investment

It was the best investment of his life

by

That Tom Hanks is one of the actors highest paid in Hollywood It’s not a surprise to anyone. However, there was a film in which, due to the high production cost, both the director and the main actor had to reduce their initially agreed salary. Hanks didn’t just take a pay cut. He completely renounced the fixed salary initially agreed with Paramount in order to continue filming a film that would not only consolidate his career, but would ultimately make him much richer: Forrest Gump. Who wants a salary when they have a box office. Filming Forrest Gump was a challenge from the beginning. Paramount was suspicious of a story about a man with an intellectual disability that was intertwined with events and symbolic places that had been transcendental in recent decades. As and as they pointed out in IndieWirethe production budget skyrocketed to 55 million of dollars, a huge figure for a drama that left its entire plot in the hands of the protagonists. No superheroes neither film sagas in between. To alleviate these increased costs, Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis agreed to defer much of their agreed-upon fixed salary. In exchange, they asked for a percentage of gross revenue from the first dollar raised. A percentage of revenue, not box office. The condition demanded by Hanks and Zemeckis marks an important nuance. If it had claimed a percentage of the box office, the studio would collect all the income, deduct its production costs and deliver the agreed percentage on the rest, which is a much smaller amount. With the requirement of the percentage of gross income, Hanks and Zemeckis were on equal terms with the studio and would be paid long before Paramount began to deduct expenses. If the film failed, Paramount lost money, but the actor and director would have given away their work. The popular Forrest Gump race scene that Tom Hanks paid for Forrest Gump’s career was paid for by Hanks. one of The most remembered scenes of the movie are the ones where Gump starts running across the country for no apparent reason, and people start joining him. That scene was almost not filmed due to lack of budget. Paramount saw it as too expensive and wanted to cut it. Zemeckis wasn’t about to lose her and went to talk to Hanks. In an interview To Hanks on Graham Bensinger’s podcast, the actor recalled the talk he had with the director: “He said, ‘Well, this production is going to cost X amount of dollars.’ And it wasn’t cheap. And I said, ‘Okay.’” The plan was simple. They put up the money and Paramount returned the favor with a higher percentage of the profits. The studio was delighted to accept because if the film was a failure what they lost was not their money. Maximum commitment to the film. Financing the popular scene of the bearded Gump running from coast to coast was not the only time Hanks had to dig deep during filming. The budget was so tight that during filming, the weather prevented them from obtaining insurance coverage for certain days, and Paramount refused to assume this new additional expense. Hanks and Zemeckis once again put money out of their own pockets to pay the insurance and not stop filming. In the same interviewHanks recalled that, given the financial obstacles that the studio was placing on him, Zemeckis asked him “to be my collaborator, not just my employee.” “It’s a good deal. Let’s do it,” the actor responded. In this way, both became partners who would cover the gaps that the studio did not cover, with the condition of recovering their investment with increasing percentages of box office revenues. The bet paid for itself.. Forrest Gump was released in July 1994 and, from the first weekend, it swept the box office. It grossed more than $677 million worldwide, with more than $330 million in the United States alone according to Fox Business data. It also won six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Hanks. Thanks to his percentage of gross income agreement, Hanks earned an estimated figure in 65 million of dollars. Almost ten times more than the salary he signed when he accepted the project. According to the holderl Celebrity Net Worththe actor’s current fortune is estimated at about $400 million. Not bad for a gamble that started with a scene that the studio refused to pay for. In Xataka | “The best movie ever made” according to Tom Hanks is this classic that, curiously, never appears on the lists Image | Paramount Pictures

“Are Slimbooks a good investment?”

