invest

We have plenty of electricity, but we lack cables to build houses and invest more

by

Over the last decade, Spain has accelerated the installation of wind and solar farms, especially in “emptied Spain”, with the promise of becoming Europe’s green laboratory. However, upon reaching 2026, the system has hit an invisible but insurmountable wall: the cables. The reason is a “broken bridge”, since clean energy is born in the countryside, but does not reach the cities or factories because the transportation infrastructure does not exist or is saturated. The situation is critical. According to advance The Economistthe Spanish electricity grid has administratively “collapsed” and, for practical purposes, is closed to new projects. There is no longer room to accommodate new connection requests, which means that thousands of homes, data centers and industries are receiving a “no” answer when asking for a plug. Red Eléctrica’s technical documentation confirms this paralysis with endless lists of nodes submitted to a capacity contest, from Algeciras to Arrigorriaga, evidencing a blockade that runs through the entire peninsula. The “D-Day” that never came. The trigger for this crisis has a date and time. The electricity sector was anxiously awaiting February 2, 2026, the day on which the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) was to publish the new access capacity maps, the “traffic light” that indicates where there is more consumption. But the maps did not arrive. In a last-minute maneuver, the CNMC has postponed the publication until Monday, May 4, 2026. The decision responds to a critical alert launched by the system operator (REE) on January 26: under the new and strict technical criteria, “approximately 90% of the nodes in the transportation network would have zero access capacity.” The problem is deeper. On the one hand, the application of the “dynamic criterion” has revealed that more than 9 GW of already authorized demand—mainly data centers and electrolyzers—might not be sufficiently robust against “voltage dips” (sudden drops in voltage), which forces the tap to be turned off for safety. On the other hand, consensus is non-existent: Red Eléctrica and the distributors they have only achieved agree on the reference values ​​in 26% of the interconnection nodes, a figure that in the case of some distributors plummets to just 11%. A traffic jam with real consequences. Far from being a mere dispatch procedure, it has devastating consequences for the real economy. The energy plug has become the new brake on brick: Last year only 12% of connection requests for new urban developments were granted. The Asprima employers’ association estimates that some 350,000 homes are at risk of not being able to be built, not due to lack of land or money, but due to the simple lack of electrical power. The impact has specific faces. An example that they expose in The Economist is that of the Costa del Sol, where the delay in the construction of a substation in Estepona and its associated line keeps the quality of supply and the connection capacity of a total of 72 families in suspense. The investment war. There is a chronic lack of investment in basic infrastructure. While Europe invests on average 70 cents in networks for every euro of renewable generation, Spain remains at just 30 cents. This has unleashed an open war. The large electricity companies (Aelec) accuse Red Eléctrica (Redeia) of having invested below what was planned, causing the current precariousness. Redeia defends himself forcefullyensuring that it has quadrupled its investment to exceed 1.5 billion in 2025. In addition, the system operator uses devastating quality data to deny the poor state of the network: the average annual interruption time is just 0.46 minutes, a value 30 times better than the 15 minutes required by regulations. The speculative bubble. Amidst the chaos, speculation flourishes. The CNMC is finalizing a complete report—a kind of “forensic” audit—to put order in the system. According to Expansionthere are access requests for 67,100 MW, an exorbitant figure that is equivalent to half of all the installed power in the country. The regulator suspects that there are massive duplications and “ghost” projects that hoard nodes for the sole purpose of reselling permits, blocking access to real industries. Three months of heart attack. Given the seriousness of the scenario, the sector now faces a three-month truce, until May, to try to avoid the total closure of the network. Express legal route. The recent Sustainable Mobility Law has introduced an “emergency mechanism” which allows changing the purpose of positions in substations. That is, unlock spaces reserved for generation that are not used and assign them to consumption quickly. “Amnesty” for Data Centers. To prevent the flight of digital investment, the Government has activated a grace measure for 2026: has eliminated the requirement that forced data centers to consume in “off-peak hours” (at night) to receive aid, recognizing that solar energy has changed the reality of prices and that said requirement no longer made technical sense. Cost for the citizen: fixing the network it won’t be free. The proposal for 2026 includes an increase in tolls (4%) and charges (10.5%) in the electricity bill to finance these investments and the “reinforced mode” of operation, necessary to guarantee stability after the incidents of 2025. Crisis of institutional trust. Despite the extension, legal uncertainty is latent. Electricity companies fear that industries that already had access granted they can lose it when applying the new, more restrictive criteria. Óscar Mosquera, sector expert, warns on LinkedIn about a “regulatory breakdown.” “The network is no longer just infrastructure, it is an institution,” says Mosquera. His diagnosis is lapidary: “A system that invites investment and then does not connect is not prudent, it is incoherent. That is the true country risk.” While the administration looks for solutions, real demand does not wait for the bureaucracy. Joaquin Coronado highlights that the electricity demand It has grown by 3.7% at the start of January 2026, exceeding the official forecasts of the CNMC itself. The Spanish economy tries to accelerate, but physical reality prevents it. A country disconnected from its own future. Spain finds itself at an ironic and … Read more

