key

In the twentieth century the pipelines were the key to the world. In the 21st century are the electrical networks and a country is winning them: China

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While a nation installs almost one hundred solar panels per second, another revitalizes factories to produce gasoline engines. While A build the largest solar plant in the worldthe other promises “Dominant Energy” Based on oil and gas. At first glance, two different strategies seem. Actually, it’s a career. And the prize is not just energy: it is the geopolitical power of the 21st century. Two opposing models. An Ember graph published by Our World in Data He has illustrated The point with amazing clarity. At the beginning of the 2000s you can see China’s gradual rebound. However, the crossing occurs in 2010 where the Asian giant exceeds the 4,000 Teravatios-Hora barrier (TWH), to a vertiginous ascent exceeding 10,000 SWH in 2024. In simple terms, China produces more than double electricity than the United States, which remained in the same line. But the most relevant is not how much it produces, but how it does. Data Source: Ember (2025); Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) The silent revolution. In just one month, China installed 93 gigawatts of solar capacity, which is equivalent – more or less – one hundred panels every second. To that are added another 26 GW in wind, some 5,300 new turbines underway. According to Lauri Myllyvirta, principal researcher at the Institute of Policy of Asian Society, cited by The Guardian: “Only the facilities of that month would generate as much electricity as whole countries such as Poland, Sweden or the United Arab Emirates.” In total, between January and May 2025, China has added 198 GW of solar capacity and 46 GW of wind, sufficient to match the electricity production of Türkiye or Indonesia. This way, Keep overcoming The more than 1,000 GW, which represents half of the world total. They have known how to get ahead. More and more linked climatic ambitions with the growth of renewable technologies. In a recent speech, cited by The GuardianXi Jinping linked the development of the clean energy sector with China’s economic revitalization: “We have built the world’s largest and most complete energy chain in the world.” The term “new energies” includes renewables, batteries and storage technologies. The Asian giant is currently the largest global supplier of clean technologies: the market of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles and nuclear reactors under construction dominates. In addition, it has almost 700,000 patents in clean energy, more than half of the world total, According to The New York Times. The other face. For a good part of the twentieth century, the United States was the reference in energy innovation: from the first commercial solar cells until The first wind farms. However, since Trump’s arrival, the focus It has been placed again strongly towards fossil fuels. According to The New York TimesWashington has pressed allies such as Japan and South Korea to invest billion dollars in American natural gas infrastructure. At the same time, companies such as General Motors have given clear signs of where the wind blows: the company canceled an electric motion plant near Buffalo (New York) to allocate 888 million dollars To manufacture gasoline V-8 engines. Where asymmetry resides. It is not just two different paths, but in world influence. According to Climate Energy Finance datathe companies of the Asian giant have announced more than 168 billion dollars in foreign investments in clean energy projects: from turbines in Brazil to electric cars in Indonesia, through gigantic solar plants in Saudi Arabia and hydroelectric projects in the Congo. Green energy, for Beijing, is not just a business. It is a soft power tool. A way to gain global land through infrastructure, long -term contracts and own financing. An influence that does not need military bases, but solar panels. In contrast, the United States has cut many of its international energy cooperation programs. Its foreign strategy is more transactional: specific gas, oil or even weapons agreements. But without a structural project that allows you to compete on this new energy board. And this change of roles? Half a century ago, the United States led energy innovation. In 1979, Jimmy Carter He installed solar panels In the White House. Decades later, Barack Obama financed projects like Tesla. But cases Like Solyndra’s failurea solar company that broke after receiving a federal loan, unleashed a conservative narrative against public investment in renewables. China, on the other hand, assumed risks. In the early 2000s, then Prime Minister Wen Jiabao – rare earth geneologist – understood that the country’s economic and geopolitical future went through controlling energy production. Your government invested hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, factories, technical training and innovation. Protected his market, automated manufacturing and dominated access to essential raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and silicon as has developed New York Times. The forecasts. The world is moving towards solar and wind energies, so confirms it The International Energy Agency. The energy demand will continue to grow, but its origin will be different. And that will change the global balance, because whoever leads this new energy matrix will also have a geopolitical, commercial and diplomatic advantage. China is prepared to lead that world. The big question is whether the United States – or any other global actor – is willing to compete with the same strategic vision, patience and scale. Because energy not only moves factories or illuminates cities. Today the global board moves. Image | Unspash Xataka | An explosive ramifications have just opened in the world energy industry: the “Peak Oil” of China

