invest

prohibit purchases to invest

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Silicon Valley prefers to buy herself rather than invest in the future

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Great American technology They swim in money in cash but to a large extent they are preferring to spend it repurchase their own actions rather than invest. How the mechanism works. A shares is simple: the company uses its cash to buy its own market shares and withdraws them. If a company has 1,000 million shares and repurchase 100 million, there are 900 million. The trick is in arithmetic. If the benefits are the same but there are fewer actions, the benefit per action Go up. A company that earned 10,000 million with 1,000 million shares showed 10 dollars of benefit per share. With 900 million shows $ 11.11. The metric goes up even if the company has not improved at all. Executives charge on actions on actions. Your compensation increases. The funds see the value of their portfolios without waiting for years to mature real investments. The company avoids the risk of investing in projects that can fail .. It is capitalism without capitalism: financial returns without real value creation. Why is it important. The further reason towards the tendency to an increasing repurchase of actions can be inferred: fear. The American political climate has become especially complex for large industrial investments. Bureaucracy, regulations. It is safer to return money to shareholders than to risk building something real. Meta tried to expand his campus in Menlo Park next to a plan to create affordable homes and He crashed into years of bureaucracy. The project has been in pause for some time. Amazon He left his plan to open a second headquarters in New York for the strong political protests that unleashed his announcement. Intel has been trying to open factories. And seeing how China ends them in a couple of years. The financial refuge. Act repurchases have become the bunker where technological ones hide their cash. In 2025 They will exceed the billion dollarshistorical record. Warren Buffett himself, nothing suspicious of anti -capitalist, has once said that Many repurchases are “stupid”. Explained that they benefit more than paid executives in Stock Options (Actions options) than long -term shareholders. The context. The repurchases They were illegal in the United States until 1982when under the presidency of Ronald Reagan they were authorized. Until then they considered a form of market manipulation. They are now the main way to give back shareholders. They exceed traditional dividends. A Study of the Roosevelt Institute of 2018 He showed that S&P 500 companies then spent 94% of their benefits on repurchases and dividends, leaving barely margin for productive investment. And now what. In the United States, some Democratic senators proposed a couple of years ago a 4% tax on repurchase programs to discourage them. What came from the hand of Biden It was 1% that has not had a great effect. For Europe, which depends technologically on the United States, this trend is worrying. If Silicon Valley prefers financial engineering to real, vulnerability against Chinese advance increases. In Xataka | The agreement with the US seemed to pave the way to Nvidia in China. Now is the Asian giant who begins to close the door Outstanding image | Roberto Júnior