by

GNU/Linux continues to be a very popular family of operating systems, especially for those who prioritize privacy and freedom of choice, without impositions from large companies. And Spain has a great manufacturer of computers with pre-installed Linux called Slimbook. One of our readers asked us about this brand, taking advantage of The Officeone of the advantages of Xataka Xtraour subscription to access exclusive newsletters, raffles, promotions and other exclusive advantages. In this case, what we offer is a direct line with us to resolve questions like this. The xatakero asked If Slimbooks are a good investment. He explains to us that he is a GNU/Linux user, but that he sometimes has problems with some systems, so he was looking for a device that was natively compatible. The question “I have been following them for the last two years, and although I am not in Europe I love their content. Excuse my Spanish, but I write mostly in English. I have a question about Slimbook systems. I don’t see any reviews on Xataka, and I would like to know if they are a good investment. I use Linux daily and sometimes I have problems with some systems, so I would like a device that is already compatible.” The answer Buying a computer is always a decision that requires taking many things into account. And when you want it to use a specific operating system, then you are interested in knowing if it is fully compatible. Our colleague Javier Pastor, specialist in AI, productivity and operating systems, responded to this question. The answer was the following: “Hello! First of all, thank you very much for encouraging you to write to us and don’t worry about your Spanish, it is perfectly understood and it is an honor that you follow us from afar. Regarding your Slimbook question, you are right about Linux support among the current large manufacturers. Although there are some that over time have ended up offering it as an option, they do not focus on it. This means that there are opportunities for manufacturers like this one, which precisely focuses on that section and comes out with really interesting equipment that is very designed to work with all types of Linux distributions without problems. Although we have not analyzed any of their teams recently, we keep track of them and they certainly continue to have important advantages precisely in that scenario. In fact, its greatest virtue is being designed and optimized for Linux, so you don’t have to worry about fighting with Wi-Fi or trackpad drivers. They even have apps specially designed for better management of equipment options, such as Slimbook Battery (currently in version 4, and with the code on GitHub), which shows that they are very attentive to these types of details. They have also improved in materials and components—aluminum chassis, very high-resolution screens and great refresh rates, “giant” MacBook-type trackpads—and we certainly believe that they are a fantastic option for Linux lovers. The price/performance ratio is very acceptable. It is true that you can end up installing Linux on many other computers, but here the peace of mind that everything is fine function from the first power on is maximum, and that always helps in making the decision. Greetings!” Do you have more questions like this? The subscribers of Xataka Xtra You can send us your questions and our team will respond personally. And if you are already a subscriber, remember this advantage and that you can ask us whenever you want.

We have been reading the Bible as a moral guide for centuries. More and more people use it for something else: looking for investment funds

by

When one puts your savings (many or few) in investment funds what you want are good returns. May your money generate more money. The question is… When pursuing this objective, can any criteria be applied beyond the strictly economic one? Is the search for profitability compatible with a moral approach? There are people who believe that the answer is ‘yes’ and that the financial sector must grow with an eye on environmental ethics or social, what happens, for example, by not supporting polluting companies. In that line, more and more people He decides to put his money in another type of investment funds: those that combine the search for profits with the morality of the Catholic Church. Investments and ethics? Exact. Although investment funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) are tools created to generate money, part of the financial sector has been trying to manage them with an ethical approach. Their idea is very simple: they offer returns, but with the guarantee that their analysts will be as attentive to the stock market as they are to the ESG criteria (Environmental, social and governance). That is, the idea is to bet on companies that in theory apply good practices and are respectful of the environment. What about religion? Among these ‘ethical’ funds, not all of them focus on respect for nature or human rights. There are those who emphasize the spiritual. His idea is that money generates profitability thanks to companies that conform to the precepts of a religion. Said this way, it may sound very abstract, but in practice it is very simple: investors avoid companies that make money through pornography, contraceptives, gambling, drugs, child exploitation, weapons, stem cell research… A clear example is the ‘Islamic EFT’funds that operate with sharia on the one hand, betting on companies that comply with the laws of the Koran. Does it happen with Christianity? Yes, too. In fact, just a few months ago, in februarythe Vatican Bank launched two stock indices that aim to make it easier for those who want to invest their money with a Catholic mentality. To be more precise, the Institute for the Opera of Religion (IOR) presented the Morningstar IOE Eurozone Catholic Principles and Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles, a sort of S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 50 ‘Vatican version’. “Both benchmarks are developed following best market practices and in accordance with Catholic ethical criteria. They are designed to serve as a reference for Catholic investments around the world,” explains the IOR. In the case of the European index are included for example, the banks Santander and BBVA, the technology company ASML or the luxury firm Hermes, while other multinationals with defense subsidiaries or presence in the alcohol market are relegated. In the case of the USA, Meta or Amazon appear. But… Do these funds move money? Yes. We know it thanks to a recent analysis of Five Days which confirms that Christian funds are strengthening their footprint globally. And clearly, too. The latest report from the consulting firm Brightlight shows that in the last five years alone they have doubled their assets, going from just over 58.5 billion dollars in the summer of 2020 to more than 115,700 million at the end of September 2025. If we look further back, funds based on Christian principles barely accumulated an asset of 16.5 billion in 2009 or 1,500 in 1990. What do they invest in? The increase in variable income assets stands out above all, followed by fixed income assets. In total Brightlight has identified 166 funds Christians, which is also double the number recorded in 2010. Such an increase is not explained only by the launch of the two indices of the IOR in February. Much earlier, in 2022, the Church already published Mensuram Bonama document with “a set of principles and criteria” aimed at the financial sector. “Investors are increasingly looking for benchmarks that reflect specific value- or policy-based criteria,” defend Morningstar. And how are they doing? Not bad. Although in general investment funds that are guided by ESG criteria have not gone through his best moment (last year they saw capital outflows worth more than $80 billion), the S&P 500 Catholic Values ​​Index has located above of the S&P 500 in recent years. Nothing surprising, moreover, if we see the list of companies on which it focuses. The growth of funds with a Christian focus can be explained, beyond the drift of the stock market, by their own characteristics. Some, for example, donate a part of their commissions to entities linked to the Church. Images | Virgil Cayasa (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a piece of information that clarifies whether or not the Spanish Generation Z is experiencing an upswing in religiosity: the 29-59% paradox