We are sending cannabis samples to space. They will be key to knowing if we can colonize the moon or Mars

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Throughout our short space race we have sent the most diverse things to space: from golf balls up to 2,000 small jellyfish (that returned being 60,000), going through latea piece of the Wright brothers, an electric car, a gorilla costume and a pizza. Today to this peculiar list we have to add about 150 cannabis seeds. The reasons? Strictly scientific. Mayasat-1. That is the name they receive both the mission (Integrated within Mission Possible 2025) as the incubator on board which have traveled seeds, algae and human DNA, among other things. In total, 980 samples of 11 different customers. The incubator has been developed by the Genoplant Research Institute in Slovenia, but who has decided to send cannabis seeds to space has been Martian Grow. Transport-14 | Image: Genoplant Mayasat-1 | Image: Genoplant Three laps. Before addressing the why of cannabis, it is convenient to understand what the mission has consisted, whose duration has been three hours. Mayasat-1 took off on Monday 23 at 23:50 aboard a Falcon 9 from Spacex from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It reached a height of 520 kilometers (120 kilometers more than the International Space Station) and completed three laps around our planet. Specifically, through polar areas. Because? Because at the North and South poles exposure to radiation is very, much higher than that of Ecuador due to the magnetic field. The objectives. There are several, but they can be summarized as follows: Observe the survival of samples to radiation, microgravity and temperatures of space to have an idea of ​​its ability to resist extreme conditions. Investigate possible adaptations, such as genetic or structural changes, which may have occurred in response to the environmental stress factors. Study the possible implications for the cultivation of plants in space or advances in medicine. Serve as proof of concept for the realization of biological experiments in space. And now yes, cannabis. Božidar Radišič leads the initiative Martian Grow and works as a consultant at the Research Nature Institute in Slovenia. In statements collected by WiredRadišič believes that “sooner or later, we will have lunar bases and cannabis, with its versatility, it is the ideal plant to supply those projects.” In his own words, cannabis “can be a source of food, proteins, construction materials, textiles, hemp, plastic and medicines. I don’t think many other plants give us all these things.” But cannabis … Yes, it is associated with a very different recreational use, but its potential as a plant is tremendous. The Cannabis sativa l produces THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound) and CBD (Cannabidiol, has no psychoactive effects), but these are only two of the More than 550 chemical compounds found to date. And although we do not know what effects each and every one of them has, we do know that the plant is surprisingly resistant. Image | Crystalweed Cannabis Hold on what you throw. Cannabis sativa is a plant that resists ultraviolet rays and gamma radiation (in fact, it is used in its industrial production to decontaminate it). It is also extremely versatile, being able to grow both in Mexico and India, Nepal, Netherlands or Afghanistan despite the fact that its origin is in the Himalayas. Nor is it a plant that needs too much water and can be grown in different types of soils. Their ballots to be a successful space crop are, therefore, abundant on paper. And why send seeds to space? We know that radiation and genetic mutation is able to generate new varieties of species with different properties. “So far more than 3,400 new varieties of more than 210 species of plants using genetic variation induced by radiation and improvement by mutations, “they explain from the International Atomic Energy Agency. For Radišič, that is precisely the key: “It’s about finding out if cosmic conditions affect cannabis genetics, and how they do it, and we may only discover it after several generations.” Radiation exposure can cause mutations, not all negative, not all positive. The key is to detect those that can play in favor of humanity. The problem, of course, is that we need more information. Image | Genoplant Further. We have already cultivated lettuce at the International Space Station, Thalian Arabidopsis on lunar soil and Sent seeds to spacebut all radiation exposure has been in low orbit (up to 2,000 kilometers high). The responses to the radiation of a plant at the International Space Station may not be the same as those of a plant on the moon (at 38,400 kilometers away) or on Mars (54.6 million kilometers). One of the projects that seek to explore how plants cultivated on the moon respond is Leafa NASA mission that will travel to our satellite in the mission Artemis III In 2027. Next steps. When the capsule returns, the Božidar Radišič team and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Ljubljana will study the seeds, their possible mutations and adaptations to obtain results and see which compounds have altered and how. “Whether there are changes as if not, both results will be important for the future, so that we know how to grow cannabis in the space environment,” says Radišič to Wired. An important job. Colonizing the moon or Mars is not only a technological challenge, but also logistics. It is not viable to transport food to keep the population of another planet, so it is capital to learn to cultivate in lunar and Martian soils, completely inhospitable and hostile. There have been advances and research with different proposals For many yearsbut there is still no solution that seems perfect. Images | Genoplant In Xataka | We have found a plant capable of producing 40 cannabinoids. A closer plant evolutionarily to lettuce that to hemp