Amazon is negotiating to invest 50 billion in OpenAI. The money would go in through the door and out through the window.

by

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is in talks with Sam Altman to close an investment of up to $50 billion in OpenAI. He has revealed it The Wall Street Journal and has confirmed it CNBC referring to his own sources. The deal could close in a matter of weeks as part of a record $100 billion funding round that would skyrocket OpenAI’s valuation to $830 billion. Today there are only fourteen listed companies in the world with a higher valuation. And none among the unlisted ones. Why is it important. Amazon would become the largest investor in the round, surpassing the 30 billion negotiated by another old acquaintance of technological mega-investments, SoftBank. And it does so just two months after OpenAI reached a valuation of half a billion dollars. Between the lines. Amazon has an important alliance with Anthropic from 2023that is, with the direct rival of OpenAI. AWS is its primary cloud provider, and in October inaugurated an 11 billion data center campus exclusively for Anthropic in Indiana. Betting at the same time on two companies that are so competitive with each other sounds like a paradox, but it is not so much if we think of Amazon as one of the sellers of picks and shovels in the AI ​​gold rush. They don’t care who finds the nuggets because they charge for the tools. The money trail. In addition to Amazon’s 50 billion, NVIDIA is negotiating to invest 20 billion and Microsoft “several billion more.” The three companies sell OpenAI just what it needs to exist: chips and computing capacity in data centers. Yes, but. This circular scheme is not going unnoticed and has raised more than one eyebrow: Amazon basically ensures itself many years of guaranteed income (at least as long as OpenAI does not go bankrupt, something no one can afford) while diversifying risks by also betting on Anthropic. Just in case. In detail. Although nothing has been leaked that could take it for granted, this investment could perfectly include clauses for OpenAI to adopt the AWS own chips. Or that Amazon sells ChatGPT Enterprise subscriptions to its enterprise customers. It will be through parallel business channels. OpenAI has insane costs with the dark clouds caused by the arrival of Gemini 3 and its great reception. So they are considering ways to sustain capital-devouring growth, such as the much-rumored IPO. The context. a few days ago, Amazon announced the layoff of 16,000 employees “office”, not warehouse or logistics. It is their second round of layoffs for them after 14,000 in October. In total, 30,000 casualties. Meanwhile, it has projected investments that already total 125 billion by 2026 in data centers alone. There is no other large technology company with such a high spending projection. It is a contradiction that has an overwhelming logic: if with AI you are going to be able to do more with fewer jobs, you choose to cut salaries to allocate them to investment. Go deeper. This movement is another nail in the… pattern: big technology companies no longer compete so much to develop the best AI but to control the infrastructure that supports it. Whoever has control of data centers and chips will have control of the business. Regardless of which chatbot succeeds. Featured image | Dima Solomin In Xataka | There was a time not too long ago when the future of supermarkets seemed like Amazon Go. Now Amazon Go is dead