Amazon increases its investment in Spain to 33.7 billion euros. All, of course, for data centers

by

amazon has announced that will expand your investment in data centers in Spain, and this amount will now reach 33.7 billion euros in total. Today’s announcement adds 18 billion euros to the 15.7 billion euros of investment announced by 2024. Amazon is going more in Spain. The company has taken advantage of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for an announcement that significantly reinforces its strategy in our country. The announcement highlights that there are plans to build facilities for manufacturing, storage and something interesting: server recycling in Spain. The promise of employment. Amazon’s forecast is that this Amazon Web Services (AWS) region, which reinforces its location in Aragónwill contribute 31.7 billion euros to Spain’s total GDP until 2035. They estimate that it will contribute “the equivalent of 29,900 full time jobs on average annually in local companies.” Of that figure, there will be 6,700 full-time jobs derived from Amazon’s direct investment in various areas such as data center operationsemployees of AWS providers, or workers who build the facilities. Supply chain. This investment includes an important part of the business consisting of facilities dedicated to the supply chain. These facilities, according to Amazon, will theoretically generate 1,800 jobs in Aragon. Thus, there will be a factory dedicated to the assembly and final testing of the servers, a logistics warehouse and a facility for the manufacturing and repair of AI servers. Let’s talk about energy… Amazon has not given too many details about what the energy and water needs that these data centers will have. However, it does indicate that they have committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040. To do this they are investing in 100 solar and wind projects across Spain, including seven new solar farms. According to their data, AWS data centers in Aragon have offset their electricity consumption with 100% renewable energy since opening in 2022. It remains to be seen if that is enough to prevent the Spanish electrical infrastructure, already saturated, from bursting. …and water. There is also talk about how AWS is going to face the water consumption of these centers: “AWS is also committed to returning more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations by 2030. By 2024, AWS had reached 53% of that goal. In Aragon, AWS supports five water projects with an investment of 17.2 million euros.” A pinch of capex. That investment is certainly part of the planned capex that Amazon has estimated for 2026. The total figure is 200,000 million dollarsa notable increase from the 131.8 billion dollars of capex in 2025. Thus, those 18 billion euros ($21.11 billion) at the current exchange rate represent just over 10% of that capex. AWS is doing (very well). Amazon may not be standing out for having its own AI model, but it certainly has value in its cloud infrastructure. In it fourth quarter of 2025 AWS’s revenue was $35.6 billion, achieving the most notable year-over-year growth (24%) in the last three years. It is evident that investment in infrastructure at a global level is working right now, and Spain has benefited from that momentum. In Xataka | Amazon is negotiating to invest 50 billion in OpenAI. The money would go in through the door and out through the window.