There is a new Xbox on the horizon. Microsoft confirms that it works in new generation hardware and leaves a key advance

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The debate on the future of consoles has not stopped growing. With the rise of the cloud game and the advance of mobile devices, more and more voices wonder if it makes sense to continue betting on consoles as we know them. But Microsoft is clear: Consoles are still key. And not any console, but the one that is called to star in its greatest technical jump to date. Redmond’s company He already advanced it in February 2024. Now has confirmed it: It is working on a new generation of Xbox. And it doesn’t come alone. As announced by Sarah Bond, president of Xbox, the next console will re -support AMD to shape her hardware. The collaboration is not new: both the Xbox Series x like the Xbox Series s They integrate chips designed next to AMD. So does the PlayStation 5. Something that is new is the scope of the alliance. Bond speaks of a “multiannual strategic collaboration” focused on joint silicon development for a “device portfolio, including our next -generation Xbox consoles, both In your living room as in your hands“It is precisely that last sentence,” in your hands “, the one that raises expectation. Microsoft continues to bet on hardware Confirmation comes just after Microsoft announced New Xbox Ally devices in collaboration with Asus. They will arrive at the end of this year with a new Xbox experience integrated in Windows, which will also allow other platforms such as Steam. Everything indicates that Microsoft wants to replicate this approach in its next generation of consoles. One of the great unknowns that overwhelmed this new stage was what would happen to the current game library. Microsoft wanted to clear doubts as soon as possible: the new Xbox generation will be Compatible with previous titles. This has been confirmed by Sarah Bond, who says that the bet not only happens to offer a more powerful console, but also to maintain the continuity of what we already have. Microsoft’s message is not limited to a traditional console. In Bond’s words, it is about building a “game platform that always accompanies you”, regardless of the device. The next Xbox generation is developing with that idea in mind: to offer a coherent experience both in the room and in mobility, from a traditional console to a laptop, through the PC and the cloud. This vision is also reflected in the alliance with AMD, focused on bringing silicon to a new level. The objective: to improve visual quality, enhance immersion and take advantage of artificial intelligence to enrich the game experience. Another of the most striking messages of Microsoft’s intervention has to do with the distribution model. “We want to offer an Xbox experience that is not tied to a single store or a single device,” says Bond. Although there are no concrete details, greater freedom in the choice of platforms is good news for users. Images | Xbox In Xataka | There are possibilities for Switch 2 to spray a PlayStation 4. but Nintendo sales record has to supply the supply

The key to China’s success with rare earths are not the rare earths: it is the magnet

