industry

TSMC is focusing on the lucrative AI industry, so Apple is looking for a new girlfriend. Found it at Intel

by

In 2023, Apple completed its transition and made all Macs in its catalog work with its Apple M-series chips. It was the end of a relationship that began in 2005, when Steve Jobs announced the transition from IBM PowerPCs to Intel chips. Then things went wrong and Apple ended up separating itself from Intel in its products, but once again there has been an interesting twist of the events. Intel does not know how to be a foundry. The integration of the Apple M1 in 2020 was the real beginning of a logical strategy: Apple wanted to design its own chips for its Macs as it had already done in its iPhone or iPad, and the result was extraordinary. The curious thing is that Apple negotiated with Intel to manufacture the iPhone chips, but Intel rejected the opportunity. When Morris Chang, founder of TSMC, asked Cook why he hadn’t chosen Intel to make those chips, responded “Intel just doesn’t know how to be a foundry (chip factory)”. TSMC turns to AI. The relationship between Apple and TSMC has been one of the most important in the semiconductor industry. TSMC makes virtually all of Apple’s advanced chips, from iPhone processors to Mac M chips. That dependence, however, has become uncomfortable for two reasons: Chip shortage: The rise of AI has made the demand for this type of chips extraordinary. TSMC is prioritizing customers with the highest volume and margin in the most advanced nodes, and there Apple competes with NvidiaAMD and other manufacturers looking for 2 and 3 nm chips. Geopolitics: 90% of the world’s advanced chip production is in Taiwanand any escalation of existing tensions with China could paralyze the supply chains of Apple and the vast majority of technology firms on the planet. Diversifying manufacturers is therefore a strategic necessity. Intel gets interesting. It is true that Intel is not the only alternative that Apple was exploring, and Samsung was another candidate to work closely with the Cupertino firm. However Intel has a first important advantage with the 18A nodeits next-generation manufacturing process that experts consider comparable to TSMC’s 2nm process. Apple has been considering this node for entry-level M chips for months. Intel will not be manufacturing Apple’s most advanced chips at the moment, but this is a potential first step so that it can be verified that Intel can indeed accomplish the task and then also manufacture its most ambitious designs. Lip-Bu Tan turns the tables. Intel’s new CEO took over in early 2025and since then the company has taken promising steps when it was in a situation really worrying. has reached agreements with Nvidia to develop x86 chip sets with RTX graphics, for example. It also collaborates with Tesla to manufacture chips with an even more advanced node14A, for Elon Musk’s future TeraFab. Preliminary agreement. Official details of the deal are not yet known, but in The Wall Street Journal they claim that said agreement exists although it describes it as preliminary. It is not currently clear which chip or chips Intel will manufacture or in which photolithographic process. It is expected that the 18A node will be used for those entry-level M chips, but it is not ruled out that the 14A will not be part of this new commercial relationship. Be that as it may, if the agreement is closed as it seems, we would be facing a definitive boost to this new strategy of foundry traditional approach—manufacturing chips for third parties—that Intel is adopting. The circle closes. Intel lost the contract for iPhone chips because it refused to manufacture them for not having enough marginand thus passed up the opportunity to be a de facto partner in probably the most lucrative product in the history of technology. He then tried correct the errorbut he didn’t succeed. Then Intel would lose the Mac chip business, which would be another major setback. Now it seems to be taking flight again, and its promising future—along with other factors—have made Apple want to work with it again. It seems that Intel, after all, is learning to be a foundry. Image | Fortune CEO Initiative In Xataka | The US’s problem in the AI ​​and humanoid race is not China: it is all of Asia and it is greatly disadvantaged

