of Disney. In what does win. Although in terms of YouTube benefits, the second place has, there are other aspects in which it is number one. For example, in February 2025, YouTube became, According to Nielsenat the largest -added television content source in the US. He left giants like Disney itself, in addition to Netflix, Fox, Paramount, Warner or Universal. And that renouncing to become a Netflix overflowing with its own content, that is, all based on licenses from other channels and what the content creators generate. YouTube is an essential property for Google: according to the estimate of Moffetnathanson, it could have a value of between 475,000 and 550,000 million dollars, that is, 30% of Alphabet’s total valuethe conglomerate that Google has. The youtube theme TV. Although it is only available in the United States, YouTube TV has become The largest live television service Distributed by the Internet of the country, with 8 million subscribers. It also offers content on demand, and includes programming of ABC, NBC, CBS or FOX, which makes Google proposal especially powerful in sport and news. Payment YouTube. To this are added other types of subscriptions such as the streaming of music YouTube Music and Youtube premium that among other things allows you to watch videos without ads. This same month, YouTube talked about 125 million subscribers in these two servicesMusic and Premium. It is a spectacular rise since April 2024, where it had 100 million subscribers. The spectacular income of the platform comes from both these two payment formats and TV YouTube, and according to Moffettnathanson, it still has a margin of growth when it enters the market of the market streaming on demand. The advertising business. YouTube It has also confirmed That television screen consumption has surpassed the mobile, in a seemingly counterintuitive growth but that makes two things clear. First, that advertising remains an ingredient of the business that YouTube will continue to take care (36,000 million in benefits in 2024); And second, that it is clear who their next rivals are: Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video, once he has left behind his attempts to become a social network of short -style videos Instagram or Tiktok. Header | YouTube In Xataka | Podcasts are living their great revolution, but not in Spotify or Apple Podcasts: YouTube is winning the game

Manus is the Chinese startup of AI that has just launched a 200 dollars a month. It is a bad sign for the industry

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Some called him the other “moment Deepseek“From China. This new model, called Manusquickly became viral for its ability to do deep analysis looking for sources of information and then synthesize clear but detailed answers on any issue. It was a direct competitor of OpenAI and its “Deep Research” modeand after being available limited and free, now its creators have decided to market this product big. With subscriptions, of course. Manus. Although its creators describe it as an AI agent, in reality Manus is fundamentally aimed at giving more meditated responses and after a deep analysis of various sources of information. It is true that this process automates, but does the same as Other “AI agents” such as Openai Deep Research mode and also those who also offer Claude or Gemini. Its performance, of course, is comparable to that of these services, and was initially available (under invitation) for free. That is over. Face subscriptions. As they point out In Bloomberg Manus now offers a public version of payment for $ 39 per month to be able to use its benefits with 3,900 credits, but also has a higher plan of 199 dollars per month for version with even less limits (19,900 credits) when it comes to exploiting those deep research modes. Taking into account that the service has just appeared, those prices of course They are aggressive and even controversial. Be careful with this. Manus’s decision is surprising for several reasons. To start, it is a company with hardly any market penetration and practically unknown to the general public. Come from good 200 dollars a month It seems to risk sinning for excess confidence. Not only that: the worrying thing is that this can be the canary in the AI ​​mine. This is: a precedent of what comes to us, with subscriptions of business companies that ask us for true monets for services than more reputed ones (such as Openai) also offer and without a clear differential factor. Committed virality. With the Internet boom and social networks virality was achieved with free massive products that were monetized Through advertising. Google and Facebook nurtured those models, but AI seems to depend on the freeemium model: we can access basic functions, but we do want to take advantage of the models, we have to go through a subscription model. And there is a clear reason for it. The generative AI is very expensive. The cost of each consultation we made to chatbots of AI is comparatively much greater that for example have traditional search engines. Training these models is also exceptionally expensive –It is estimated That GPT-4 training cost about $ 100 million-and you have to try to recover the investment. IA companies know how to do it: increasingly faces. And we are getting used to subscribing to everything. With the “era Google” We did not pay for the product but we were the productbut little by little payment subscriptions have been taking force with the rise of content streaming. We are already very accustomed to paying for services we use, and AI wants to take advantage of that trend. The problem, as is the case with the aforementioned streaming segment, is that There must be differentiating factors to bet on a payment service and not for another. And there Manus has it especially difficult, because he competes with very reputed models and that can be perceived as more confidence for users. No own model. Manus is a “Wrapper“, a platform that is built from the functions of other AI models such as Claude, from Anthropic, or Qwen, from Alibaba. It does not depend on itself. Its creators do not seem to have their own model, but even having the problem is that they will not be able to invest in it the amount of time, money and resources (as talent) necessary for the models to be especially remarkable. Too much competition. But Manus faces true giants. It is a situation analogous to which Anthropic and his chatbot claude livethat do not have the financial muscle of Google, Microsoft or even OpenAi. Manus has both that competition in the US and especially important rivals in China. There Deepseek is the main protagonist, but Alibaba, Baidu or Tencent They will not let a newcomer steal their wallet easily. In Xataka | Now the competition to overcome Depseek is also fought in China herself: Alibaba has just announced QWen2.5-max