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The response of the Chinese administration to the tariff pressure to which the United States wanted to submit in early April was immediate: significant restrictions on the export of rare earths. A measure that ended up relaxing this week, with the granting of licenses of export for six months. A truce to which the United States accessed by lowering another of the key elements in this commercial war: The admission of Chinese students in American universities. These are one of the most important pieces of the geopolitical board: they are scarce chemical elements, difficult to extract and refine, and a key resource For the technological, automotive and energy industry, among many others. China is controlling access to these elements to defend their interests, but the key is not just to isolate its rivals of this precious material: is in the disability outside China to take advantage of them. China is the fundamental piece in its prosecuted. China controls rare earth production by 70% and 90% processing them. In the case of heavy strange earth, a subgroup of them even more scarce, their participation in the refining is 99%. According to the newspaper The New York TimesChina has up to 39 university programs so that its students can train and develop their career in the chemical industry specializing in this field. It is just a sample of the importance it has for the country led by Xi Jinping to continue controlling this geopolitical weapon. This graph is the best visual test of China’s domain in rare earths. The access toll. Although the focus on how they are affecting the restrictions on the export of rare earths to the supply chain is currently, there is a key that has gone unnoticed: the real problem is not access, it is the difficulty of working even in the case of obtaining them. When the Ministry of Commerce of China and the General Administration of Customs They imposed access controls for the export of medium and heavy rare earthsthe supply chain staggered. From their entry into force, all exporters were obliged to obtain specific licenses for each shipment, even if they are products in which they have already been refined, such as magnets. Why touch the rest. These licenses are a complex bureaucratic process, slow and studied case by case. Although the primary political objective is the United States, European companies that need heavy land (or materials manufactured with them, such as magnets), are seeing supply interruptions. Suzuki has already arrested swift production in Japan Due to the scarcity of pieces, Musk You are having trouble building your robots and, in Europe, the secretary general of CLA (European Association of Automation Suppliers) made an urgent call: production is entering the paralysis phase. “With a deeply interconnected global supply chain, China’s export restrictions are already paralyzing production in the European supplier sector.” The magnet as geopolitical treasure. William Huo, ex-intel and one of the most prominent figures in the critical analysis of Western industrial policy, summarizes it in the best possible way: West has been focusing on optimizing spreadsheets instead of factories, And now he is not able to manufacture a single magnet. The industry depends on the Chinese refining of rare earths to manufacture high performance magnets. Without them, there is no competitiveness in electric cars, defense, nuclear or consumer technology. The rest is not prepared to refine rare earths. “Middle East has oil. China has rare earths.” They are words of Den Xiaoping in 1992, who was the top leader of the People’s Republic of China. The country has been acquiring the necessary knowledge to extract and refine these materials, while the rest of the world enjoyed a comfortable (and economic) dependence. West has tried to self -abuse with at least 10% of the remaining rare lands. Countries like Norway and Sweden are finding new deposits, and have confirmed the intention of exploiting them not beyond 2030. None of this is enough. Refining is the main bottleneck for the use of rare earths in industry, an expensive, sensitive process and with complex waste management. In Xataka | China has built the most elegant economic power lever in modern history: rare earths

An American physicist has found a shortcut to get to Mars in 90 days. It is key to surviving radiation

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The long flight will be One of the many risks that astronauts who travel to Mars in front. SIX TO NINE MONTHS Broken the safe radiation limit that NASA establishes as acceptable: 600 msv. The problem would be forgotten if you could get to Mars in just 90 days. And you can with current technology, according to recent research. Conventional chemistry, record times. The physicist Jack Kingdon, a researcher at the University of California, has published in the magazine Scientific Reports A proposal that breaks with the provisions of trips to Mars. Normally, a flight to the red planet requires between six and nine months, which raises multitude of challenges for exposure to radiation. With Kingdon’s trajectory, 90 days per path would suffice. The most surprising thing is that their calculations are based on the classic method to optimize interplanetary trajectories (Lambert’s problem) and do not depend on futuristic engines, but on a current chemical rocket: the Spacex starship. Two crew and four loading ships. The proposal is a monumental scale. The mission to Mars would require six ships: two crew and four loads that would travel separately. To put them on the route, they would take about 45 Starship pitches within two to three weeks, a rhythm that, although ambitious, fits with Spacex’s plans to massively climb their operations. A gas station in space. The real logistics challenge would occur in the low terrestrial orbit. There, a starship-cistern fleet (ships dedicated exclusively to transport fuel) would perform a complex dancing of reposses: The two manned starship would need about 15 reposses each to load the 1,500 tons of propellant that will allow them to take the rapid trajectory. The four load starship, aimed at carrying the equipment and supplies, would receive only four reposses each and would be sent to Mars in a slower and lower energy consumption trajectory. The shortcut. Once full of methane and liquid oxygen, the two crew ships would turn on their engines to escape the earth’s orbit. They would cover a high -energy Lambert type trajectory required by an ΔV ≈ 4.6 km/s, which translates into a 90 -day flight time. Just before being captured by the severity of Mars, the ships would make a key ignition to stop, reducing their input speed of about 9.7 km/sa about 6.8 km/s. The Martian atmosphere would be in charge of dissipating the rest of the energy by aerocapture, a maneuver in which the ship “brushes” the atmosphere to stop without spending fuel. Finally, a brief ignition of the engines would allow a propulsive landing on the surface. The study demonstrates that this scheme is mathematically possible for the 2035 launch window, but it depends on Spacex dominating two critical technologies: the cryogenic orbital refueling on a large scale and hyperbolic aerocapture. And the return? An even more complex plan. If the idea is to return, the mission becomes much bold. First, a fuel production plant should be established on Mars (As Sabatier reactors) to manufacture methane and oxygen from CO₂ and the ice of the planet. The return plan implies that the manned ship take off from the surface of Mars and entered orbit. There, the load ships, which arrived previously, would also take off to act as cisterns in the Martian orbit, transferring all the necessary fuel to the manned ship for its 90 -day trip back to the earth. Not everyone shares optimism. The study identifies a viable return window in 2037. However, not everyone shares optimism. The own Paper recognizes that his proposal collides with the vision of agencies such as NASA, which has historically shown preference for nuclear propulsion For fast missions to Mars, a technology that, according to the author of the study, still has a low maturity and great regulatory obstacles. All this, of course, whenever the goal is to return. Recall that Elon Musk’s idea is to send robots first and then volunteers to build a self -sufficient city on the red planet. Image | Spacex In Xataka | All the technical challenges that we must solve if we want to achieve the greatest feat of the human being: get to Mars

