a record submarine tunnel with the largest diameter in the world and a colossal machine to drill it

In the city of Jinan, just over four and a half hours by Beijing’s car, China Railway 14th Bureau Group It is leading the construction of the higher diameter submarine tunnel. When the work is finished, residents and visitors of The capital of Shandong They will be able to move from one side of the Yellow River to another through a two -level road with six lanes in total. But before this happens, workers must complete the drilling tasks they started months ago. Behind this project is a huge tunnelador baptized as “Shanhe” of 163 meters, with a diameter of 17.5 meters and a weight of 5,200 tons. This sophisticated engineering piece left the mounting line in May 2024 and began to function and the aforementioned work in September last year. As Xinhua collectsevery two meters a dozen segments are assembled to form a support ring that separates groundwater, two meters are drilled and the task is repeated. A tunnel to better connect the city of Jinan As the cutting head progresses, several members of the work control parameters such as the movement of the pieces, the advance of the cylinder and the mud level. The machine also needs constant maintenance tasks and even repairs. In this case, specialists direct an army of workers who manipulate hydraulic mechanisms, water pipes and tools for the work to be at the end of this year. “Shanhe” has advanced around 15 meters per day and has exceeded 1,000 meters perforated. This powerful machine has 306 cutters of different types of teeth, designed for higher cutting yield. In addition, it incorporates advanced technology such as a pressurized compound head, main telescopic drive and a telescopic chamber for the excavation tank. But that’s not all. It is also equipped with advanced geological forecast, gas environment monitoring, tool wear detection, synchronous grout detection and an auxiliary support system. China Daily highlights a very interesting fact: 7 out of 10 tunneladoras sold in the world are Chinese, and within the country, 95% of these machines are also of national manufacture. China leads this sector, as also occurs in port infrastructure and Batteries for electric vehicles. With little competition, local production marks the rhythm and consolidates its position in strategic industries, reflecting a strong commitment to self -sufficiency and technological domain in key areas that goes beyond its borders. Images | Xinhua In Xataka | Saudi Arabia is waste so much money in The Line that has entered deficit

Philips was the second largest chips manufacturer on the planet. Now it is out of a market led by its creation: ASML

What we have promised you in the head of this article is strictly true. As Marc Hijink explains in his highly recommended and fresh out of the oven ‘Focus: The Asml Way’during the decade of the 70s of the last century Philips was the second largest manufacturer of semiconductors of the world. The leader in this market at that time was the American company Texas Instrumentsbut the Dutch firm had a long career in the field of innovation and technological development. In the early 70th Philips had more than 400,000 employees, and approximately 90,000 worked in the Netherlands. At that time his business was mainly held on The design and manufacture of televisionsradios, medical equipment, appliances and lighting solutions. His Porfolio was not but that nothing wrong, although his true strength was that absolutely everything was designed and manufactured within Philips. Today this strategy would be impracticable. Anyway, if we stick to the production of integrated circuits, the interesting thing is that the lithography equipment used at that time had also been devised and manufactured by engineers of the company itself. In fact, its first flirting with the semiconductors dates back to the late 50s of the last century. At that time the Philips Board of Directors realized of the enormous potential the chips had And he decided to create several research centers, as well as collaborate with technological universities and laboratories. ASML is the result of an inspired alliance During the decades of the 60s and 70th Philips was already a great technological emporium. In the early 80s he had acquired a lot of experience in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, but the industry sued smaller and capable chips. These requirements represented a technical challenge for company engineers who were responsible for the design of photolithography equipment, so in 1984 the Philips directive dome made a very important decision: he decided to associate with the Dutch company ASM International (Advanced material semiconductor). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the UVP or ASML UVE machines The purpose of this alliance was to take advantage of Philips’s extensive experience in the set -up Design and manufacture avant -garde photolithographic equipment. The result of this collaboration was the birth of ASML (Advanced Materials Semiconductor), the Dutch company that leads the production industry of these machines thanks to the enormous success that their teams have had extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the machines of deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP) or extreme ultraviolet asml. Some of them are TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron Technology, SMIC or UMC. However, once we have reached this moment it is reasonable that we ask ourselves why Philips is no longer a relevant actor in the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. In ‘Focus: The Asml Way’Marc Hijink tells us that after the creation of Asml Philips he settled. Its chips factories lost competitiveness and little by little they ceased to be able to develop the semiconductors required by the market. Jon Yu, the person in charge of the Newsletter The Asianometrysuggests essentially the same During the conversation who has maintained with Ben Thompson, the author of the interesting publication Stratechery. “As they count on ASML, Philips failed. It was a company with Too much bureaucracy and too much clinging to their customs. It is something similar to what happened with the Japanese in the 90s. Philips had already fulfilled his cycle and deserved to conclude, although he apparently sold his participations too soon. “It is a pity. And it is because there is no doubt that in the Current situation to Europe would have two leading companies in semiconductors. * Some price may have changed from the last review Image | ASML BIBLIOGRAPHY | ‘Focus: The Asml Way’by Marc Hijink More information | The Asianometry In Xataka | 2024 has been a year full of uncertainty for chip designers. So much that the market has changed leader