This is how Spain plans to conquer the ocean renewable industry

by

The race for clean energy dominance in Europe has a new battlefield: the sea. And Spain has just put on the table a million-dollar declaration of intentions so as not to be left behind. As announced by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE)the Government has allocated a provisional injection of 212 million euros from European NextGenEU funds to six state ports. The objective of all this is to adapt its logistical infrastructure for the imminent deployment of offshore wind. In this cast, there is a great winner who monopolizes the spotlight. The group formed by the Galician ports of A Coruña and Ferrol-San Cibrao has taken most of the pie of the PORT-EOLMAR programwith a proposed award that is close to 100 million euros (97.4 million for the joint project and an additional 2.5 million for Ferrol). A figure that supports the strategic nature of the region and that promises to transform its coast into the industrial epicenter of ocean renewables. The historical qualitative leap. Until now, Spain’s role was mainly limited to the manufacturing of different components and their storage. However, the objective of this new aid is make a historical qualitative leap: provide ports with the real capacity to build the immense platforms on which the wind turbines sit and, later, launch them into the sea as if they were frigates. Here the great geographical challenge of our coasts comes into play: unlike what happens in the North Sea – where the bottom is shallower and allows structures to be nailed (offshore fixed)—, the great depth of the Spanish and Galician coastline forces us to opt for floating technology. And floating wind requires colossal space. Carla Chawla Fidalgo, director of the Navantia Fene shipyard, sums it up perfectly in statements to The Opinion of A Coruña: “If we want to be able to assemble several units at the same time, we need enormous surfaces.” Since it is impossible to transport platforms the size of a football field by land, shipyards and ports with deep drafts become the “natural allies” and obligatory of this industry. The five titans. The rain of millions will result in an unprecedented physical transformation. At Punta Langosteira (the outer port of A Coruña), the aid will be used to condition some 100 hectares of surface in the southern area and create a new dock that may reach 450 meters in length. This joint candidacy obtained an almost perfect score, exceeding 90 points out of 100. But the bases of the IDAE They demanded an indispensable condition: Public money had to be backed by private industrial projects of comparable investment. And Galicia has responded. As it breaks down The Voice of Galiciathe port of A Coruña already has five firm projects, bank guarantees included, from true giants of the sector: Navantia: The main Galician naval engine is already a benchmark in building foundations (jackets) in Ferrol, but desperately needs land. Its landing in Langosteira is not a move, but a vital expansion to take on the assembly of large floating structures. WindWaves: The former Nervión Naval Offshore (belonging to the Amper Group) is Navantia’s strategic partner. The firm seeks to complement the facilities it already plans in Ferrol and As Somozas with this new space in the outer port. Acciona: The seventh world operator in wind energy, allied with giants such as Orsted and SSE Renewables, requested space to manufacture, assemble and maintain offshore wind installations. Esteyco: This engineering company already knows what it is like to operate in Langosteira, from where it moved 400-ton pieces for a prototype in the Canary Islands. Saitec: The Basque group promoting floating technology SATH is looking for land to manufacture and assemble its own platforms, with a view to expanding its prototypes before the end of the decade. Beyond the docks. The impact of this deployment transcends the simple civil works of a port. If we add public funds to the commitment of these five colossi, we are talking about a formidable financial muscle: the committed private investment is estimated at 180 million euros, which would raise the total impact of the Galician polo to around 280 million euros. At a professional level, the potential is undeniable. leaning in data from the metal employers’ association (Asime)the marine mill industry already generates about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in Galicia. A figure that could skyrocket with the consolidation of this macroport. This entire movement is, furthermore, a geopolitical race against time. These investments are the necessary ammunition so that A Coruña and Ferrol can compete head to head with neighboring countries that are stepping on the accelerator, such as France, Italy or Portugal. In fact, times are pressing: the Port will close the adaptation project before August, and the aid stipulates a period of execution of the works of 48 months. The green horizon of Spain. The roadmap is drawn. How the IDAE documentation concludesSpain not only has high civil engineering capabilities and a powerful naval sector, but also optimal weather conditions. The ultimate objective is to take advantage of this competitive advantage to turn the country into a “European and global reference center” in the marine energy supply chain. But this massive industrialization does not want to turn its back on the environment. As a finishing touch to this ambitious plan, all this infrastructure is framed under the umbrella of the strategy ‘A Coruña Green Port’. An initiative that seeks to convert the Punta Langosteira dock into the first to achieve energy self-sufficiency from 100% renewable sources. Definitive proof that Spain is not content with manufacturing the wind giants of the future, but rather aspires for the port where they are born to be as green as the energy they will generate. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Japan has realized that it cannot depend on gas, so it is going to set up a mega wind farm on the coast of Tokyo

China is successfully replacing a 19th century industry with drones: skyscraper window cleaners

