industry

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

by

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

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

by

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

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

by

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

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

by

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

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

by

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

The wine industry believed it had its new El Dorado in China. Until China asked its officials to stop drinking

by

a few days ago Dynasty Fine Winesa wine company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, had to share the class of information that makes shareholders’ coffee (or wine, as the case may be) choke: their 2025 profit forecast has plummeted more than 50% with respect to 2024. The news might not have interest beyond its board if it were not for the fact that it connects with a larger trend: changes in the Chinese market that have led to the Asian giant ceasing to be the inexhaustible gold mine that the sector imagined in his day. And in part it is due to the guidelines on morality by Xi Jinping. What has happened? That the Western alcohol industry’s dream of finding a new big gold mine in China seems to be slowly receding. And this is especially noticeable in wine cellars. After years of accelerated growth, in which the Asian giant seemed increasingly interested in wines from Australia or France, demand has started to slow down. The signs are clear. has fallen per capita consumption, imports, production and there are companies such as Treasury Wine Estates, Pernord Ricard, Diageo or Dinasty Fine that have seen how it gets complicated the panorama in the country. China is no longer in the news for increasing its world import quota from 1 to 8% in record time to make headlines for the drop in demand. What does the data say? There are many indicators to pull from. Of all, perhaps the most eloquent is the one published by the Interprofessional Wine Organization of Spain (OIVE), based in turn on Chinese customs data. The organization recently revealed that in 2025 imports suffered a decline of 26.7% in volume, although the increase in the average price reduced the fall to 14.6% in terms of value. The “prick” affected exporters like France or Chile. Is it the only indicator? Not at all. Another producing country that has also suffered the ups and downs in the Chinese market is Australia. Although the wineries there received good news in March 2024when Xi Jinpuing lifted the tariffs that penalized his wine exports, the joy was short-lived. A few months ago Wine Australia published a report in which it recognizes that shipments of merchandise to other countries were reduced by 6% in volume and 8% in value in 2025, a decline that is partly explained by the fall in two markets: the United States (-12%) and especially the Chinese one, which contracted another 17%. Are only imports falling? No. Just a year ago the University of Adelaide published a study which shows that the changes in the Chinese wine market are much deeper and more complex. Per capita consumption, for example, skyrocketed during the first decade of the century, then registered fluctuations until 2016 and from that year on it suffered a decline that extends at least until 2022, the last year analyzed. The production curve is not good either. “We have seen how the (Chinese) market has completely dried up,” he complained recently in statements to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) the owner of a winery that exports wine from New South Wales, Australia. Your case is illustrative. Until 2019, 40% of its profits came from China. The collapse in sales in that market has now translated, however, into a surplus that will force him to let 30% of his grapes rot this year. Has the market changed that much? It seems so. In November 2025 the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) published an extensive report which made its premise clear from the same headline: “European wines stay on the shelves while China looks for cheaper drinks.” In the chronicle he talks about a contraction in the consumption of both premium wines and traditional spirits, while other options such as craft beer seem to be gaining ground. The information is accompanied by a graph that reflects the fall in wine imports between 2017 and 2023. If there were any doubts about whether the trend only affects European or Australian wineries, a few weeks ago The New York Times public another report in which he explains how the drop in demand affects the distilleries of Maotaiin China itself, dedicated to the production of baijiua powerful liquor. Why is demand falling? There are several factors. Influences the economic slowdown and the hangover real estate crisiswhich have in turn affected spending on alcohol, especially when we talk about expensive imported wines. There are also analysts who they point to a change in consumer habits, especially among the youngest. Recently Global Timesa Chinese newspaper linked to the communist government, published a report in which he told precisely how the new generations show less interest in drinking. In that aspect they connect with other societies that live the same phenomenon. Is it the only reason? No. There is another. And although a priori it may seem minor or secondary, it is relevant enough for WSJ I related it directly with the decline of the wine market. Which is it? The position of the Chinese Government. A few months ago the Executive headed by Xi Jinping issued a strict guideline in which it prohibits the serving of alcohol, luxury dishes or cigarettes at official meals. The objective: end excesses. “Extravagant banquets and excessive alcohol consumption were a regular part of official life in China. But such excesses, long criticized by the public, have come under increasing scrutiny. As part of a new push to ensure discipline, China has imposed a widespread ban on alcohol at official receptions,” it proclaims. a statement published in May 2025 by the Information Office, which warns: “Excessive alcohol deteriorates the image of officials.” And is it being fulfilled? Although it cites the rest of the economic and cultural factors that influence demand, WSJ points out the government guideline as one of the factors that explain the change in trend in China. He even shares a concrete example: last year during the conference of a state-owned … Read more