The world’s largest elevator has more space than many floors in Tokyo

The skyscrapers have obsessed us for centuries. There are plenty of examples like The Italian Manhattan almost 1,000 years ago, Manhattan herselfthe Burred that rose in China or what is erecting in Dubai. Whenever the construction of a new skyscraper is announced, something that comes to mind is: and the elevators … what? They are elements that can go unnoticed, but that is something that does not happen to huge elevator of the Jio World Center tower. Not only is it the largest elevator in the world, but it has the small floor size and capacity for more inhabitants than many PEOPLES OF SPAIN EMPTY. But it is not the only hyperascensor that attracts attention. A bus without wheels. This elevator has no its own name, but, definitely, it deserves it. Created by the Finnish company Kone, the Jio World Center elevator in Mumbai has the capacity to house up to 235 people simultaneously. It is an absolute barbarity that has been designed to offer a transport as comfortable as possible for those who use it. Not only does the decoration attract attention, with large windows and a sophisticated roof with design lamps, but it has its own ventilation system so that the route is as pleasant as possible even at maximum load. The elevator floor also has a very careful pattern and we only miss the occasional sofa to rest. Space is left over, of course. Huge. Because the dimensions are recorded, with its weight of 16 tons and its surface of 25.78 m². It has several access doors to expedite the flow of users and the windows serve to have passengers have a panoramic view of both the convention center in which it is located and its gardens. It only operates on five floors, but that does not make this elevator a real monstrosity. If you are wondering how the security measures, those responsible announced that the system is supported by 18 pulleys and the cabin moves on rails fixed in steel columns. The goal is for transportation to be as comfortable as possible, without accelerons or brakes. And all this is remotely monitored to avoid dislikes. Your building is not far behind. The elevator is colossal, but its building is no less. He Jio World Center It is a space dedicated to great conventions. It is the largest in India and its exterior and interior design has no waste. Is not the only one. Now, one thing must be clarified: that of the Jio World Center is the largest elevator for people in the world both by weight and charging capacity, but there is a set that has nothing to envy: that of the office building UMEDA JANKYU In Osaka, Japan. Installed in 2010, these are five elevators of about 18 square meters with capacity for 80 people each. Built by Mitsubishi, these elevators have more merit by having more work than that of the Indian Convention Center and transporting almost 400 simultaneous people through 15 plants. The Bailong China, of course. But if you suspected that China, With its mega -structuresI would not have a hyperascensor in any of them, you are right. In fact, it has two. One of them, the Bailongan elevator that runs a height of 326 meters outdoors with capacity for 50 people at the same time and a speed of overwhelming three meters per second. There are three double -floor elevators that operate simultaneously and were inaugurated in 2002. Their views are imposing, since they are next to a cliff. And if we go to the industrialists… just as imposing, due to its capacity, it is the ship’s elevator of the three throats, also in China. It is an elevator that facilitates River traffic on the Yangtsé River and has a load capacity of up to 3,000 tons. Its platform is 120 meters long, 18 wide and 3.5 meters deep. It is a demential structure that raises the ships at a height of 113 meters, an operation that has between 30 and 40 minutes and that, although it seems a lot, is much faster than the traditional system of locks to pass ships from one side to another. Images | KoneJio World Center, NYX NO In Xataka | The B face of the New York skyscrapers: more than 600 kilometers of permanent scaffolds that form bonds of terror