invest a million in an infrastructure that has been ruined for decades

by

The capture of Nicolás Maduro by US forces has left to Donald Trump’s administration as de facto “guardian” of the richest oil sector —and at the same time more punished. In this new geopolitical board, Repsol CEO Josu Jon Imaz was selected to participate in a key meeting in the East Room of the White House along with other oil giants. According to BloombergRepsol is now seeking urgent licenses to resume the export of crude oil, an activity that was frozen after the trade embargo of March 2025. The slogan so that Repsol can fulfill its strategic plan and take its business to the stock market upstream (exploration and production) on Wall Street, needs its Venezuelan assets to stop being a risk accounting entry and become real barrels. Resuscitate a “broken” industry. During the meeting, Trump has asked the oil companies a joint investment of 100 billion dollars to revive an obsolete industry. But the infrastructure it’s so deteriorated that the state-owned PDVSA has gone so far as to dismantle oil pipelines to sell the metal as scrap. Even so, as RTVE has explainedRepsol has promised to triple its production, going from 45,000 to 135,000 barrels per day within three years. titanic challenge. Venezuelan crude oil is “extra heavy”, thick as tarand arrives at the refineries “dirty”, loaded with salt and metals. Only companies with historical roots such as Repsol (present in the country since 1993) have the know-how to process this “heavy food.” But the problem is not just oil. 90% of what Repsol produces in the La Perla field It’s natural gasa resource that powers 33% of Venezuela’s electricity supply. Without Repsol gas, the country goes out; But for this gas to be profitable and exportable, the company needs to build liquefaction plants that simply do not exist today. “Pragmatism in the face of the Trump environment”. To facilitate the disembarkation, Washington has declared a “national emergency” that allows the US Treasury to shield Venezuelan oil revenues in US accounts. This measure, qualified by Expansion like an unprecedented movementseeks to prevent funds from being confiscated by the thousands of creditors waiting at the door, offering the “total security” that Trump promised executives. While Repsol declares itself “ready to invest strongly,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods threw a cold bucket of water on the White House itself. According to the Financial TimesWoods affirmed that Venezuela remains “uninvestable” without drastic changes in the legal framework and recalled that its assets were confiscated twice in the past. On the horizon. Repsol walks through a financial minefield. Still carries a property debt of 330 million euros from PDVSA. Furthermore, Financial Times warns that competitors like Chevron have an advantage due to their close personal relationship with Trump and for having maintained constant operations under special licenses during the years of the embargo. Added to this is the warning from analyst Ron Bousso in Reuters: Trump has suggested that companies should “forget” past debts to start on a “level playing field.” For Repsol, this could mean definitively giving up collecting what was lost under Chavismo in exchange for maintaining its future exploitation rights. A final bet. The company must decide whether to bury billions in rebuilding fossil infrastructure in a world clamoring for the energy transition. The “hole” of 1,160 million euros in Spain’s trade deficit with Venezuela It is just the symptom of a dangerous dependency. Venezuela is still the largest gas station in the world, but today it is a facility in ruins. Repsol’s success will no longer depend only on its technical expertise in the Quiriquire or La Perla fields, but on its ability to dance to the rhythm set by Washington in a reconstruction that, according to expertscould take decades to complete. Image | Repsol Xataka | Getting hold of Venezuela’s immense oil reserves seems like a “bargain.” It’s actually an engineering nightmare.

Millionaires from the US and Mexico invest their fortunes in Spain

by

In 2025, the luxury real estate market in Spain he has lived a silent movement but constant. Madrid and Barcelona have become the main destinations for investments of the great fortunes from the US and Mexico, which are buying luxury homes in some of the most exclusive urban areas of the main capitals. The data of the General Council of Notaries confirm a clear increase in foreign buyers in high-value transactions, especially in neighborhoods where the price per square meter already moves above 10,000 euros per square meter. The new buyers. The statistics of the General Council of Notaries show that in 2025 the purchase and sale of luxury homes by foreigners maintains considerable weight in Spain. According what was published According to Idealista, in Madrid, operations carried out by foreigners already represent around a fifth (21%) of sales in prime areas. In Barcelona, ​​this percentage is somewhat higher, especially in districts where luxury housing concentrates a large part of the available supply. Within this group, buyers of American and Mexican nationality stand out for the average amount of the operations, well above the market average. Specific neighborhoods and heart-stopping prices. He interest of these buyers concentrates on very specific enclaves. In the center of Madrid, neighborhoods such as Salamanca, Recoletos, El Viso or certain areas of Chamberí accumulate a good part of the operations carried out by large international fortunes. These are areas where the price per square meter easily exceeds 10,000 euros and where it is common for the price of housing to be above one million euros. In Barcelona, ​​the pattern is similar. Districts such as Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Pedralbes or Ciutat Vella attract foreign buyers looking for unique, rehabilitated or properties with high heritage value. Why the US and Mexico are looking at Spain. Behind this movement there are several factors that reinforce each other. On the one hand, Spain offers legal stability, property security and a relatively predictable tax framework for large assets. On the other hand, Madrid and Barcelona function as international business hubs well connected to America, with frequent direct flights that keep them connected to Miami, Mexico or New York. In the case of Mexico, the cultural and linguistic link also plays a relevant role, while American buyers especially value the relationship between price, quality of life and services compared to other large European cities. In this way, they use their home in Spain as a way to improve your quality of life or as a gateway to your businesses in Europe. They can pay more, so prices skyrocket. The impact of this international demand can be seen in prices. According to data According to Idealista, the average value of housing in Spain has risen around 7.9% year-on-year in 2025, with Madrid and Barcelona leading the rising prices. In the luxury segment, the pressure is even greater due to the scarcity of properties of this type and its high demand. Although these purchases do not compete directly with affordable housing, they do contribute to reinforcing the dynamic of rising prices in the most sought-after areas. The result is a market in which a crowding out effect occurs in which local rich are displaced to other neighborhoods by wealthier millionaires. In this way, Madrid and Barcelona are consolidated as attractive places for millionaires to have their second residence, especially in a context of international uncertainty. In Xataka | How much money do you need to be among the richest 1% in Spain Image | Unsplash (Eddie Pipocas)