build the largest drone industry without China’s help

by

A modified commercial drone can cost less than a mid-range mobile phone and still be able to destroy armored vehicles valued in millions. Hence, in recent conflicts, these systems are being lost at such a rate that their production is closer to an industrial logic than to the traditional manufacture of weapons itself. Ukraine has now taken another leap. Being autonomous in the middle of war. Yes, I counted a few days ago the new york times that Ukraine has achieved a relevant milestone in its military industry, and it has done so by developing drones capable of operating practically without direct components from China. It is not a trivial topic. In fact, progress does not arise from comfort, but from the strategic need to reduce dependencies in a context total war. The transition reflects a profound change in the way weapons are produced, one where self-sufficiency becomes as decisive an advantage as combat performance itself. Drones and figures. Ukraine had opened numerous russian drones finding inside a skeleton of technologies and raw materials that came, on the one hand, from their supposed “allies”and on the other from china. Ukraine now hopes that no one tells it the same. The conflict has elevated drones to an unprecedented industrial scale, to the point that they are already attributed more than 90% of Russian casualties according to Ukrainian commanders. In addition, production has also skyrocketed: companies like Ukrainian Defense Drones manufacture up to 15,000 antennas per dayand the use of cheap drones of about $500 has become a key tool to balance the scales against an enemy superior in resources. This logic requires manufacturing in large quantities, assuming high loss rates in missions, and prioritizing volume and speed over perfection. Reduce dependency piece by piece. From that perspective, the advance towards “China-free” drones is progressive and partial, but significant. In just one year, Ukraine has gone from depending almost entirely on Chinese components to reducing that proportion to around 38%replacing key parts such as structures, controllers, antennas or transmission systems. This process has involved rebuilding entire supply chains and developing our own technical capabilities in record time, with European support to fill critical gaps. The real limits of independence. With everything and despite the advances, total autonomy remains complex. There are materials such as carbon, batteries or certain electronic components that still depend on global chains. dominated by Chinaeven when assembled outside its territory. This reveals an uncomfortable reality, since completely eliminating that dependency is not viable in the short term, especially when the cost remains a decisive factor in a war where thousands of units are constantly needed. Production, war and negotiation. They noted in the Times that the development of its own industry not only responds to immediate military needs, it also has political implications. Ukraine thus seeks to strengthen its position in ffuture negotiations demonstrating that it can sustain its war effort without depending on third parties. At the same time, diversifying suppliers reduces China’s pressure capacity, introducing a new balance in the global supply chain. Constant innovation. Practically since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, the pace of technological adaptation in Ukraine has been breaking with traditional defense schemes. Drone designs are updated monthlyif not before, based on their performance on the front, in a continuous cycle of trial, trial, error and improvement. In short, a model that, driven by the urgency and human cost of conflict, is redefining how military technologies are developed in the 21st century, and where half the planet is asking he source code to copy it. Image | Lycksele-Nord, Maxim Subotin In Xataka | Ukraine has become the world’s leading specialist against Iranian drones. And he won’t share his antidote In Xataka | We thought we had seen everything in Ukraine, but no: the soldiers’ scissors have mutated into something similar to a laser