an increasing problem for the wine industry

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In early February, The Civil Guard dismantled An international network dedicated to illegal wine from La Rioja. That is, a network dedicated to falsifying wine bottles and selling them in Vietnam and China. The funny thing is that they have operated for years and only the alarm has jumped because a Spanish tourist saw a suspicious bottle in a gourmet store in Vietnam and bought it to bring it to the country and analyze it. A problem that does not stop growing. For years, illicit trade and fraud in the wine sector and spirits keep growing. In 2023, Spanish customs and police authorities seized Almost 15 million liters of illegal drinks. Globally, although there are those who estimate that up to fifth of the wine that is sold could be false, more conservative estimates They say that annual losses in drinks of this type amount to 1,300 million euros. Of course, it is something that worries (and much) the most important wineries who see not only how they lose income, but how the low quality of falsifications affects their brand image. In fact, there are lawsuits specialized in intellectual property that They offer service to the wineries throughout Europe to monitor the market (ON and Offline) and detect this type of falsification. What exactly is that is falsified? To start the same wine. There is Fine fakes that combine lower quality wines To try to pass them through higher bottles, but normally it is about replacing. But there is much beyond the “dilution” and “replacement of ingredients”, there is a lot explained in the Spanish A few years ago Fabián Torres, Director of Business Development of SICPA Spain. Complex. Be that as it may, counterfeiters play with one thing: the world of tastings is a complicated world. Although it seems that it is true that There are supercatters capable of overcoming the most difficult teststhe truth is that for most human beings there are no major differences between wines. Not enough, at least, to detect a falsification achieved. And this has more crumb than it seems. Because many people have begun to ask that why pay a disproportionate amount of money for a flavor profile that, in short, can be achieved “falsified” at a much lower price. The best example is the case of Rudy Kurniawan, perhaps the most famous counterfeit in recent years. After leaving prison in 2021 he has set up a business in which FALSIFY VINES ‘ON DEMAND’. In your case, organize tastings to buy exclusive broths with your own falsifications. Normally, they win their wines. Of “falsified wine” to “duplicate wine”. It is a phenomenon very similar to the calls’duplicated perfumes‘(legal fragrances designed to smell like other design perfumes): we have seen it in supermarkets with Cheap versions of the most popular wines of the moment, like Verdejo frizzante. However, The potential of this type of products It is much greater. After all, we live in a world in which LOS DUPLAS WITHOUT ALCOHOL No They stop growing. We have gone from an industry in which the flavor was inseparable to the historical manufacturing process to a flavor profiles laboratory. And, in Spain, one of the world’s world leaders, this revolution will make the foundations vibrate of the industry. Image | Kelsey Knight | Klara Kulikova In Xataka | If the question is what is the future of wine, more and more Bordeaux wineries are clear: the without alcohol

After the emergence of Deepseek, the “seven magnificent” of the Tech industry have collapsed in the stock market. All except Apple

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The year began well for Nvidia. On January 29, 2025 its capitalization I reached The 3.49 billion dollars and everything seemed to go on wheels. The Surprise arrival of Deepseek R1 It changed things a lot and joined other factors to cause spectacular collapse. Two months later, this Nvidia market capitalization is 2.77 billion dollars: it is almost 21% less. That effect has been contagious, but one of the greats is falling the storm. Apple. As they point out In five daysthat January 25, 2025 Apple had a capitalization of 3.55 billion dollars, and at this time that value is 3.35 billion, 5.6% fall. Sensitive, of course, but much less than that of its rivals of the group of “The Magnificent Seven”. That they have stayed in … Not so magnificent. Next to the fall of Nvidia are those of Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Tesla – as we say, is saved a little. If we analyze the evolution of market capitalization of the seven the performance of these two last months, the “average” drop is 13.5%. They have lost more than two billion dollars compared to 15.58 billion dollars in late January, a real collapse. It’s not just care. The impact of Deepseek has not been the only factor that has contributed to those falls. They have had a lot to do The recent tariffs That is imposing Trump to imports of all kinds of products – foreign cars They are the last victims-. These taxes and Trump’s protectionist policy are forcing many companies to restructure their strategy, and investors – and consumers – are clear what the impact of all this will be: price increases everywhere. Why does Apple endure? Of the great technology, Apple is the only one that has managed to mitigate the losses relatively. Probably partly because of his “warm” attitude to AI. Your interest in data centers fever It is practically nulland despite the Recent criticism It is clear that it is not “burning money” as other companies in the sector do. The rest of the group has invested true fortunes In this segment, although some They are stopping. Bubble in sight? These days are 25 years of the bubble of the Puntocom, and what is happening with the great technology and the AI ​​segment does fear for an AI bubble. There are certainly similarities between both situations, but also important differences. Apple, especially solid. Cupertino’s company is usually More immune that their rivals to these fluctuations in the world of finance. In the face of complaints about the relative lack of innovation or New disruptionsApple has managed to diversify income – especially with the expansion of its services – and continues to maintain confidence of both investors and users. Image | Zhang Kaiyv In Xataka | Deepseek R1 is not just another AI model: it is the greatest existential threat that Silicon Valley has faced