SMIC is the Chinese TSMC and sums up all investment in AI

by

The semiconductor industry has pressed the panic button. Unlike the chip crisis of 2020the new one has not been caused by a ‘perfect storm’ and has a first and last name: artificial intelligence. The push for this technology and the rampant construction of data centers has caused a stock out of all computer components. And if the world’s leading companies have been caught on the wrong foot, the Chinese ones are no exception. To the point that SMIC has confirmed the lean times. The Chinese industry has activated “crisis mode.” Crisis (don’t bother…). At this point, introductions are unnecessary. The RAM market is broken because the main players (Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix) have focused on creating memory for data centers. The reports point to an NVIDIA that would ‘pass’ on launching consumer GPUs this year because you need all possible wafers to create GPUs focused on AI. And after the SSD price risethe following can be the processors. A few days ago, a report from Reuters noted that Intel and AMD were beginning to notify Chinese customers to sit tight for new shipments of server CPUs. Because we always talk about NVIDIA as if it were the only one that creates components for data centers, but the chips Threadripper from AMD and Xeon from Intel are key parts of servers. According to Reuters sources, AMD has warned of an increase in delivery times from eight to ten weeks. And if we look at an Intel whose sales in China represent 20% of its general income, they point out that the price of the fourth and fifth generation Xeons are being rationed and, in addition, increasing the price by 10%. As with other components, they are not enough. From hope to victim. From Reuters they point out that AMD hopes that its relationship with TSMC will allow it to maintain the supply chain. The problem is that TSMC has to be working hard to supply all its customers. NVIDIA is putting pressureQualcomm also needs its premium range mobile processors this year and they are the ones that make Apple’s processors. SMIC -Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp- is the main Chinese semiconductor company. It is the one that in recent years has gained prominence defy US restrictions and provide high-performance chips to Huawei. It is also the great hope, together with Huawei itself, to develop a GPU that can cope with NVIDIA. Zhao Haijun is the co-CEO of SMIC and has come forward to be anything but reassuring. Double reservation. SMIC is winning more money thanks to demand, but production capacity is limited, to the point that he considers that the industry has entered “crisis mode.” “Customers are hesitant to place orders because no one knows how many memory chips will be available and, therefore, how many orders for phones, cars or other products they will be able to build,” stated to investors. In fact, analysis from Counterpoint reflect this crisis with a figure: 2.5%. This is what would have lowered the shipping forecast for Honor, OPPO and Vivo phones for the coming months. That leads manufacturers to book with multiple suppliers, something Zhao has compared with the “double booking” behavior that can be seen on an airline. “If one airline is fully booked, passengers will immediately book another, making total bookings appear inflated even though actual demand has not increased proportionately.” In essence, if the production capacity is limited, but the companies that need chips reserve several suppliers that draw from the same source, it seems that the demand is beastly, although, in reality, this is not so much the case. The result is the same: the system collapses. Car-free highways. The note of the double reservation is not the only pearl that Zhao has left. It is evident that, whether they can handle the demand or not, it is good for SMIC because Chinese companies eager for chips to develop their AI (of which They don’t stop releasing new models) are purchasing components for their data centersand the executive commented that “no one has really thought about what exactly those data centers will do, but companies would love to build the total capacity of the next 10 years in just one or two years.” “It’s like building train stations and high-speed highways even if there aren’t that many cars that need them yet” – Zhao Haijun Three billion dollars. But it’s about being there, having a place at the table where the conversation that, they hope, will shape the future is being defined. American Big Tech plans burn more than 650 billion dollars this 2026 alone, a brutal increase if we take into account that the investment was 400,000 million in 2025. But if we look at the global estimate, with Alibaba, Bytedance or Tencent in the equation, the estimate is three trillion dollars for the next five years. Crisistunity. In the face of crisis, opportunity. We have already commented that AMD, Intel or NVIDIA they are saturated. Also Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron on the memory boat, and in that scenario is where there are certain companies that can begin to carve out a space for themselves at an accelerated pace. SMIC is one of them, satisfying the demand of local customers, but memory manufacturers such as CXMT or YMTC that They had never painted anything in the conversationyou have a chance. We already know that PC manufacturers such as Asus, Dell or HP are considering buying CXMT memories and that Lenovo has already started to do so. And it is not only a window for Chinese companies: Intel has an adventure with the Japanese SoftBank to stand up to Samsung and its HBM4 memories. And even ByteDance would be working on your own AI chip. The problem is the same one we have been talking about for a long time: no matter how much they increase production and no matter how much new players appear, they are all playing in the same game, that of allocating most … Read more