The largest campus in Europe will arrive with an investment Emiratí multimillionaire

If they ask us what place in the world concentrates the largest number of companies from Artificial Intelligence (AI) known, the most obvious response would be the United States. The North American country is the home of OpenAi, Microsoft, Google, goal, among others. Europe, on the other hand, does not have such recognizable names in the sector. And it is no accident: if the continent wants to compete from you to you with its main rivals, including the thriving Chinese marketyou need to bet more strongly for this industry. Along these lines, some governments are already implementing certain initiatives. At the community level, Brussels has announced an investment of 52 million eurosSpain has laid the foundations for an “public and open” With a strategic planand France wants to lead with the largest IA campus in Europe From the hand of the United Arab Emirates. The latter has been released recently by both governments and promises to arrive accompanied by a multi -million dollar investment. Betting on artificial intelligence France aspires to play a leading role in the rise of algorithms. This week, Paris was the epicenter of a World Summit on AIwhere experts from around the world entered the threats and promises of this technology. Within the framework of this event, President Emmanuel Macron and Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of the United Arab Emirates, They witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement between their countriesa pact that promises to enhance the development of joint projects. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed al Nahyan, leader of the United Arab Emirates (up to the left), Emmanuel Macron, president of France (above right) As the Emirates news agency collectsthe alliance includes an investment by the nation rich in oil in France, as well as “the acquisition of avant -garde chips, the infrastructure of data centers and the talent development, and by establishing virtual data embassies to allow Sovereign AI and cloud infrastructure in both countries. ” The French government, meanwhile, has pointed out that the initiative contemplates the construction of a huge data center. Its exact location has not yet been revealed, but what is known is that it will be a 1 Gigavatio installation within a largest IA campus in Europe. This ambitious project, with an estimated investment of between 30,000 and 50,000 million euroswill be led by a Franco-Emirati consortium, with the MGX investment fund, backed by United Arab Emirates. We will have to wait to see how this initiative develops and if it manages to reinforce the position of the European country, home of companies such as Mistral AI, in an increasingly competitive sector. Images | Emmanuel Macron in X | Zayed al Nahyan in X | Xataka with Grok In Xataka | Companies that violate the AI ​​law will have a very fat problem: one called 7% of their income

China has placed the largest engineering work projected at 36,000 km from the Earth: its space solar station