If the question is why we buy a home in Spain, mortgages have the answer: to invest

by

In the middle of the debate on the weight of speculation in the Spanish real estate market and with the Catalan Government immersed in the debate Regarding whether or not it should put limits on the purchase of housing for investment purposes, the sector has come across data that adds even more fuel to the fire. According to a study carried out by the Financial Users Association (Asufin), the 47.7% of the mortgages signed are aimed at acquiring homes for investment purposes. That is to say, the idea of ​​those who take mortgages is not to convert houses into homes, but to put their savings in a safe security in search of good returns. What does the study say? The report by Asufin is just that, a report with its biases and limitations prepared based on a survey with 1,301 interviewees and data from different official sources, but it still offers an interesting ‘photo’. And a resounding conclusion: among those who go to the bank in search of financing to buy a home, there are many more people with an investment mentality than there are families looking for a home in which to settle. What figures do you use? The study concludes that only 15.9% of the new mortgage holders will convert the home into their first residence. Another 18.5% are looking for credit to get a second home that they will dedicate to personal use and 17.9% intend to change their usual residence. The photo is completed with the 47.7% that we mentioned before: buyers who knock on the doors of banks in search of credit to purchase a second home as an investment. The size of this last percentage is not surprising if we take into account that the price per residential square meter has been climbing for years (both in the purchase and rental markets) and there are those who estimate that buying an apartment for rent offers returns of more than 6% (either even older), significantly above what more traditional investments guarantee. Why do we buy houses? Asufin’s study has given rise to another interpretation that shows us more clearly what percentage of buyers go to the real estate market with an investment mentality, not in search of a home. If what we are talking about is the reasons that lead buyers to consider requesting a loan, investment is the main motivation 65%. The data shows that brick is still seen as a refuge value. And so, recognizes the associationleads to “the cycle of buying to rent or saving value to sell more expensively continuing to significantly stress the market.” It’s actually nothing new. Previous studies Asufin itself already reflected that more mortgages are requested to invest than to buy homes. Does the report say anything else? Yes. It confirms the low flow of new housing entering the market, that today the cheapest option is fixed mortgages and that foreign buyers they account for a total of 14%although the data varies depending on the region and the market segment we are talking about. For example, in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands they account for almost 30%, while there are half a dozen autonomous communities in which foreigners do not even reach 4%. Another interesting reading is that credits take up a considerable part of the finances of Spanish households. To be more precise, the average mortgage payments are already They represent 35% of salaries, a percentage that rises to 40% if we talk about the segment of young buyers, between 25 and 35 years old. However, the Asufin data show a slight change in trend, with a clear decline in the percentage of buyers who go into debt to buy second homes for investment purposes. Although they continue to represent an important part of the pie (47.7%), at the beginning of the year they represented 56.2%. Image | Ján Jakub Naništa (Unsplash) In Xataka | Buying a house is already an impossible mission for many young Spaniards. So his parents donate it to him