Amazon is preparing an investment of 10 billion in OpenAI because if you can’t beat your enemy, the best thing is to join him

by

Leonidas, had six-pack or not, he died at Thermopylae, but what is curious for our history is exactly what happened afterwards. Xerxes’ Persians had devastated Attica, and faced with the threat that all of Greece would fall, the Spartans—who deeply distrusted the Athenians—agreed to join forces with them. War makes strange allies, they say, and this story is not even close to explaining what is happening with AI. Everyone is joining forces. Then I’ll tell you how it ended with the Spartans and the Athenians. what has happened. OpenAI is negotiating an alliance with Amazon according to which the latter would invest around $10 billion in OpenAI. In The Information They were the first to reveal that negotiation, now confirmed by sources close to the conversations that have been cited on CNBC. What do each other gain?. Thanks to this agreement, Amazon will sell OpenAI its Tranium chips and will also rent more computing capacity in its data centers so that OpenAI can further expand the execution of its AI models and services such as ChatGPT. What OpenAI gains is, once again, economic resources to continue growing. Or what is the same: money to burn on that bonfire that AI has become. A strange agreement. The alliance is surprising, especially considering that Amazon had already put its eggs in another basket. Specifically, Anthropic, OpenAI’s absolute rival in the AI ​​race. It is estimated that Amazon has invested a total of 8 billion dollars at Anthropic, but now there is another reality: that everyone invests in everyone. Anthropic, the best example. The truth is that in recent months we have seen more and more circular financing agreements. Microsoft, which had invested 13 billion dollars, announced last month that would invest $5 billion in Anthropic, and NVIDIA also signed up, doubling that amount: it will invest $10 billion in it. And already, Even Google has teamed up with Anthropic. Long live circular financing. But of course the main protagonist of these agreements is OpenAI, which has been receiving blank checks (or almost) from giants like NVIDIA —100,000 million-, with Broadcom or with amd. We are facing a gigantic house of cards which is in danger of collapsing. But while it doesn’t, players continue adding floors. Or what is the same, money. Win-Win? The agreement is certainly interesting for Amazon, which has been working on its own AI chips since 2015. Trainium are the latest expression of that effort, and the fact that OpenAI is going to use them to train its models—along with those of its competitors, for the record—is good support for that development. In fact, there was perhaps more interesting support recently for those chips: Apple’s. And of course, AWS. In reality, this agreement is a continuation of that (temporary?) love affair between Amazon and OpenAI. The latter, once its ties with Microsoft were released, began to look for new girlfriends in the field of infrastructure, and a little over a month ago announced an agreement with Amazon Web Services worth 38 billion dollars. This is about preservation. All these agreements between big technology companies are not about money, because these circular investments are nothing more than exchanges of kind that compensate each other. What they are about is being stronger and protecting themselves. And if they fall, yes, they will all fall together. Let’s go back to Greece. The alliance between Sparta and Greece crystallized in the naval battle of Salamis (also in 480 BC, shortly after Thermopylae), one of the most important in human history. Sparta reluctantly ceded naval command to Athens, but the strategy worked. That union of forces achieved a decisive victory that saved Greece from being conquered by Persia. Alliances that end as they end. After that battle and that of Plataea a year later, the alliance began to deteriorate and ended up breaking up. Athens and Sparta were enemies again. In fact, 50 years later (430 BC) both would face each other for more than a quarter of a century in the Peloponnesian War. It was totally logical, as it will be that all these alliances end as they should: with each company going about its own thing. Image | OpenAI In Xataka | NVIDIA and OpenAI have just made a masterstroke. One that strengthens them and weakens everyone else