become an oasis of industry and data centers

by

The energy panorama that renewables are leaving in the Spanish state leaves some interesting realities, such as Empty Spain is energetic Spainwith regions such as Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León or Aragón as prominent hubs that supply other Autonomous Communities. Exporting it is all well and good, but surplus energy provides an opportunity to get more out of it. As? Becoming an industrial oasis. Aragón knows this and has everything it needs: abundant energy and good communications (another thing it’s how they are). And it has already started with data centersbut it’s just the beginning. Why is it important. Because the window of opportunity for the Aragonese electrical system in Europe is where two trends come together: The energy transformation, leaving fossil fuels behind in favor of renewables, a subject of which he is an advanced student. The digital economy, with data centers at the forefront of the new advanced industry with high electrical demand. The opportunity is real, but it doesn’t last forever. Aragon competes against other regions at the European level to establish itself as the best place to build this digital infrastructure in the eyes of those who make the decision in search of a territory with abundant and reliable energy. context. Aragon has energy. In fact, it produces twice the energy it consumes. Its energy generation is a mix with a high weight of renewables. More specifically and as stated in the report by the Basilio Paraíso Foundation and PwCAt the end of 2025, the Aragonese community has 13,793 MW of installed power, of which 82.5% comes from renewables (mostly wind and solar). Of the 22,365 GWh that it produces per year, it consumes only 10,659 GWh. In short: you have 11,700 GWh per year to spare. Historically, the Aragonese system has exported this surplus, but now it wants to convert it into a differential strategic asset in the event of the eventual arrival of high value-added industries. In figures. Throughout the article we have already been sliding some numbers that better outline the Aragonese energy scenario according to the aforementioned report and the Aragon Energy Plan 2024-2030which we summarize here: Aragón produces 22,365 GWh per year and only consumes 10,659 GWh. It has “left over” 11,700 GWh per year. 82% of its electricity already comes from renewable sources. Data centers already account for 14% of the electricity consumption of the entire autonomous community. In 2025, electricity demand increased by 7.2%: the key is in the new large consumers. By 2030, the objective is to attract new demand of 5.4 GW: 3.7 GW associated with data centers and 1.7 GW for other large electro-intensive consumers. The challenge is not energy generation, but the connection. The link between this available energy and the ability to use it effectively in industries with high energy demand is having an evacuation and connection infrastructure. In short: being able to bring energy to where it is needed. He draft plan 2024-2030 establishes a balance between the supply of connection points, of 15.2 GW, and the potential demand (13.84 GW). Of course, as long as they materialize in a timely manner, so that a potential promoter finds the connection point where and when they need it and that the supply is also stable enough. A bottleneck called Zaragoza. The problem is in Zaragoza and its surroundings. The capital of the community is the environment with the most pressure as it is the place that attracts the most projects. So: Of all the connection capacity that has already been authorized, only 12.7% is operational. Available capacity in the distribution network plummeted to 3.48 MW at the beginning of 2026, compared to 256 MW available in September 2024. Almost half of all requested power (48%) corresponds to data centers. The solutions are on the table. The Basilio Paraíso Foundation report also provides the levers for Aragón to take advantage of this window of opportunity. The most urgent is to reinforce the electrical network of Zaragoza and its surroundings, the bastion of this reindustrialization. In this sense, they call for putting order in the permit queue, prioritizing those with their homework done to release the capacity that is reserved but not being used. The network is not built overnight, so they call for anticipating needs. Finally, it advocates meeting the deadlines of the Plans and Projects of General Interest of Aragon, to offer guarantees for large strategic projects. In Xataka | Aragón is not afraid of AI: it has just approved three more new mega data centers in full commitment to renewables In Xataka | Quietly, Spain is solving its biggest energy problem: becoming the world’s second largest battery power Cover | SQUARE and Wikimedia