We are still far from build a dyson spherebut China seems willing to materialize The first great Solar Energy Station in orbit With the Earth, a simpler version of the concept that, even so, NASA scientists discarded in the 70-80 for being economically unfeasible. Times have changed and the world is in full energy transition to renewable sources. China, who has no shame when copying advances from other nations, provided they serve their purposes, work at the same time in Your own Starship: A totally reusable giant rocket called CZ-9. Uniting points, the Chinese Engineering Academy (CAE) wants to take advantage of the future rocket To install a huge solar plant in space, 36,000 km on the earth. 10 years ago, when China announced that it would investigate the space solar energy stations, everyone seemed to be a theoretical study or one more concept proof, such as those that continue to develop Today in NASAthe Jaxa Japanese agency and The European Space Agency (THAT). However, Chinese officials have put An ambitious roadmap on the table that has caught the rest of the countries totally off guard. The first prototype of the Chinese space center, 500 kW of power, is expected by 2030. A fully operational version of 20 MW would be ready in 2035 (while the station in its final form, of 2 GW, is scheduled for 2050. It is not a small thing for a technology that has never been implemented, much less on a large scale. It will presumably require hundreds of launches and the assembly of thousands of solar panels in geostation orbit, 36,000 km altitude, where the profitability of launching tons and tons of load will depend on the fact that the CZ-9 rocket be fully reusable, as the Chinese promise. Long Lehao, a rocket scientist in the fall, did not lack symiles to justify this huge media deployment. “It is a project as important as transferring the prey of the three throats to a geostationary orbit He said during a conference in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Of course, they will have to put small demonstrators in orbit of what will end up being the Space Solar Station. China has already tested From hot air balloonsand is building a receiving station in Chongqing. By 2026, the Chinese Space Technology Academy (CASC) plans to display its first 10 kW solar panels in space with the aim of demonstrating wireless energy transmission. He hopes to transmit up to 1 kW by laser and up to 4 kW by microwave, both to the receptor station on Earth and a nearby satellite, which suggests a future in which satellite constellations could be combined with the solar station. How will the solar station that China plans to install in space Little is known at the technical level of what the first farm of solar panels will be deploy in geostationary orbitsince no project has been officially selected. But Eureka List three concepts, out of different Chinese laboratories, which have enough ballots: In 2014, the Chinese Space Technology Academy (CASC) proposed a 11.8 km long station with a circular transmission antenna of 1 km in diameter; In 2021, the concept was updated with a modular design, easier to assemble, but with the disadvantage of a rectangular beam That same year, the Xidian University published a study on a spherical station with a diameter of 8 to 10 km and a system that would take advantage of semi -reflective panels to concentrate light on internal photovoltaic cells In 2016, the Shenyang Aerospace University proposed a similar concept that, instead of a spherical design, has a cylindrical design that refracts sunlight towards internal photovoltaic panels, a design that simplifies the monitoring of the sun What these concepts have in common is that they rotate like sunflowers to always point towards the sun, so their huge solar panels capture an inexhaustible flow of solar energy that then transmit to the earth. How do they transmit it? Concentrating a laser or microwave beam towards large antennas in receiving stations on Earth, where it becomes electricity to store in batteries or pour into the electricity grid. The wireless transfer takes advantage of a physical phenomenon known as interference or overlap of waves. It is usually explained by visualizing a pond in which you submerge both hands to form waves that spread at the same time. There are areas where waves are stronger because they advance together (they add up to the phase) and others in which they are canceled (they are out of phase). When waves work together, energy is not lost, but is concentrated in a specific direction. If there are several sources operating in a coordinated manner (all issuing at the same time, in the same phase) the energy can be directed in one direction. But if each source works a little earlier or a little after the others, the direction of the beam can be controlled. As a magnifying glass that concentrates the light at one point, it is possible to adjust the synchronization of these sources to focus energy in an area smaller than the original (such as the antenna on the surface of the earth). This correction can be carried out on the Nanoseconds of Electronics scale, which allows the energy direction to be handled very quickly or assigned to different locations (different antennas). In geostationary orbit, solar panels can be operated all the time and with conversion efficiencies superior to those that the panels achieve on this side of the atmosphere, hence the advantage of a photovoltaic station in space. However, the complexity of its deployment and doubts about the safety and efficiency of wireless transmission make all this technology still without being tested since studying in the 70s and 80s. China aspires to lead the new space solar energy career, as leading the earth’s photovoltaic energy, but will not be alone. Japan became 2015 In the first country that managed to transmit 1,8 kW in microwave wirelessly. … Read more

If the question is who wants to build the world’s largest data center, the answer is surprising: India