73 million forced investment

by

The Ministry of Digital Transformation has brought to public hearing a royal decree that forces the main operators – Telefónica, Masorange, Vodafone and Digi – to invest up to 73 million euros to shield their networks in view of blackouts like the one in April and natural disasters like DANA. Why is it important. The operators are going to have to reinforce 7,280 of their 10,400 strategic locations. Currently, only 30% have enough batteries or generators to maintain service for at least four hours without electricity supply. The mandatory investment comes at a particularly delicate moment: Telefónica is executing an ERE and in others there are cost-cutting plans. The obligations. 85% of the Spanish population must maintain access to telecommunications – including emergency calls – for at least four hours in the event of a power outage. Critical infrastructures will have tougher demands: First level (submarine cables, main data centers, backbone nodes): guaranteed operability for 24 hours. Intermediate level (internet exchange points, satellite systems): 12 minimum hours of autonomy. Rest of infrastructure (standard mobile network antennas): four hours of continuous service. The stick and the carrot. If companies do not comply, the Secretary of State for Telecommunications may carry out inspections, audits and request access to data at any time. Serious violations can result in fines of up to 2 million euros for the company. In addition, managers who have participated in decisions that violate the rule may receive personal fines of up to 30,000 euros. The harshest measure is that the Government reserves the right to temporarily or totally suspend operating licenses. It may also prohibit certain managers from exercising management functions. Yes, but. The rule exempts from sanctions managers who did not attend meetings where decisions contrary to the regulation were made, or who voted against them. Coordination with Defense and Interior. A coordination table will be created between Digital Transformation, Interior, Defense, National Security, autonomous communities and the CNMC. It will not manage incidents directly, but will act as a strategic forum to develop protocols, recommendations and good practices. Associations of operators, manufacturers and consumer organizations will also participate. The context. The royal decree responds directly to recent crises such as the DANA of Valencia either the eruption of the La Palma volcanowhere communication outages made emergency work and the coordination of those affected difficult. The regulations will come into force after passing the public hearing, being approved by the Council of Ministers and ratified by Congress. Featured image | Zac Gudakov In Xataka | Telefónica does not buy Vodafone or Digi for now, but it already has a plan: one in which mergers are necessary

An investment of 2,350 million will make Extremadura a global supplier of diamonds for chips