This map distributes the “heart” of Europe over the Iberian Peninsula. And reveals the key to the success of the region

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Maps are useful, fascinating and sometimes almost almost An art form. However, they do not always allow us to understand real dimensions and distances well. Especially when we talk about broad territories. A map published in Urbanity.one (and shared by Madrid projects) With a peculiar approach: its author has taken some of the main cities of Central Europe, the metropolis of the one known as “Blue Banana”and has distributed them on a plane of the Iberian Peninsula respecting The real distances. The result reminds us of two things. The first, the considerable size That has Spain. The second, how close the cities of Central Europe, a crucial factor to understand the history and economic development of the region. As a picture is worth more than a thousand words, at the end of the 1980s the Geographer Roger Brunet decided to invent A visual metaphor to refer to the most populous and urbanized region in Europe. He called her The “Blue Banana”. Maybe it sounds strange, but it makes enough sense when a map is taken. If the cities of the European industrial axis are connected, covering from England to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and northern Italy, that is: the drawing of A huge banana Located more or less between Manchester, Munich, Zurich and Rome. How big is that “Banana” imaginary? The first response to mind is obvious: very much, right? In Madrid it projects They have shared However, a map that helps to understand that this abstract axis is actually much smaller than what intuition suggests. At least if we compare it with Spain. The reason is very simple. Its author has selected the metropolis that are distributed by that theoretical axis that structures Europe Central and has arranged them on a map of the Iberian Peninsula respecting the real distances between them. The result It shows that Cambridge would be more or less where Vigo is, Rotterdam would stay up to Valladolid, Bremen in Pamplona, ​​Stuttgart almost where Alicante is and Paris would more or less occupy the place of Badajoz. In the center of the Peninsula, in Madrid, it would be located (kilometer up, kilometer down) Düsseldorf and the Barcelona space would occupy by Linz, an Austrian city. The cast may be striking, but it arrives with pulling Google Maps and its measurement tool for Check the distances. Between London and Paris there are about 340 km in a straight line, just under those that separate Madrid and Granada. If we pull a straight line from Rome to Munich would measure approximately 700 kilometers, a little less than Barcelona to Córdoba. Comparisons are interesting for several reasons. The main one is that they remind us The great size of Spain. The Iberian Peninsula measures just over 583,000 km2 and Spain occupies approximately 505,000taking into account the 12,500 km2 of island surface. That makes our country one of the most extensive of the community club, together with France and Sweden and Germany. A wide disposition of land is both an opportunity and a challenge in aspects as a distribution of the population or provision of services. The other great conclusion left by the map Shared by Madrid projects It is the close thing that are actually the Central European metropolis and their main industrial poles, population centers and strategic axes of political decision -making, a proximity that has influenced the development and integration of Europe. Images | Urbanity.one and Madrid projects (x) In Xataka | The demographic debacle in Europe, exposed on this map with a misleading guest: Monaco