prohibit purchases to invest

by

Catalonia is studying the pros, cons and viability of a controversial measure to alleviate the residential crisis: restricting the purchase of houses that are acquired as an investment. At the moment it is just that, an idea analyzed by a work group constituted by the Government of Salvador Illa and the Commons, but it has generated expectation. The team has started working this week at the headquarters of the Territory Department and its objective is to have a first report between end of year and beginning of 2026facing the next step: thinking about how to translate it at a legislative level, with proposals that will have to be transferred to Parliament. “An immediate response must be given,” they claim its drivers. “Unfair competition”. The idea is to stop (at least in part) the deep imbalance between supply and demand of housing and the residential crisis that the community is experiencing, like other regions of Spain. According to Idealista, only in the last year has Catalonia seen prices increase 7.1% in the rental market and 9.7% in the purchase and sale. Against that backdrop, compounded by the pressure of vacation rentals and seasonal contracts, the community has been the scene of demonstrations in defense of the right to housing. From Comuns they even talk about the “unfair competition” exercised by investment funds that acquire properties “for cash” (the party remembers that 60% of purchases in Spain are made without a mortgage involved) in search of good returns. The objective of the Government’s working group is to stop this ‘leak’ of apartments to avoid “speculation” and keep them on the market available to families who want to live in them. In short: avoid “speculative purchase”. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Is it something new? The creation of the working group yes. The idea and the resolution of the Government, no. A few weeks ago Illa already advanced his intention to “in-depth” study the possibility of restricting apartment purchases that are made for speculative purposes, not to be used as housing. Probably the most belligerent formation on the matter, however, is another: the Comuns, which a few weeks ago advertisement his intention to take that same crusade to different administrations in Catalonia, including a proposal in Parliament to limit purchases. Actually the idea doesn’t come out of nowhere. It is based on a report recent commissioned by the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB) and prepared by the jurist Pablo Feu, expert in administrative and urban law and professor at the University of Barcelona (UB), which addresses precisely that issue: whether or not it is “legally viable” to put limits on those home purchases that are made with an investor mentality, not to convert them into homes and use them as residences. “It’s viable”. The document is interesting above all for two reasons. To begin with, because its author concludes that the veto of this type of purchases may have legal protection. The second, because it makes it clear that a series of conditions related to the context must first be met. “The report concludes that it is feasible to restrict the acquisition of real estate for speculative use, a practice that, according to the recent jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, can be limited in the face of ‘the exceptional situation of loss of the right of access to housing by the majority of the population,’” the PEMB states in its release about the study. But what does the report say? That like the limitation of rental prices, the veto must respect certain conditions: it would apply only in Stressed Residential Market Areas (ZMRT), provided for in the Right to Housing Law of 2023 and where it would only be allowed to acquire housing for “habitual and permanent use” of the buyer himself, which reduces any investment approach. “The objective is to stop speculative operations that contribute to emptying urban centers and raising prices above the purchasing power of the population,” they reflect from the Pla Estratègic. The small print. The report also talks about certain “exceptions”, a fine print that seeks to ensure the “balance and proportionality” of the ban. For example, it contemplates that entire buildings can be acquired as long as their apartments are rented as “regular rentals” for a certain period of time, keeping them out of the vacation market or seasonal rentals. How long would that limitation last? The PEMB speaks of between five or seven years, depending on whether an individual or a company purchases. The purchase of second homes outside the town where the owner resides would also be allowed, even in areas considered “stressed”, but the operation would be conditioned on a crucial requirement: that the house or apartment be dedicated to personal use, not to rental or investment. The Newspaper assures There is another exception related to those who buy for close relatives. And the legal reserve? The report released by PEMB is just that, a report, a theoretical document presented just before the Government and Commons working group is formed, but it contains a few interesting ideas. The study focuses on the “stressed market” areas and in Catalonia (at least that was the case a year ago) there are some 271 municipalities with that consideration. A significant number of locations that would cover almost 90% of the population. The other reason is that its author insists on the legal fit of the proposals. “Public administrations can intervene in the real estate market. It is a possible measure because it has justified cause and because it is delimited in space and time,” Feu claims. The study in fact ensures that the measure could be transferred to both the regional and state and local levels, “taking advantage of the powers that already exist in terms of housing and urban planning.” Regarding the international scene, the entity assures that there are no doubts about its fit into community legislation. “Countries such as Denmark, Croatia, Finland and Malta have already implemented similar measures,” … Read more