by

Trujillo will be a world center for the production of synthetic diamonds. A factory will be created there with a budget of 2.77 billion dollars (almost 2.4 billion euros) in which the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation will participate (SETT), with 753 million, and the American company Diamond Foundry (DF). And those diamonds will not be used for jewelry, but for especially powerful chips. The silicon problem. Current silicon chips have hit a “thermal wall.” By making them faster and more powerful, they get so hot that they lose efficiency or burn out. This slows down the progress of these chips and their application in fields such as artificial intelligence or automotive. Alternatives have been sought for a long timeand the diamond is precisely one of the most striking. The evolution of Trujillo. The Diamond Foundry factory will not make jewelry, but the synthetic diamond wafers it first produced two years ago. The diamond has a thermal conductivity much higher than that of silicon, with values ​​ranging between 1,000 to 2,200 W/mK compared to 153 W/mK for silicon. Or what is the same: it allows us to guarantee that, as they highlighted on IEE Spectrumthe chips of the future will remain “fresh.” The impact. By using diamond as the base or substrate for these chips, it is possible to run them at extreme speeds without overheating. This will position Spain as the world center of this critical technology. The North American company It already had two plants in Trujillo in which monocrystalline diamond (SCD) ingots were produced. The factories are also powered by solar energy, which is abundant in the Extremadura region. Zaragoza as a great ally. Those responsible for Diamond Foundry they explain in the official statement that the new factory is already underway with two construction shifts to accelerate the works. The ingots (the “raw” form of the material) will then go through a singling or cutting process that “slices” them into very thin sheets. These sheets, which are initially rough, are polished at a microscopic level and packaged in a sterile environment. Precisely this “post-processing” phase of production will be carried out in Zaragoza. The investment. The total budget they talk about in DF is 2,770 million dollars, about 2,392 million euros at the exchange rate. Of that amount, the SETT—which groups together previous investments such as PERTE Chip—, will contribute 753 million euros according to DF. It is expected that in the first ten years of the project the contribution to the Spanish GDP will be around 2,150 million euros, and it is expected to generate around 500 direct jobs and more than 1,600 indirect jobs. How to produce synthetic diamonds. While natural diamonds they take time to produce between 1,000 and 3,300 million years old, in Trujillo they are manufactured in approximately one month. To achieve this, DF uses 20 plasma reactors that exceed 1,000 degrees in temperature and generate conditions similar to those found in nature. The process starts with a 20.0 x 20.0 x 0.2 mm diamond “seed” that, when subjected to a combination of gases and a microwave process, grows until it reaches the optimal dimensions for use. Di Caprio, among investors. A curiosity: the San Francisco-based company was founded in 2012 by Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz, but what is surprising is its list of investors. Among them are iPod co-creator Tony Fadeel, Twitter founder Evan Williams and actor Leonardo di Caprio. The water problem. Diamond Foundry’s plants in Trujillo have faced significant problems related to their water supply. It is estimated that the plants need at least 730,000 cubic meters of water per year, which exceeds the annual drinking water consumption of the entire population of Trujillo. Various platforms such as Save El Berrocal and Ecologistas en Acción have warned of that danger, although Diamond Foundry has defended that its plan is based on the reuse of water from the Trujillo Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The Extremadura Government gave the green light to some modifications to the original DF project and considered that the factories would not produce significant adverse effects on the environment. In Xataka | China defies geology: it manufactures in a week what the Earth takes a billion years to do

There are people buying land, farms and pig farms in Spain. And those people are investment funds

by

If this were not an article by Xataka, if it were a novel by Michael Ende: the story would begin with a top-down shot of the Segrià fields. We would see farms and more farms, cereal fields, irrigated orchards, roads, the Segre winding through the plain. And, as we got closer to the ground, we would see a flood of little gray men with briefcases full of money. The argument would be obvious: the field is for sale and the funds have gone out to buy. 34 million pig heads. That is Spain: the undisputed leader of European pork, the third producer worldwide. A giant, no matter how hackneyed the metaphor may be, with feet of clay. And the Spanish countryside has many problems, but the most worrying (because it has no solution — neither easy nor difficult) is its exasperating lack of generational change. Thousands of farms are on the brink of disappearance simply because no one wants to take charge of them once the owner retires. And that “nobody” doesn’t include the funds? Not until very recently. Agriculture was an unsexy sector for financial capital, but now the situation has changed. We have seen it with agriculture: aggressive field management can generate a lot of income (even if it is at the cost of large negative externalities). Now, in addition, today two great factors have joined the celebration of capital: the first is that the mass of exploitations without relief is enormous. The second is that the processes of integration of farms with the meat industry have reached a point of no return — “the field” and “the industry” are now almost synonymous. A sea full of sharks. But, if that were not enough, the pressure on aquifers and international volatility are turning the agricultural world into a difficult place for small farms. Only large corporations have the lungs to dive into such tough markets. Is this bad news? If we look at the Spanish movements from a more international perspective, I’m afraid so. The Californian case is a warning for sailors: large funds are buying properties solely and exclusively for your water rights. And so, as seen in the last droughtit’s a huge problem. A problem that adds to environmental conflictsto rent captureto agricultural changesto the industrial dismantling of emptied Spain. A strange future. As I said before, Spain is the great agricultural power of the continent. In fact, little by little, it has become one of the great world powers in the marketing of agricultural products. But it will not be easy to stay there, the financial funds They are the best example and the problem is that everything seems to indicate that, along the way, the Spain we know will not be recognized by “not even the mother who gave birth to it.” Image | Annie Spratt | Markus Winkler In Xataka | The great paradox of Spanish olive oil: although it grows 15% a year, more than 500 olive oil mills will close in the next decade