will invest 30,000 million euros in data centers for AI

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Europe cannot lose the train of the artificial intelligence (AI). You can’t afford it. This technology already has a very deep impact on the economy, scientific and technological capacity, and the military development of a country, and currently USA and China lead with forcefulness In this area. So far Europe seemed to settle for the wake of the two great powers they are disputing world supremacybut its strategy is about to change. And is that according to CNBC The European Union plans to invest 10,000 million euros in the construction of thirteen data centers for AI, as well as 20,000 million euros in a network of “Gigavatio Class” facilities. These latest data centers are the largest and most ambitious, and their denomination indicates that by their size they consume a lot of electricity. In fact, a gigavatio is equivalent to one billion watts, and a small city can consume this amount of energy. At the moment sixteen European countries have been interested in receiving these facilities, and, According to CNBCthe first of these large data centers will reside in Munich (Germany). Each Gigavatio class installation will cost between 3,000 and 5,000 million euros, and will bring together no less than 100,000 avant -garde gpu for AI (they will be possibly chips NVIDIA H100). All this paints very well, but raises a doubt that we cannot ignore: it is not clear how the countries involved in this plan will resolve the supply of electricity to These demanding facilities. It will cost Europe a lot to follow the rhythm of the US and China The US government led by Donald Trump is determined to lead in the field of the cost of what costs. And in principle this initiative, baptized by the new administration as ‘Stargate project’will cost 500,000 million dollars. This money will leave the coffers of the Japanese investment group SoftBank; of those of OpenAI, the creators of Chatgpt; of those of Oracle, and, finally, it will also be provided by the investment firm Emiraratí MGX. These companies will support the construction during the next four years of an advanced network of data centers that will house the high performance computing infrastructure necessary to sustain US leadership in the AI field. The spearhead of these facilities It is already being built in Texas (USA), in a town called Abilene. And it is colossal. In fact, this first data center of the ‘Stargate’ project will bring together, According to OpenAimore than two million chips for ia. The ‘Stargate’ infrastructure should be fully ready before President Trump’s current mandate expires When the US government announced to Bombo y S pay this plan left a great question open: how did he plan to solve the supply of electricity required by the new facilities? Large data centers for AI consume a lot of electricity, which has caused Some technology have opted for investing in nuclear centrals to guarantee the supply of electricity that these facilities require. At the moment this question is not completely resolved. And it is not because the ‘Stargate’ infrastructure should be completely ready before President Trump’s current mandate expires, and a new nuclear power plant can hardly come into operation in four years. Even so, Openai and Oracle They have officialized that have reached an agreement to build the necessary infrastructure to Deliver additional 4.5 GW to your data centers. Interestingly, SoftBank does not participate in the financing of this expansion, although, as I mentioned a few lines above, it does in the ‘Stargate’ project. Anyway, in this equation there is another unknown that also has a lot to say: China. “We hope that China significantly increase its investments in AI and semiconductors in response to the US domain in AI,” CBM consultancy analysts foresee. It makes sense. These two great powers are being disputed world supremacy, so it is understandable that each significant step that give one of the two Receive a more or less overwhelming answer from the other. We can be sure that 2025 will be a year even more agitated than 2024 in the geopolitical and technological fields, so we will be attentive to the steps that US and China will surely give. And Europe. Also Europe. Image | Christina Morillo More information | CNBC In Xataka | Huawei attacks Nvidia positions in China: he wants to have dominant hardware in inference processes in AI

Europe will invest a lot of money in countries as far away as Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan. The reason: rare earths