Even so, he is going better than expected, and the key is in user pocket

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There are companies that appear everywhere, which have millions of users, which seem unbeatable. But behind that dazzling popular there is a fact that is often overlooked: They are not profitable. Some have been growing at full speed without ever generating benefits. Openai is one of those cases. His name is on everyone’s lips since Chatgpt He went into the world in 2022. But the truth is that, economically, he is still far from quading the accounts. Spend much more than you enter. And it will not be profitable for several years, if they are fulfilled Your own calculations. The paradox of success that does not give benefits OpenAi is everywhere. And chatgpt too. In just over two years it has gone from being a technical rarity to get into mobiles, computers and conversations. But that something sounds a lot It does not mean that it gives money. In fact, the accounts are still in red. Because the phenomenon is real, yes. But so is the expense. Training increasingly large models, keeping servers working and hiring talent is not cheap. According to The InformationOpenai would have lost about 5,000 million dollars in 2024. And this year the thing does not look much better. It is not a unique case. Spotify was founded in 2006 and It took twelve years to see benefits for the first time. Twelve. And only in 2024 managed to close A full year in positive. Have millions of users It does not guarantee May a company be profitable. Openai does not seem to be close to balance, but there is an important difference compared to a year ago. According to Financial Timesyour subscription income has shot. It has gone from generating $ 5.5 billion to approach 10,000. Half of that money comes from users who pay for chatgpt. Telegram’s case also helps put things in perspective. The application was born in 2013 and for more than a decade operated without generating benefits. Only in 2024, after exceeding 900 million users, Finally reached profitability. It took eleven years. Openai aims to follow the same path, but at another pace. The company already has told its investors that does not expect to be profitable before 2029. And for that to happen, it needs a very concrete figure: reach 125,000 million dollars in annual income. The company has already told its investors that it does not expect to be profitable before 2029. It is an ambitious objective, especially if we take into account that today is around 10,000 million. For multiply by more than ten Its turnover, OpenAi not only trusts that more users subscribe to Chatgpt, but that much of their income is related to their API. When we talk about the API we are referring to the system that allows you to integrate OpenAI models into third -party applications. Companies of all kinds, from banking to health, which can use various models of the company, such as GPT-4.1, to improve their benefits. Another important source, According to The Informationthey would be the calls Artificial Intelligence Agentsmore sophisticated tools that not only answer questions, but do complex tasks autonomously. Openai wants this to become its great premium product. It should be noted that many of the great technology (Microsoft, Google, Tesla) quote on the stock market and publish each quarter accounts. That forces to generate official reports, audited data and financial transparency. Things are different in the startup led by Sam Altman. OpenAi does not quote on a stock market and adopts a hybrid model: a non -profit entity (Openai, Inc.) controls a subsidiary with limited profittoday in the process of becoming in a public benefit corporation to capture greater investments than those received. Not being obliged to publicly audit your commercial accounts, OpenAi does not publish official figures. There are no quarterly reports of income, costs or losses. This is usual in many US private companies, which have greater financial confidentiality. Therefore, when we talk about current Openai numbers, we do it supporting ourselves in leaks, in Media estimates such as The Information or in data that the company itself shares selectively with investors. There are no periodic official reports, because they do not exist. There is no doubt that Openai has achieved something huge: he has put generative artificial intelligence in everyone’s mouth. But that does not guarantee income, much less benefits. Touch to wait to know if the company will meet its goals. For now, it seems to be on the right track. Images | Techcrunch (CC by 2.0) | Giorgio Trovato In Xataka | Apple is following the same pattern as Microsoft with the Internet in the 90s: Integration not exempt from risk

the 15,000 ninja companies that dominate key niches without anyone knowing them

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China not only manufactures giants such as Alibaba, Tencent or Tiktok. He has built meticulously An army of 14,600 “small giants” that dominate fundamental industrial sectors, but without making noise. Why is it important. While in the West we follow the track of BydXiaomi, Bytedance or Huaweithese specialized SMEs are those that control the pieces of the industrial puzzle. Sensors, aerospace components, specialized semiconductors: the niches where technological supremacy is really won or lost. The context. He “Little Giants” program He was born in 2015 as part of “Made in China 2025“Its objective: push highly specialized medium -sized companies to develop competitive advantages in specific sectors. A surgical model against the model of large state companies. There are 15,000 “small giants” with official certification. Almost 90% are in the manufacturing sector. More than 80% focus on emerging strategic industries such as integrated, robotic or aerospace circuits. And almost 5,000 work in AI AND CLEAN ENERGIES. That is happening. Each “little giant” receives state support to dominate a specific niche. Submarine cables, superconductor materials, quantum sensors, satellite systems … technologies that seem lower but vital for global supply chains. And for Chinese military development. Some examples: Leaderdrive: Specialized in precision harmonic reducing. Endovtec: Develop advanced endovascular devices. Phabuilder: Biotechnology to produce industrial materials. Acoinfo: Develop real -time industrial operating systems. Guizhou Anda: Battery materials, supplies Catl and Byd. WELION: solid state batteries of high energy density. JIASHIDA Robot: Domestic cleaning robots. It is no accident that The United States has already included many of these companies in their blacklist. They are the real threat: not the brands that anyone knows, but those that manufacture the components that make the world work. This “unique champions” strategy makes medium -sized companies practically monopolies into ultra -specialized sectors. Result: If you need a certain type of semiconductor or components, you have no alternative. And that company is subsidized, protected and backed by the Communist Party. Outstanding image | Acoinfo In Xataka | China has an ambitious plan to overcome the West in Technology. And he has already chosen his 18 companies to get it