Who will compensate Renfe for its investment in AVRIL trains that are breaking down?

by

AVRIL trains are at risk of cracking. At least that is what happened in one of those that provided service on the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed corridor, which has forced it to take all its trains out of circulation and cancel the AVLO service. But now, who pays the dishes Broken buggies? a fissure. It all began in July 2025. At least, the nightmare of what promised to be a peaceful, uninterrupted sleep began. At the end of the month and with the entire summer campaign ahead, Renfe suspended the sale of AVLO tickets between Madrid and Barcelona overnight. The reason soon became known: one of the trains had presented a fissure that forced him to stop full. Without being very clear about how to act, Renfe suspended the sale of these options low cost in the busiest corridor in Spain. Then he chose to make high speed… a slightly slower transportation, limiting maximum speed to avoid problems. Finally, ended up suspending the service completely. A setback. Preventively removing AVRIL trains from circulation in the Madrid-Barcelona corridor is a setback for Renfe since it will not compete with an option low cost in this space and leaves the way clear for Ouigo and Iryo. A space that, in fact, Ouigo had started to give way a few months ago. And although Renfe has room for maneuver because This line is the most expensive in Spain and the least sensitive to offers, the truth is that Renfe no longer competes on price in it. The setback comes, above all, because the results of Talgo’s S106 trains, known as AVRIL, are proving problematic. His arrival was already marked by the bad reviews and the turn of the year caused a widespread breakdown on the trains. Half a year later, when everything seemed forgotten, the trains break down (literally) on the Madrid-Barcelona route. Why are they important? When Renfe commissioned Talgo to produce 30 AVRIL trains, it did so thinking about its ability to lower prices. The trains allow access to a greater number of people and promised top speeds of 300 km/h, which they are not being able to take advantage of. But, above all, the batch of AVRIL trains is key because they are flexible. The trains can “jump” from the Iberian gauge to the international gauge. This allows Renfe to be the only one to be able to operate on the Galician high-speed corridor without having to transfer in Ourense. It is expected to be a differential advantage for competitors do not consider entry in said corridor when it opens to the rest of the competition. Who pays for this? Aware that poor performance of AVRIL trains is a setback for the company, Renfe has already started looking for trains in Germany. But, in addition, the relationship between Talgo and Renfe is not in the best moment. To begin with, because Renfe has already been claiming since last year more than 116 million euros compensation to Talgo for delays in the deliveries of its AVRIL trains. If it is confirmed that the problem with AVRIL trains is structural, new economic demands can be expected from Renfe. In Talgo, however, they defend themselves and assure that the real problem is in the infrastructure. In September they already pointed out Adif as the culprit of the cracks in its trains, alleging a “poor state of maintenance of the line (…) the horizontal leveling problems on that line and the vertical accelerations they cause on the rolling can, by repetition, cause the failure mode due to cracks in the bogie frame.” Adif has defended itself by ensuring that the line is correctly maintained and that it has all the necessary approvals so that the services are provided normally. Not happy with the answer, in The reason they explain that Talgo has already hired an external audit to determine what caused the crack in the four affected trains. Designated. What Talgo wants is obvious: to put the ball in Adif’s court. The company already had to reserve more than 100 million euros last year in their accounts to pay the compensation they owe to Renfe for delayed deliveries. Incurring more expenses because of a productive mistake can only damage your accounts further. On the other hand, Adif is the other big one. They explain in The reason that the main union of train drivers (Semaf) also points to the track management company as guilty due to insufficient maintenance. Criticisms that are not exclusive to this corridor since in Andalusia A lack of investment has also been pointed out worrying as the main cause of summer breakdowns. In that case, It was Ouigo who pointed out Adif as responsible for an incident that left more than 300 people completely stranded in the middle of the field for one night. Photo | Talgo In Xataka | Spain thought that Spain could manufacture the perfect trains for Spain. The reality: Spain is already looking for trains in Germany

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.