by

When we think of skyscrapers, the Western culture in which we have grown up makes us inevitably associate them with the United States and iconic skylines in cinema such as New York or Chicago, but the current reality is very different: China is the country that breaks the cord, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitatthe world’s leading authority on the classification of tall buildings: it is home to more than half of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. This architectural explosion has created an unprecedented maintenance challenge: having to clean millions of square meters of glass and metal facades. What started as a need for manpower has become a testing ground for advanced robotics and unmanned aviation thanks to a state plan called “Robot+” that automates tasks to compensate labor shortage. One of the most striking recent examples: automated cleaning from Nanchang Railway Station. Goodbye to human window cleaners. The traditional Spider-Man of buildings is disappearing and it makes perfect sense: the risk of accidents and the climatic conditions of cities like Shanghai or Guangzhou have made this profession increasingly less attractive for new generations, so cleaning companies it is difficult for them to find relief: the perfect scenario for automation. Furthermore, the data from cleaning drones is compelling: going from being able to clean 200 square meters a day to 10,000 with a cost between 10 and 20% less, according to the Wuhan startup Aero Technology collected by China Daily. Drones are best suited to difficult outdoors such as corners and nooks and work even on rainy or windy days without risk. And when finished, the drone uses its camera to capture images of the clean surface, which it transmits to ground personnel for review. If it doesn’t comply, give it a review. Why is it important. We have already glimpsed some of the advantages of automating cleaning at height, but one is truly essential: safety. According to the WHOfalls are the second global cause of death due to unintentional injuries, only behind traffic accidents, with about 684,000 deaths annually. In the specific workplace, they constitute one of the main risks in sectors such as construction or industry. especially dangerous are the falls in height. In the United States, OSHA data They return that falls represent between 35 and 39% of construction-related deaths. In Spain, falls from height represented in 2024 12.2% of all work-related deaths during work hours in all sectors and this year alone they cost the lives of 79 people in the Spanish state alone. The other big advantage is price: less labor, less operating time because they clean faster, lower equipment costs, and lower insurance premiums. Aero Technology quantifies savings between 10 and 20% compared to traditional methods, although the drone company Apex is more optimistic for your business, raising the range of savings up to 30 or 50% (although the reason is probably that you consider assemblies like scaffolding). Regarding water consumption, a study by Shanghai University of Engineering has shown which spends 21.8% less. Context. China faces the worst possible scenario in this framework: it is the country with the most skyscrapers in the world, it has a lot of air pollution that quickly dirtys its facades and it also suffers labor shortage for manual jobs. Although if we are looking for pioneers in the drone cleaning segment we have to go to the North American one. Surname born 2014, the Elevation from the Swiss Aerotain AG back in 2015 or the Norwegian KTV Working Dronethe owner and mistress of drone window cleaning is China. China had been preparing the ground for years, as demonstrated by different academic research papers on glass and facade cleaning robotsas this of cable-driven parallel robots from Tsinghua University or this other of fan-powered cleaning robots from the Harbin Institute of Technology. The Asian giant has the academic ecosystem, state financial support and an obvious need. Said and done: China was the one who democratized technology, moving from prototypes and more or less “artisanal” devices to large-scale production with scalable industrial systems and companies like DJI, UAEAV and Foxtech. Today they already produce between 80-90% of the world’s commercial drones and lead an industry that in 2024 was valued at 248 million dollars and has a projection of 1,257 million by 2033. according to Growth Market Reports. The substitutes. China has developed a complete industrial ecosystem that is essentially divided into two major technological aspects. On the one hand, high-pressure cleaning drones that are connected to water pumps that are on the ground, such as the DJI M400 or the solutions of Foxtech Robotics. On the other hand, autonomous climbing robots with sensors and AI navigation (such as robot vacuum cleaners) such as those from OneMovecapable of detecting and adapting to variations in façade surfaces. In between, variants in the form of projects with hybrid platforms such as that of Skybotics Technology Limited or wired parallel systems that offer high precision, such as this from the Faculty of Engineering of Shanghai University with three degrees of freedom. Some of the technologies that can be found in this type of robots are adaptive joints to reduce wind discomfort or “zero distance” spraying to increase pressure, both present in the DJI M400one of the most popular in the sector. Yes, but. Although facade cleaning robots are a revolution for the sector, they are not a panacea: they work best on flat surfaces, they have height restrictions (typically between 60 and 120 meters for wired systems) and although they have more margin than human labor to operate in worse weather conditions, they are not infallible. Finally, the initial cost is significant, which constitutes a barrier to entry for smaller companies because it is not only the drone, it is also extra auxiliary elements such as pumping stations, batteries, software or safety certifications. For example, only the complete Lucid Bots Sherpa kit It costs $75,000.which leads to opting for solutions such as renting or leasing. In any case, and … Read more