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Surely it went unnoticed by the vast majority of the planet Between tariffs and war conflicts. Kazakhstan announced last week the discovery of his Greater rare earth sitewith an initial estimate of one million tons of key elements such as Cerio, Lantano, Neodimio and Ititrio, all fundamental for the global energy transition … or to begin a new arms era. And now the news that did reach more people: the EU will invest a fortune in Five Central Asian countries. The official reason? Strive ties. The truth? The track is one of the five countries: Kazakhstan. The news. In full escalation of commercial tensions with the United States, the European Union surprisingly announced an investment of 12,000 million euros in Central Asia during its first summit with the five countries of the region (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzista, Tayikistan and Turkmenistan). The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that these funds will go to key sectors as transport, clean energy, connectivity and sustainable development of strategic natural resources. Tariffs and foreign trade. In a context marked by the new 20 % tariffs imposed by Washington to European imports, von der Leyen stressed that the EU seeks to offer A reliable alternative Faced with powers such as Russia and China, betting on egalitarian associations and investment in local capacities. In addition, the common commitment to the Territorial sovereignty and peace in Ukraine, condemning the Russian aggression and reinforcing the message that respect for international law will be a cornerstone of this new strategic association. The EU, which already represents 22.6 % of foreign trade And more than 40 % of foreign direct investment in Central Asia, seeks with this summit to consolidate its regional influence and open new trade routes that avoid Russian territory, such as the Transcaspiano corridorKey to reduce the Eastern Energy and Geopolitical Dependence. A key region. Behind good words are not only sustainable development and regional cooperation, but a critical geoeconomic priority: ensure the supply of essential minerals For the European green transition, the strengthening of its industrial base and the development of its defense capacities, all in a context of growing global tension and structural dependence of China and Russia. Strategic minerals. The urgency of this strategic turn was evidenced after the recognition of a disturbing vulnerability: in 2023, 94 % of imports European rare earth came from China, Malaysia and Russia. In addition, China controls the 60 % of world production of critical minerals and 85 % of its processing, while strengthening its own green industry. This concentration of power, added to political proximity between Beijing and Moscow, has led to worrying episodes, such as Chinese restriction to Antimony exporta key mineral in military technologies such as precision optics and night viewers. Abundance, but with limitations. In this panorama, Central Asia emerges as a realistic and attractive alternative. Kazakhstan currently produces 19 of the 34 minerals critics defined by the EU and could expand this figure 21 in the short term After the announcement of last week. Uzbekistan, meanwhile, is the fifth major supplier Uranium World and has important reserves of gold, silver, titanium and molybdenum. The region also has lithium, silicon and tungsten, fundamental for batteries, solar panels and electronic defense systems. However, much of these resources are trapped in a poorly developed mining sector, lacking modern infrastructure and technological capabilities for sustainable extraction. There, a priori, money would be destined. The European strategy. They counted on DW That, in the face of the geoeconomic competence of China and Russia, Brussels seeks to differentiate offering cooperation models based on industrial associations and mixed companies with local actors, favoring direct foreign investment, regional business growth and progressive industrialization. This approach is especially attractive to Central Asian leaders, who see in it a way to diversify their economies, reduce dependence from Moscow and gain greater strategic autonomy. The cornerstone of this approach would be the Gateway Global Initiativethe ambitious European project of 300,000 million euros conceived as an alternative to the New Silk Route China. The transcaspian corridor and a promise. A crucial component of the European Plan is the development of the Transpian International Transport Route (Titr), that logistics corridor that would unite China and Europe through Central Asia and the Caspian Sea, reducing traffic times to 15 days and avoiding the step by the Suez Canal or Russian territory. The problem? The dimension of investment. The implementation of this corridor requires an estimated amount of 18.5 billion euros In infrastructure, of which more than half have already been mobilized by the EU through an investment forum with support from its member states, the private sector, and institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the BERD. To get an idea, the Expert Samuel Vestterbye That this route could multiply container traffic from the current 100,000 to 800,000, with a transformative economic impact for both regions. The Russian “friend.” No doubt, the European turn also has a clear geopolitical dimension: stop use which makes Russia of Central Asian countries for avoid sanctions Western imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. The European diplomat Kaja Kallas was explicit in that sense when warning in Asjabad that Russian companies should not use the region as commercial escape route. In this context, the EU needs to balance a incentive and pressures policy: Offer real economic development through infrastructure and commerce, while demanding cooperation in compliance with the western sanctioning regime. Something like the “carrot and stick” approach that analysts see as an opportunity to consolidate strategic relationships that transcend the economic. Challenges and Emergency. Despite the advances, the European strategy has notable challenges before him. Experts Like Marie Dumoulinof the European Council on Foreign Relations, warn that the concrete projects of the Global Gateway take to materialize and lack visibility in the region, which could weaken the EU’s ability to compete with Chinese or Russian offers. In other words, that what is said is credible Brussels must Accelerate implementation of infrastructure works, show tangible results and … Read more

Spanish companies interested in green hydrogen have found a very succulent destination to invest: Morocco