The mobile industry has been desperate for years to improve its cameras. Honor believes having found the key

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A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to try the Honor 400 Pro. It is a mid-high-end phone with the focus on mobile photography. So far, there is nothing especially surprising. But if I tell you that this phone sets the bases of a Honor who does not believe that the future of photography is in the hardwarebut in cloud computing, things may change. In Xataka we have been able to talk to Luo Wei, Chief Imaging Architect of Honor. He is the one in charge of leading the photography part, applied to it and super zoom in honor, and ex-huawei. And someone who is clear that to win the smartphone career you have to win the AI ​​race. If marketing sounds like you can be calm. It is not, it is the vision of the future of a giant who aspires to conquer Europe. Honor wants to lead in Europe, and wants to do it with ia To understand why AI for honor in phones is so important and not misunderstand it as a marketing exercise, it is necessary to know the relevance that the company has with its Alpha plan. In March 2025, the company revealed a investment of 10,000 million dollars In five years to promote artificial intelligence on their devices and display your first AI agent, in association with Qualcomm and Google. The objective is clear: lead the AI ​​agents in the mobile ecosystem and be the main reference in this race. At the moment, he will do it hand in hand with these two partners in Europe. Honor has different strategies for China and Europe. In our territory, Google Cloud is the main partner It is also relevant to understand that this plan has a lot to do with The position of honor in Europe and how it aspires to conquer our market, more than a proposal centered purely on your native country. With counterpoint data in your hand, Honor is the brand that grows most in shipments in Europe in an interannual wayand wants to continue pushing leading the functions of AI. In China, its AI approach is different, deeper and more local. There the partner is not Google Cloud, they are national giants like Alibaba (Qwen + Wanxiang), Baidu and Tencent Clouddeepening much more in your Yoyo assistant and hand with Depseek. All of AI One of the pillars of this plan, in addition to the creation of the first agriculture for smartphones, is Aimage. Landing the term to the tangible: the high -end phones of honor process the photographs in the cloud to “improve them”. And about this there are many questions. The first is why. Here Luo Wei states that, historically, Mobile photography has been limited by hardware. A limitation that according to Honor can only be overcome using cloud computing, especially for tasks such as image restoration, provide movement (turn into short video) static images or improvements in the zoom. Being more concrete, 12,500 million processable parameters for its cloud model vs. 3,000 million parameters with which current hardware can deal. Adding to this point the possibility that stresses honor of updating its algorithms via Ota. It’s something we have talked about in Xataka: We have been watching a stagnant industry at the photographic level and with a clear physical limit when improving your hardware. Currently, there are no larger sensors. The second point is in the democratization of functions such as Super Zoom (Zoom improved with AI) on devices beyond its flagship. Creating a cloud platform from which you can drink lower ranges models allows you to honor an experience similar to that of a high range in cheaper models. “The algorithms have been increasingly improving since December last year, when this function had just left. And if you compare the future with what is now, five months later, you can see that the cloud -based algorithm is updated every two weeks is becoming remarkably more real.” For honor it is also especially important The improvement margin through updates that allows AI. Honor takes it seriously: they update it every two weeks. The key here is not alone in time, it is in how. System updates can be installed or not, depend on storage space and hardware requirements. Luo says that, using the cloud, they could update the algorithm daily if they wanted and access to it would be immediate. The second great unknown has to do with profitability. Using Google’s cloud sounds good, But someone has to pay it. Here is surprising the transparency of Luo, who explains that honor is still debating what the business model will be and if they will end up charging users or not to use these services in the cloud. Here, Luo explains that honor does not pay for users or requests, but for QPS (consultations per second). In other words, for the ability of users to access the cloud service, and thus their costs do not depend on user behavior. It is, currently, its way of making this business sustainable, although it makes it clear that it is something that is being worked on and discussing internally. Betting everything to the cloud brings an inevitable question, What happens to the privacy of users. Honor explains that its AI cannot be used without prior consent of the user (it appears from the configuration assistant), and secondly, that all photographs that are uploaded to the cloud to be processed are eliminated after being treated. On the future of photography, Luo closes with a metaphor. At the beginning of the history of automotive, the gearbox was manual. Subsequently, it went to automatic changes and, today, We are already talking about autonomous driving. And yet, we still need drivers. For honor, the AI ​​will allow any user, regardless of their degree of skill, obtain the best photograph in any scenario. For expert users, it will be a co-pilot in editing functions, elimination of elements and post-foto work. Image | Honor In Xataka | … Read more