Vevo was all over the internet in the 2000s. Today is just another forgotten episode of the old music industry

by

In December 2009, two of the biggest record labels on the planet organized a party in New York with Bono as the guest of honor to celebrate the launch of something that, according to them, was going to give them back control of the music business on the Internet, which, as we will now see, was not going through its best moment. It was called Vevo, an acronym for “Video Evolution.” The (r)evolution lasted less than a decade: the fundamental changes in the business and the arrival of a different way of understanding music videos relegated it to the secondary level of nostalgia for millennials which is today. Bad times. In the late 2000s, The music industry was collapsing.. Income from record sales had been falling for years due to the combined effect of piracy and chaotic digitalization, unbeknownst to the labels, and which was very far from the orderly and official moment that it is experiencing today thanks to streaming platforms. For example: YouTube (which had already been bought by Google in 2006) accumulated hundreds of millions of video clip views without the labels seeing a single euro in compensation. Attempts were made to renegotiate the terms of that relationship, without success: Warner Music was the first to withdraw their entire catalog from YouTube in 2008. Ideaca. Doug Morris, then CEO of Universal Music Group and a central figure in the creation of Vevo, envisioned a way to enter the internet and video clip business when he saw his grandson consuming online video clips with advertising, which led him to ask how much money Universal was generating with those reproductions… The answer was obvious: zero. From that point on, Morris pressured companies like Yahoo and MTV to compensate him for playing his videos. He did end up reaching an agreement with Google. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Vevo! Vevo officially launched on December 8, 2009 following an agreement between Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI, with Warner Music Group joining years later, in August 2016. Vevo would provide the official catalog in high definition, YouTube would serve as a mass distribution platform, and both parties would sell advertising on that inventory. In October 2009, the Abu Dhabi Media Company already had invested about 300 million dollars to operate in the United States and Canada. Immediate result? Spectacular. In its first month it was already the most visited music site in the United States, surpassing Myspace Music. The economic impact was also rapid: according to Vevo’s CEO at the time, the average CPM of an online music video went from $3 before launch to more than $30 in 2013. In 2012, Vevo accumulated 41 billion views annually across its network, with a catalog of around 75,000 videos. By August 2013, Vevo had surpassed MTV in terms of digital viewership: 609 million video views versus MTV’s 261 million that month. Vevo Certified for artists who surpassed 100 million streams became an indicator of cultural relevance comparable to a number one on sales charts. Issues. However, Vevo’s structural problem was not the audience, but your delivery model. Although the company had a turnover of $250 million in 2013, more than 90% of that income was shared between labels, Google and music publishers. Universal and Sony captured 55% of the total and Vevo operated at a loss. It was, in practice, an advertising inventory manager without its own capital: it generated value for its shareholders, the labels and Google, but not for itself as an independent operating entity. In 2014, the company hired Goldman Sachs and The Raine Group to find a buyer willing to pay nearly $1 billion for the company. None appeared. Vevo ruled out the sale and announced that it would seek profitability through its own means. Change of course. In April 2015, Erik Huggers (creator of the famous BBC iPlayer) arrived as the new CEO. Vevo then wanted build your own applications for mobile and connected TV, reduce its dependence on YouTube and eventually launch a paid subscription service. They began developing apps for iOS, Android and connected TV platforms, but it was short-lived: the paid subscription project was canceled in February 2017, and Huggers left the position. Sizes and layoffs took place and the commitment to technological autonomy ended. Coup de grace. In January 2018, YouTube automatically migrated subscribers from Vevo-branded channels (such as “RihannaVEVO” or “JustinBieberVEVO”) to YouTube’s new Official Artist Channels. That same week, YouTube relaunched YouTube Music as a paid subscription service, directly competing where Vevo had tried to enter. Paradoxically, Vevo had broken even that year for the first time. But the proprietary model had never caught on, and without it, there was no reason to maintain the infrastructure. What’s left of Vevo. Vevo has not completely disappearedlike other projects of the time. The company pivoted to the connected television business and FAST channelsthe free shelves with advertising. Its library exceeds 900,000 video clips and generates approximately 25,000 million monthly views. The model is, ironically, the one that MTV never managed to make happen: a free music network supported by advertising, although in the case of Vevo, distributed over the Internet instead of cable. Vevo’s footprint is not entirely negative: it set the standard for the official high-definition music video on YouTube, created the monetization infrastructure that allowed video clips to become a business again, and demonstrated that the recording industry could negotiate on an equal footing with technology platforms. But the fact that the video clips have ended up becoming amateur choreographies on TikTok is something that, of course, the CEO of Universal could not foresee. In Xataka | MrBeast created an extreme survival challenge with the goal that no one could overcome it. Until ‘Juan the Mexican’ arrived