The Spanish invention that already interests in the industry

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We have been doing decades Combustion engines more efficient, but always with the same basic principles. Now, a Spanish startup has a radically different idea: an engine designed from scratch for hybrids of the future. It is called E-Rex and has captured the attention of two giants: Renault and Geely. And the tests will begin to see if the fiance “Spanish revolutionary engine” becomes the heart of the new electrified cars. The e-rex. Juan Garrido Requena He is an engineer and co -founder of Innengine. In 2020, a video With a striking holder. “E-Rex: The real engine for extended range.” In it, he told us about his vision for the creation of a combustion engine that would revolutionize hybrid mobility. Such an engine should be compact, light, that did not have vibrations or emit a remarkable noise and, in addition, that it was efficient. His e-rex He met these conditions and claimed that he was the first designed specifically for the cars of the future, since the hybrid motors then, and now, were modifications of traditional combustion motors. Like a 2,000 cc of gasoline. The key of the e-rex is not only its size and weight of about 35 kilos, but the power. It is an engine of a time that, according to Garrido, is twice more powerful than one two -stroke and four times more powerful than one four -stroke. The consumption is low, also the emissions of CO₂ and NOX and is comparable in potential at a four times of 2,000 cc. Its confrontated piston design and a variable compression relationship system is what makes it possible to adapt to different needs (power or efficiency) and what eliminates vibrations, since the strength of the pistons is compensated naturally. Extended autonomy hybrids. This engine is not designed, apparently, to retire the current combustion engines, since Juan Garrido refers to its creation as what the future of something more concrete will define: extended range vehicles. These are like a hybrid, but vice versa: instead of having a main combustion engine with the support of an electric motor, the electric motor is the main and the combustion is to feed a generator, which is the one that gives energy to the electric to move the wheels. In summary accounts: the combustion engine becomes the ‘pile’ of the electric motor, which also has a battery of which to ‘throw’. It is an electric in theory, but a hybrid in practice. Horse enters the equation. These Extended range vehicles They were not the most popular hybrids five years ago. Nor are they now, but things can change because a giant has entered the room. Horse is one Joint Venturewhich becomes a company created by two or larger companies that join forces to achieve a common goal. Like the loss in combat NorthvoltOh. In this case, those two large are Renault (45%), Geely (another 45%) and Aramco (the remaining 10%). Among the company’s objectives, is the development of new hybrid engines, batteries and other elements for that vehicle of the future. They have plants in various parts of the world, being Spain one of them and cradle of the engine of Renault Rafale E-Tech HybridFor example. Above, a conventional engine. Below, the e-rex. They claim that it is 40% cheaper to manufacture without the need for new techniques or materials Evidence. In that search to get new generation engines, Horse began this year to produce New 49 kW engines that are capable of feeding hybrid cars at speeds of 130 km/h, but the next steps point to the E-Rex’s e-rex. In a releaseboth companies have confirmed an agreement to prove two of the E-Rex prototypes. These tests will be carried out in the Laboratory of the Department of Clean and Thermofluid Mobility of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and these results will be used to see if the Group licensed exclusively by the INNENFINE technology. If this occurs, the next step is to produce them in mass. Revolution. Julien Faure is Horse’s director of Technology and has commented that “revolutionary technology and architecture could completely change the dynamics of combustion technology with implications for automotive, navy, aviation, drones and energy generation.” Faure ensures that these tests “potentially are of historical importance.” For his part, Roberto Leandro, Executive Director of Innengine, says that collaboration is more than a milestone: “a bold step towards a more sustainable future.” It is clear that you have to be with an eye on this Spanish engine that, if it meets these tests, can be an important impulse for electrified cars while we are still waiting for solid state batteries. Images | INNENGINE In Xataka | Hyundai and Kia want to save combustion by burning hydrogen. And they have a very promising engine.

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