the concert industry is unleashed

by

Shakira will close her world tour in Spain with a temporary stadium built specifically for her by Live Nation and which will be called Shakira Stadium. It is not the first time it has happened (Adele did it in Munich in 2024) but the phenomenon speaks of something deeper: the live industry has entered a phase in which mainstream artists do not adapt to existing venues. Rather, the enclosures adapt to them. When he said it. Was in the RTVE program ‘Al cielo con ella’broadcast on March 15: will close its world tour in Spain with this exclusive stadium. The artist stated that “it was going to be something from another world, a production that I think has not been seen before in Spain.” Without revealing dates or location, he confirmed that there will be more than two nights of concerts, a kind of residency. Among the possible locations there are means that They point out the Iberdrola Music in Villaverde, the same space where Mad Cool is celebrated. Continuing success. Shakira is right now one of the main Latin artists in the world. His Women No Longer Cry World Tour has collected 421.6 million dollars and sold 3.3 million tickets in almost a hundred concerts: it is the highest-grossing Latin tour in history, surpassing the Luis Miguel Tour 2023-24 that held the previous record. The tour started in February 2025 in Rio de Janeiro and has toured Latin America, the United States and Canada. The leg on the other side of the Atlantic, stopping in the Middle East, India and Egypt before reaching Spain, will close the tour. Come on, the Shakira Stadium is more than justified. The precedent: Adele. In August 2024, Adele performed ten times at the Adele Arenaa temporary enclosure built on the grounds of the Messe München in thirty days. It took 700 workers to build it and it had a capacity for 80,000 people. Total attendance was around 730,000 spectators. A 220-meter LED screen crowned an infrastructure whose total cost was estimated about 130 million dollars. The advantages. What characterizes This type of stage on conventional stadiums is the scale: a conventional touring stage is 60 meters wide, Adele’s was 220. “The fact of not having to tour the show means that the scale can be much larger,” explained production director Malcolm Birkett. Significantly, Adele’s promoter was also Live Nation. The stadium also included Adele World: a perimeter ring with an amusement park, a replica of a London pub and additional performances. It is likely that Shakira will set up comparable facilities. The “staging” of the live. To understand why something like the Shakira Stadium happens, you have to follow the music industry over the last fifteen years. When the streaming revenue from the sale of physical formats sank, live streaming emerged as the economic core of the business. Today, that process is completely consolidated: the global live music market has an annual growth rate of 8.78%. Live Nation alone reported $23 billion in revenue in 2024, and 151 million attendees at its events. In Spain, the Association of Music Promoters billed only with tickets 725.6 million euros in 2024, 25.32% more than the previous year. This growth has a very specific architecture. As we told at the time1% of artists generate 60% of revenue from live performances. The average ticket price of the top 100 tours rose more than 20% between 2022 and 2024. The market is growing, but is concentrated. Dynamic prices, VIP packages and Ticketmaster commissions have turned big concerts into luxury goods. The barrier to entry is increasingly higher for the public, and the losers are also the artists who do not have the capacity to fill stadiums. The logic of the own stadium. And so we have things like the Shakira Stadium. When the artist doesn’t need to move the stage between cities, he can build something that would be impossible to fit into a traveling tour. The investment is enormous, but the concentration of the public in a single point for several nights allows it to be amortized. And it’s worth keeping in mind, too, that Live Nation, whose business practices are being investigated It is the only company in the business with the capacity to execute it on this scale. In Xataka | We Spaniards have stopped watching TV, going to the cinema and reading books: the only thing that interests us is going to concerts

A robot rental industry has been created in China that has plunged prices in a year, but it has an asterisk

by

From spring 2025 to winter 2026, renting a humanoid robot for a business event in China has gone from costing between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan a day to being listed at 1,796. Robot dogs already cost 78 yuan a day in JD.comless than 10 euros. A drop of 80% in twelve months. Why is it important. Beyond the price war, this is the first real scale laboratory in the humanoid robot business, and what happens says a lot about the real state of an industry that moves a lot of money in financing but still needs a human behind each machine. In figures: Between the lines. The most interesting number in this matter is not any of the above, but this: every robot deployed today arrives with a human engineer behind it. This technician assumes transportation, calibration, live operation and unforeseen events. The actual model is not ‘Robot as a Servicebut rather ‘Robot + Person as a Service’. The logic of SaaS (marginal costs that approach zero when scaling) does not apply here. Each new unit in the catalog implies a new payroll. The bottleneck is therefore not in the supply of machines, but in the supply of people capable of operating them. The context. Qingtianzu, the platform controlled by Zhiyuan Robotics and backed by Hillhouse Capital, connects more than 200 suppliers with companies that need robots for presentations, inaugurations or weddings. like a marketplace. During the Chinese New Year, their orders grew by 70% and exceeded 5,000 orders in one week. JD.com saw searches for “robot” increase 25-fold. The demand exists, the problem is the cost structure. Yes, but. Rent has fallen by 80%, but operating costs have barely budged: transportation, engineers, insurance, logistics… Everything remains basically the same.. The payback period cited by operators (about six or eight months) assumes about ten monthly orders at 2,500 yuan on average. But that works during peak demand. Outside of the holiday weeks, that rhythm is broken. The big question. 65% of orders are for entertainment and marketing: robots that dance or parade at fairs and those types of cute but short-lived acts. Intermittent uses by definition. To have a stable base, the sector needs to enter factories, hospitals and logistics. But experts have already warned: the majority of current humanoids are in the “cerebellum” phase, executing instructions without autonomous decision. That jump, according to the most optimistic estimatesit will take about five years. The panoramic. In a matter of months, China has built an industry with funded platforms, distributed logistics and real demand. It is the first country that has brought humanoid robots to the mass market, even if it is to perform in shopping centers and shake hands in dealerships. TrendForce foresees more than 50,000 units shipped in 2026, 700% more. The sector has its own precedent: drones for shows, which did not take off for their industrial uses but for the shows nightlife in cities across China. Robot rental can follow the same script. The difference is that an autonomous drone no longer needs a pilot. The humanoid robot still does. In Xataka | There is a Chinese startup creating the most amazing robots of the moment. It’s called X Square Featured image | Andy Kelly

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.