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Morocco aspires that renewable energies Represent 52% of its capacity installed in 2030. At this time its percentage is 45%so, to get to the estimated, he wants to achieve it through green hydrogen. Among the companies selected to lead this initiative are Spanish companies. The project. A Moroccan Government Committee has selected five consortiums to develop six green hydrogen projects which will allow the production of ammonia, steel and industrial fuel. The investment has reached a total of 319,000 million Dírhams (32.5 billion dollars), which includes the participation of companies from different countries, including Spain: ACCIONA and CEPSA. This meeting enters within the framework of the “offer of Morocco”, where these works will take place in the three provinces of southern Morocco, which include the areas of Dakhla-Rio de Oro, LaAyoune-Sakia El Hamra and Guelmim-Noun, all located in the Occupied Western Sahara. The agreement with Europe. We all know that Europe is going through a deep crisis with The gas situation. Recently, the possible reopening of the controversial Nord Stream 2 creates more headaches, because He will get caughtbetween the United States and Russia. However, the EU member states are still sought alternatives to supply gas and there Green hydrogen. Morocco You have seen a chance To participate in the Green Pact of the European Unionwhereby an objective of importing 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen is established by 2030. In this way the Norafrican country becomes a key actor for the EU. An investment with contradictions. Despite Morocco’s attraction as a partner in the energy transition, Your recent decision To give to Israel 34,000 km² in the Atlantic for gas exploitation has generated a strong controversy in Spain. This measure has aroused diplomatic tensions, since the ceded waters could conflict with areas of interest with the Iberian country. In addition, Spain has different points in its green hydrogen orography becoming a direct rival. In fact, almost 40% of the 5,200 MW In hydrogen projects presented in Europe they come from Spain. The problem is even bigger. However, the projects are not free of controversy and that the Moroccan government has announced that it will offer up to 30,000 hectares of land to each project once a preliminary agreement is signed for the construction of electrolysis plants. The territory where They will operate is a disputed area And now the Spanish companies, acts and Cepsa, will work in this area, which could increase diplomatic tensions With Spain and the Sahara. In addition, the fact that Morocco is exploiting areas in Western Sahara for international projects could generate even more conflicts in the political and territorial sphere. Other companies at stake. The development of green hydrogen in Morocco has also attracted a variety of international companies, each with its own strategy. On the one hand, on Europe side will be a German company, Nordex, specialized in renewable and two French energies, extremely known in the world of energy, totalenergies and Engie, which will focus on producing ammonia from green hydrogen. On the other hand, in the area of ​​the Arabiga Peninsula, there is the Taqa company of United Arab Emirates that will invest in the production of ammonia, fuel and steel, and the Saudi Acwa Power will focus on the manufacture of steel. On the other hand, as the presence of China could not miss with the EUG and China Three Gorges companies dedicated to ammonia production; While the United States, with the Ortus company, will focus on the production of green ammonia. Image | Pxhere and Flickr Xataka | Cheaper, durable and ecological: a new material with the help of ruthenium wants to change the rules of green hydrogen

Multivize Computing is the Startup of San Sebastián that “compresses” the AI. The government has just invest 67 million euros in it

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Óscar López, Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, announced within the framework of the Mobile World Congress of Barcelona something interesting: an investment of the government to support a promising Spanish startup of artificial intelligence. Multivize Computing. The Spanish company Multivize Computing It has venues in San Sebastián, Toronto, Munich, Paris and London and aims to “revolutionize artificial intelligence through the understanding of models.” Its products are able to compress large language models at 10% of its original size, with cost reduction and efficiency improvement that implies. Compressing the AI. Its main product is compactifai, a “compressor of AI models” that allows more fast, cheap and efficient ia systems. According to Your dataa model as it calls 3.1 405b has an operational cost of about $ 390,000 if we want to run it at home (13 GPUS H100, 9100 W of consumption), but thanks to Compactifai it is possible to reduce that cost to 60,000 dollars (2 GPUS H100, 1,400 W). 67 million for this European “unicorn”. López has announced that the Government will enter as a shareholder in Multivrse Computing through the Spanish Technological Transformation Society (SETT). In 2024 Digitaleurope, employer of industries in the process of transformation in Europe, recognized the company as the future European Uniccorn. It is one of the most promising emerging companies in Spain according to LinkedIn, and this investment is of course a commitment to that future. And aids for companies. The minister took the opportunity to announce a call for 130 million euros (up to 5 million euros per project) from FEDER funds for companies that incorporate AI “in their value chains.” There is also another additional call of 50 million euros for the integration of AI in companies in the health sector. There are already real cases of use. A previous call endowed with 50 million euros and launched by Sedia in 2021 concluded in December and there have been real cases. One of them is Tartaglia, focused on the health sector and endowed with seven million euros. This project has developed a system so that health institutions can safely share data. Another of these projects is agrarian, with an investment of nine million euros and that has taken advantage of AI to for example foresee the yield of the crops through satellite images, early pest detection or modeling of the energy expenditure of large fridge cameras. In Xataka | Spain is finally

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