To achieve the milestone of building the largest drone industry without China, Ukraine has found an explosive ally: Taiwan

by

In the midst of the Cold War, several Western engineers they were surprised upon discovering that some of the most reliable small electronic components on the world market came from an island that barely made the big geopolitical headlines. Decades later, that silent specialization in manufacturing tiny and apparently invisible parts would end up becoming one of the industrial capabilities most coveted on the planet. The war that changed an industry. For decades, Taiwan was known primarily for making chipselectronic components and invisible parts that ended up inside telephones, computers or servers spread all over the planet, but modern wars are beginning to push that industrial capacity towards another, much more explosive terrain. The Guardian said that what is happening between Ukraine and Taiwan reflects a quiet change that barely existed a few years ago: the creation of a new technological alliance born directly from drone warfrom Chinese pressure and the desperate need to produce millions of cheap, autonomous and combat-ready systems. Ukraine wants to break its dependence on China. The war forced Ukraine to build at full speed a gigantic industry of drones capable of feeding a front that consumes absurd quantities of devices every month. The problem is that much of the global supply chain remains dominated by China: Motors, batteries, navigation systems, electronic components and rare earths continue to depend heavily on Chinese manufacturers. As we said, kyiv began to consider this dependence as a strategic risk When suspicions grew about indirect support from Beijing to Russia and fears grew of possible export restrictions. There Taiwan began to appear as an alternative unexpectedly important. His huge experience in semiconductors, microelectronics, electronic integration and advanced technological production made it one of the few places capable of supplying critical parts without being completely dependent on the West or trapped under direct Chinese control. For Ukraine, finding industrial partners outside of China stopped being a commercial issue and became literally a matter of survival. And Taiwan found Ukraine. While Ukraine seeks to produce millions of drones, gradually moving away from China, Taiwan observes the conflict with another concern: the possibility of one day confronting Beijing on its own territory. That coincidence of threats is creating a relationship ever deeper between both worlds. In fact, The New York Times said what Taiwanese engineers They send drones to Ukraine to be tested directly in combat, American companies transfer designs born on the Ukrainian front to Taiwanese production and former Taiwanese soldiers who today fight in Ukraine return home telling how modern war really works. Many Taiwanese militaries are beginning to discover that traditional doctrines are completely outweighed by swarms of FPV drones, unmanned maritime systems or cheap ground robots capable of destroying multimillion-dollar vehicles. Ukraine is thus becoming a kind of university improvised military for Taiwan, one where the lessons do not come from simulations but from a real front where every mistake costs lives. The new military industry no longer resembles the old one. One of the most profound changes of this war is that military production no longer depends solely on gigantic state factories or large traditional contractors. Ukraine has developed more than one hundreds of local manufacturers of components while constantly adapting its systems to specific front-line needs. Ukrainian companies modify drones, software and guidance systems at a much higher speed to the Western classical industry. Taiwan fits perfectly in that transformation because it has exactly what Ukraine needs to accelerate that production: advanced electronics, specialized chips and flexible industrial capacity. Several Taiwanese companies already operate from Poland or Lithuania to indirectly supply kyiv, while Taiwanese drone exports to Europe have skyrocketed massively. In parallel, American companies are using Ukraine and Taiwan like two extremes of the same industrial chain: Ukraine provides combat experience and accelerated development, and Taiwan provides technological capacity and scalable manufacturing. The obsession with building drones outside of China. Both Ukraine and Taiwan share another priority that is becoming almost an industrial doctrine: building supply chains at the expense of Beijing. The problem is much more complicated than it seems because even many components manufactured outside China still use materials, batteries or magnets that depend from Chinese suppliers. Even so, both territories try gradually reduce that exhibition. Taiwan wants to build a drone industry completely disengaged from China by 2027 and increase its own production of rare earth magnets, while Ukraine continues to shift production within its borders. There is no doubt, the challenge is gigantic because Chinese products continue to be much cheaper and more abundant, but strategic logic is beginning to outweigh the economic cost. In the middle of a war, the priority shifts from buying the cheapest to ensuring the supply chain continues to function when the next crisis hits. Building something bigger than drones. If you also want, the most important thing in this relationship may not only be the production of drones, but the emergence of a new technological and military axis informal between two territories that live under permanent threat from much larger neighbors. Ukraine contributes real experience of war, proven tactics and a brutal speed of innovation under extreme pressure. Taiwan contributes industrial capacitysemiconductors and access to critical technologies that the West does not produce quickly enough. The result is beginning to look like something much more ambitious: an entire international network of distributed military production where private companies, engineers, volunteers and manufacturers work beyond official diplomatic limitations. Even the Ukrainian government recognize as drone factories based on Ukrainian designs are popping up outside its borders, including one in Taiwan. One more thing. Ultimately, what the war is accelerating is an idea that a few years ago would have seemed improbable: that to build the largest drone industry on the planet outside chinaUkraine has ended up finding one of its most valuable and strategic allies in Taiwan. Image | x, Trydence In Xataka | Today in “the war in Ukraine beyond all comprehension”: drone pilots are training with ‘Grand Theft Auto’ In Xataka | Ukraine has barely … Read more

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

by

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”

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.