invest like never before, cut back like always

by

Telephone will communicate an ERE to the unions throughout today, Monday which will initially affect between 6,000 and 7,000 workers, 24%-28% of the workforce in Spain. The final figure, after negotiations, could be around 4,000 departures. Thus, the company that was a public monopoly with 67,000 employees in 1997 will remain at around 18,000 workers. A reduction of more than 70% in three decades. Why is it important. This adjustment is the logical consequence of a broken model. Telecom companies have invested more than anyone in 5G infrastructure, fiber optics and next-generation networks, but they have less capacity than ever to raise prices. Telefónica spends billions on deploying and updating its networks while WhatsApp, Netflix or YouTube capture the value without paying hardly for transportation, the old complaint of telecoms that dates back to the times of Alierta. The result is a sector condemned to shrink staff to balance numbers. Between the lines. The ERE has an uncomfortable political dimension: The State owns 10% of Telefónica after investing 2,285 million in 2024 and appointed Marc Murtra as president in January 2025. Now Murtra is executing a plan that includes massive layoffs financed indirectly by the taxpayer via the ‘Telephone Clause’which forces the company to reimburse unemployment benefits. That is to say: the Government is the main shareholder, promotes the ERE and then recovers part of the cost. Meanwhile, the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz criticizes staff adjustments in profitable companies like Amazon. The contradiction is clear. In figures. Each departure from the previous ERE cost 380,000 euros on average. If the pattern is repeated with 4,000-6,000 layoffs, the cost will range between 1,500 and 2,000 million euros that Telefónica will charge in 2025, adding to the losses of 1,080 million per the sale of Latin American subsidiaries. All to leave the 2026 balance sheet clean and concentrate the pain in a single exercise. Expected annual savings: between 300 and 500 million euros depending on the final scope of the agreement. Objective of the Strategic Plan: cut operating costs by 3 billion by 2030. Current staff in Spain: 25,000 employees (18,305 in the three main subsidiaries plus 7,000 in other companies). Yes, buteither. The unions warn that Telefónica’s problem is not the wage bill but the debt (close to 30,000 million) and the undervaluation of the stock market. An ERE does not reduce short-term debt or reactivate the price, which fell 16% after presenting the strategic plan. What’s more: pre-retiring a worker costs between 450,000 and 500,000 euros in the telecom sector, so the savings take years to materialize. Telefónica’s trend is not new but it is relentless: Between 1997 and 2025 it has executed EREs every two or three years. The last one, in 2024, affected 3,421 workers with a peculiarity: it was covered entirely by people born in 1968 because the company prioritized those who had not taken advantage of previous adjustments. Now there are only 200 workers in that situation, so the new ERE will be “multi-year” and will reach employees born in 1969, 1970, 1971 and possibly 1972. This ERE is framed in the strategic plan Transform & Grow from Murtrawhich includes cut the dividend in half (0.15 euros per share in 2026), reduce debt, generate cash and keep the door open to acquisitions in Europe through a possible capital increase. The logic is clear: impoverish the present to prepare a future of sectoral consolidation. The market, for the moment, has not celebrated it. The company has called seven different EREs, one for each affected legal entity: Telefónica Spain. Telefónica Móviles. Telefónica Solutions. Movistar+. Telefónica Global Solutions. Telefónica Digital Innovation. And the corporate center. The calendar is tight: 15 days to establish negotiating tables after this Monday’s notice, then 30 days to reach an agreement. The objective is to sign before December 31 or, at most, in the first days of January 2026. What is new is that for the first time the adjustment reaches the corporate center, traditionally shielded. This reinforces Murtra’s message to the market: total discipline, no exceptions. It also points out the structural severity of the problem. The big question. Is a business model that invests in critical infrastructure but does not capture sufficient value sustainable? Telefónica has deployed 5G, high-speed symmetric fiber and intercontinental submarine networks. But Google, Meta, Netflix and Amazon enjoy that investment by paying marginal interconnection fees while hoarding advertising and subscription revenue. European telecoms have been demanding for years that big technology companies contribute to financing the network they operate. Nothing has changed. And now what. The union consensus is total, something notable in an adjustment of this magnitude. UGT, CCOO and Sumados-Fetico signed Telefónica’s social framework in Octoberunifying rights of the entire Spanish workforce. This prior agreement now facilitates the negotiation of the ERE, but it also shows that the unions have accepted the inevitability of the adjustment. Conditions and amounts will be negotiated, not the principle of the cut. Murtra and CEO Emilio Gayo They have each invested more than 500,000 euros in Telefónica shares after presenting the strategic plan, purchasing securities at 3.67-3.69 euros. A symbolic gesture of confidence that has not prevented the stock from continuing to trade 15% below the level prior to the announcement of the plan. Managers are betting on a future recovery. Investors, at the moment, are not. In Xataka | 100 years after its birth, Telefónica faces the greatest existential dilemma in its history: what does it want to be when it grows up Featured image | Telephone

An experiment has put four chatbots from the US and two from China to invest $10,000 in cryptocurrencies. The Chinese are sweeping