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have shared the same key to be successful: choose what to focus on

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Bill Gates’ father brought together several people, among whom He was Warren Buffett, and asked what it was, in a word, The secret of his success. Both Microsoft’s founding millionaire and his good friend Buffett responded exactly the same: focus “You must focus. Eliminate distractions. Commit with only one thing and become excellent in it. “These are some of the advice that insistently repeat many productivity experts, such as the author of ‘Atomic habits‘, James Clear. This idea sounds logical. However, the big question for those who read those advice is How to know what to focus your energies. Experience before choosing How to know what to dedicate your attention and energy if you don’t know what really interests you? That is one of the questions you must answer before asking yourself What to focus on. Before deciding on what to concentrate your energy, it is necessary to try different paths. As Clear tells In your personal experienceDuring his first year as an entrepreneur he made many mistakes: “I launched my first product without having an idea who would sell it (big surprise, nobody bought it).” Therefore, your recommendation is Do not get obsessed with a single idea will work. It is necessary to try between four and five different alternatives for a while and, if it does not convince you, go to the next. This approach to “try things until something is easy” is essential because, regardless of the objective, it must adapt to your nature and skills. If you are looking to be more productive, experience with several Organization techniques. However good they are and no matter how much they work To people in your environment, you may not adapt to your way of working, To your biorhythms or your way of processing the information. Simply stop committing you to work with you and try Another different technique. The same happens if your goal is to start exercising, prove different sports. Maybe the Running Don’t be yours And it seems bored, and what you really enjoy is yoga or paddle. As the author of the Best seller on productivitythe important thing is not to obtain that a single option must work at all costs. Leaving behind what does not fit with you will allow you to discover what best suits your personality and lifestyle. Choose and Persevear: Invisible work Once you have experienced enough to discover what fits you and what is not, it is time to decide What are you going to focus on. As Clear explains, there comes a time in the process in which you don’t need more information, you just need to make a decision. This is one of the most difficult moments, because it implies putting aside the constant search and commit yourself to a single option. It’s time to focus. From here, perseverance becomes fundamental. Real progress It is not usually visible at the beginning. For example, you must be aware that, if you start going to the gym, you will have to do thousands of repetitions before noticing physical changes. If you want to be a great chef, you will first have to cook many mediocre (or bad) dishes. As Ira Glass pointed outfounder of the podcast This American Life“Your taste is good enough to notice that what you do disappoints you.” That is, only through repetition and constant learning the basis of success for a project, regardless of its nature, begin to lay. It doesn’t matter if it’s about Study oppositionsimprove your productivity, read more either Acquire new habits healthy The practice and art of simplifying Excellence is achieved with constant practice. After going through the phases of experimentation and hard work, the time comes when you can start simplifying. James Clear summarize it like this: “Only after completing the repetitions you will understand which parts of the task are fundamental for success.” It is then, when You have created a solid systemWhen you can Cut processesbetter choose your tools and eliminate what does not provide value. Getting something simple is, paradoxically, the most difficult. As wrote Blaise Pascal: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” True mastery consists in knowing exactly What is essential and what is accessorysomething that is only achieved after a lot of practice and learning. Each person has their own rhythm, but the path to simplicity and approach inevitably happens through experience and perseverance. In Xataka | Lack of motivation is a problem for productivity. The trick to avoid it is simple according to science: start Image | Unspash (Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov), Flickr (Fortune Live Media, World Bank Photo Collection)

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