by

What would happen if you gave GPT-5 $10,000 to invest in cryptocurrencies? What if you gave them to other models at the same time and they competed with each other? That’s just the idea they had in Nof1…and the result is fascinating. Six models investing in cryptos. Those responsible for Nof1 have created Alpha Arena, a new type of benchmark that according to them “gets more difficult the smarter the AI ​​is.” The idea is relatively simple: measure the performance of six cutting-edge models to see how they perform when given $10,000 (real) and invested in cryptocurrencies in real markets. The contenders are the following: GPT-5 Gemini 2.5 Pro Claude Sonnet 4.5 Grok 4 DeepSeek Chat v3.1 Qwen 3 Max DeepSeek has turned his $10,000 into almost $20,000, and Qwen into $15,000, fantastic. GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro have lost 65% of their value and are both at $3,500. Total disaster. DeepSeek and Qwen triumph, GPT-5 and Gemini sink. The result of these 11 days since this “race” began is fascinating. The two Chinese models, DeepSeek and Qwen, have obtained enormous benefits: in DeepSeek the return is 97% at the moment (it was as high as 123%), while Qwen is not doing badly at 53%. Claude (0.84%) and Grok (-8.2%) are maintaining or losing slightly, but pay attention, because GPT-5 (-65.7%) and Gemini 2.5 Pro (66%) are currently losing two thirds of what they invested. The summary of winners and losers not only shows that positive or negative return, but also something curious: the number of operations. GPT-5 (75 moves) and especially Gemini 2.5 Pro (193!) are extremely restless. Although it does not have to be this way always, those who operate the least are the ones who are earning the most. Crypto fortunes that come and go. For this experiment, the models can invest in six of the most relevant cryptocurrencies on the market: bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin, ripple, solana and BNB. The models decide whether to take positions in one or several, as well as the amounts and level of leverage. Positions are normally held for a few hours, although in some cases they may be held for days. Learning little by little. All of them have been competing since last October 18 in the “first season” of an experiment that will last until November 3. As explain its creatorsthis first iteration will allow us to obtain the first conclusions about how these models perform in the financial field. Here we come to earn money. The goal is simple: maximize profits and minimize losses (PnL). This first season is just that, because from then on we will apply what we have learned after each season to polish the prompts and add new features to the experiment and thus create models that in theory will perform better and better when investing in financial markets. Algorithmic trading at its best. What these models are doing would be crazy for human investors, especially since all of them not only expose themselves to the volatility of the crypto market, but also multiply it because they make use of the leverage (leverage). With this mechanism one can achieve huge profits much faster, but the risk is also extreme. The models in fact use absolutely extraordinary leverages of 20x or 25x, and can take either short positions (short, you “bet” that the price of an asset will go down) or long (long, you “bet” that the price of the asset will go up). The operation of the benchmark experiment is relatively simple, but it will become more complicated in future seasons. Machines don’t panic. To try to control these risks, the models have clear rules in their prompts regarding risk limits (establishing clear stop loss signals, for example) or confidence in their criteria. And furthermore, they follow them, which allows the models to maintain their position unless these signals occur. Here, by the way, we are talking about medium or low frequency trading: decisions are made in minutes or even hours, not in microseconds. That, the creators say, allows us to answer the question of whether a model can make good decisions if it has enough time and information. Don’t even think about doing it at home.. This experiment is just that, an experiment, and in fact financially speaking it is leaking everywhere. To begin with, because the trial period of this first season is extremely short and does not allow long-term behavior to be evaluated. And finally (among many other things), because the information to which the models have access is very limited. They do not take into account news related to this area and only have numerical data that correspond to average prices and current and historical volumes, and some technical indicators. That information. On the right side DeepSeek v3.1 confesses how it maintains its position because no condition that invalidates it is met, and by clicking on it you can see what it takes into account (value of BTC or ETH, for example) to modify or not modify that criterion. The models tell everything. One of the sections of the interface shows the “Model Chat” where it is possible to see how each model “reflects” on its position. If we click on that reflection we can see all the current and historical data with which he has worked to reach that decision (I maintain my position, I change it) and thus we can find out at all times his reasons for making a move. Just because they win now doesn’t mean they are the best.. Those responsible for Nof1 explain that this is not about declaring the best trading model of the six, because this is just an experiment. As they say, “we are deeply aware of the flaws of this first season, including, but not limited to: response bias, limited sample sizes/lack of statistical rigor, and brevity of the evaluation period.” This experiment will be repeated over different seasons and with new features that will be added to the decision … Read more

NVIDIA will invest $1 billion to continue advancing AI. The surprising thing is that it will do it in NOKIA

by

Nokia stopped being in the general public’s conversations years ago. For many people, Nokia is a memory of those rugged phones from decades past. That is why it has attracted so much attention that NVIDIA, the most powerful company right now in the world of artificial intelligence, announce that it is going to invest 1 billion dollars in Nokia and that the two companies are preparing a strategic alliance around mobile networks and artificial intelligence. The immediate question is obvious: what has NVIDIA seen in Nokia to put that money there. The company in which NVIDIA has invested It is the usual Nokiathe Finnish telecommunications parent company that survived the mobile era. Its headquarters are in Espoovery close to Helsinki, and today its business focuses on the development of network infrastructures, software and advanced connectivity solutions. It is the company that provides operators around the world with technology that makes mobile networks and the expansion of the 5G. From 3210 to 5G towers. There was a time when Nokia dominated the mobile market with terminals that marked an era. The 3210, recently re-released as a single phoneor the first camera phones are part of collective memory. However, the emergence of smartphones completely changed the landscape. In 2014, Nokia said goodbye to that stage by selling its device business to Microsoft.. Since then, the mobile phones with its name belong to HMD Global, while Nokia Corporation, as we say, concentrates on network technology. The movement that no one expected. NVIDIA and Nokia have announced a strategic alliance that combines money and innovation. The American technology company will invest $1 billion in Nokia, an operation that will be carried out by subscribing new shares at a price of $6.01 per share. This is not a purchase, but rather a capital increase. In exchange, both companies will work together to develop mobile networks based on artificial intelligence, a step that prepares them for the jump to 6G. NVIDIA’s investment does not consist of purchasing shares on the market, but rather subscribing to new shares issued directly by Nokia. In total, more than 160 million titles will be created, in an operation that will expand the company’s capital. There is no change of control and the planned participation is 2.9%. The deal is subject to customary approvals before closing, but projects an interesting long-term alliance between both companies. A bet with 6G destiny. The agreement is not limited to money. With this investment, NVIDIA and Nokia are teaming up to develop a new generation of mobile networks based on artificial intelligence. The objective is for operators to be able to offer faster, more efficient services adapted to the growth in data traffic generated by AI. Dell Technologies, which provides servers, and T-Mobile US, which will test the first AI-RAN networks with a view to the jump to 6G, also participate in this roadmap. Behind the acronym AI-RAN lies the great bet of this alliance: applying artificial intelligence to the network that links our mobile phones with the antennas. This is what is known as AI-RAN. These networks learn from traffic, adjust themselves and make better use of available energy and spectrum. Omdia estimates that this segment will move more than 200 billion dollars between now and 2030. It is a technical leap, but above all a way to prepare the ground for 6G. Why Nokia is back on the scene. For Nokia, the agreement represents a capital injection and strategic validation. The company reinforces its roadmap towards new generation networks and consolidates its position in a market where it competes with giants such as Ericsson and Huawei. In addition to financing, it gains visibility: NVIDIA’s support boosts its image as a leading technological partner in the era of artificial intelligence. On the stock market, the announcement has already caused a strong rise in its shares. What NVIDIA earns (and it is not little). For NVIDIA, this alliance expands its reach beyond data centers. Getting into the network infrastructure means bringing artificial intelligence to the edge, where the data is generated. With Nokia technology, you can integrate your platform into antennas, base stations and optical systems, delivering AI capabilities directly from the network. It’s a way to extend your dominance in accelerated computing into new territory: telecommunications. The first to try it will be far from Europe. None of this will be immediately noticeable, but it will lay the foundation for the connectivity of the future. AI-RAN networks promise faster, more stable and more efficient connections, which is essential for new services that depend on artificial intelligence. From augmented reality glasses to drones or connected cars, everything aims to operate with lower latency and greater reliability. The first tests, promoted by T-Mobile US, will be carried out in the United States. Images | NVIDIA | BoliviaIntelligent In Xataka | Elon Musk already bought Twitter to control the narrative. His Grokipedia is another symptom of that obsession

Nvidia will invest 100,000 million dollars in OpenAI. Actually a single euro will not be spent

by

Openai has signed a “strategic agreement” with Nvidia. According to this agreementNvidia “intends to invest up to 100,000 million dollars” in OpenAI gradually, but the truth is that this investment is misleading. Especially since Openai will spend those 100,000 million dollars to buy GPUS to Nvidia. Everything remains at home. What happened. These two companies have initiated the procedures to complete an agreement with a clear objective: create and display AI data centers With a joint gigantic computing capacity: 10 GW. The investment will be made gradually and will be completed “as each gigawatt” of computing capacity is installed in those Data centers. Nvidia will thus become a “computing partner and strategic connectivity” for the development plans of new data centers, says Openai. Millions of Gpus. According to Jensen Huang statementsCEO of Nvidia, that represents between four and five million gpus. Or what is the same: it is the number of units of their GPUS of ia that they expect to distribute this year, and “twice the ones we distributed last year.” The strategy “seller finances buyer”. This agreement is not a simple investment, but a strategic association in which the hardware provider invests a massive amount of money in its main client. In return that client undertakes create a mass infrastructure With supplier technology. It is nothing more than a closed cycle: Nvidia gives OpenAi money, and OpenAi uses it to buy Nvidia products. This sounds like a bubble. There is Several analysts that They speak How this remembers once again The bubble of the Puntocomwhere companies lent money to buy products from the other. That raises suspicions and questions about the long -term sustainability of these agreements. Companies becoming stronger among them. The circular agreement serves in fact to strengthen both companies and solidify their positions as dominant and indispensable actors in the AI ​​industry. In fact, this strategic alliance makes rivals like AMD or Intel very difficult. Nvidia is worth 170,000 million dollars more. The announcement caused immediate reactions in the NVIDIA assessment, whose shares increased almost 4%. The stock market capitalization of the company of Jensen Huan grew by 170,000 million dollars in that session and already touch the 4.5 billion dollars, and manages to distance itself even more from Microsoft, Apple or Google, which already exceed three billion. Long live Hype. Here once again there is a reinforcement of the speech of expectations and Hype. The confidence of these companies in the future of AI is patent, but they are interested and for now Openai’s income – no rivals – are well below spending They are doing in these technologies. Energy challenge. The plans to create infrastructure with 10 GW capacity are also astronomical. According to Some estimatesthose 10 gigawatts They are equivalent to the production of about 10 nuclear reactors, which normally provide a capacity of 1 GW per plant. A colossal cost. The current data centers range between very modest capabilities of 10 MW and other extraordinary 1 GW. Openai’s plans would leave those facilities very behind in computing capacity. In August Huang told investors to create a 1 GW data center is a cost of between 50,000 and 60,000 million dollars, of which about 35,000 are dedicated to Nvidia chips. With those figures, the total cost of those 10 GW of joint computing power would amount to more than 500,000 million dollars, a figure that – one—curiously— It coincides with that of the Project Stargate. Image | Flikr (Techcrunch) | Nvidia In Xataka | 5,000 “tokens” of my blog are being used to train an AI. I have not given my permission

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.