The data centers is the new gold fever of technology. That Mukesh Ambani, the founding billionaire of the company Reliance Group. His intention is to go beyond what the great American technological ones promise and build in India the largest data center worldwide. 3 GW. That is the energy capacity that Ambani projects for a new data center that wants to build in Jamnagar. This is stated by sources close to the project In Bloomberg. Akash Abani, CEO and son of the founder, said in a recent statement that they were building a data center in less than two years “as we have always done in – in 24 months.” An irreverent figure. At present, the largest mute data centers are below 1 GW of energy capacity, as indicated in Bloomberg with data from the DC Byte consultant. In visual capitalist They showed a year ago the largest data centers in the world. To be able to compare with the Indian project, a fact: all AWS data centers in the Northern Virginia region, in the US, about 300, add a total of 2.5 GW, when one in India could have more energy capacity that all those United centers. Amazing. The most capacity data center in the world is currently from Microsoft in Boydton, Virginia, with almost 600 MW of energy capacity. The more energy, the better. Data centers are usually measured by the energy they can provide to their servers, their cooling systems and the rest of the equipment of these facilities. The larger the figure, the more computing capacity, and here the AI ​​models have created a career to build more and larger data centers. Ambani for all. The tycoon is known for his aggressive tactics to have his rivals with price wars that few can sustain. It happened in the mobile segment and now wants to take the strategy to AI. Its objective is to reduce inference costs to a minimum to become an absolute reference in this market. This was stated In a statement highlighting that “our goal is to create the cheapest artificial intelligence in the world, right here, in India.” Astronomical cost. However, it is not clear how Reliance will finance this potential operation. According to Bloomberg estimates, a data center could have a cost of between 20 and 30,000 million dollars. Reliance Industry, the main division of the group, has about 26,000 million dollars. Jamnagar. The Indian city has a population of 650,000 people. There is the refining and petrochemical complex of Reliance, the largest in the world, but also Reliance wants to build there a renewable energy complex huge These energy sources would be especially used in that data center. Stargate in the spotlight. These days there is much of what to talk about in data centers, especially after the announcement of Openai and Softbank of PROJECT STARGATE to create a series of data centers in the US with a gigantic investment of 500,000 million dollars. There are no specific details of the energy capacity that is discussed in that case, but with that investment that data would be equally colossal. Image | Microsoft In Xataka | Stargate impossible accounts: the challenge of finding 500,000 million dollars for the largest IA project

the challenge of finding 500 billion dollars for the largest AI project

He Project Stargate announcement This week was surprising for many things, but above all it was surprising for one: the 500,000 million dollars that will theoretically be invested in the next four years to achieve its objectives. The figure, absolutely colossalhas generated many suspicions. And rightly so. 100,000 million to start. Of that total figure, the announcement made it clear that the companies that provided the capital would invest “100 billion dollars immediately,” but even that does not seem easily achievable. SoftBank and OpenAI, those who will invest the most. In The Information reveal that SoftBank and OpenAI will contribute $19 billion each for the Stargate project. Bloomberg duck that both will also be the ones that will have the most participation in the final company: each will have a 40% participation. Musk attacks, Altman defends himself. The announcement of the project provoked a quick reaction from Elon Musk, who stated in X that “Actually they (the companies involved) do not have the money). He later added that “SoftBank has less than $10 billion guaranteed. I have good sources.” Sam Altman responded to those allegations hours later indicating that the data that Musk provided was “Incorrect, as you probably know.” Musk and xAI compete with OpeenAI and maintain a long rivalry, but here Altman surprised further telling Musk that “I truly respect what you have accomplished and believe you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our era.” SoftBank under review. Analyst MG Siegler indicates in your newsletter that SoftBank has about $30 billion in cash. It seems to have room for that initial investment, but there are other data that work against it. As indicated user David Manheim on X, SoftBank’s investment fund has had notable failures in the past. On Wikipedia you can see how SoftBank Vision Fund lost $27.4 billion in 2022 due to several failed investments led by Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank. Among them is the investment of 100 million dollars in FTX, which then collapsed. OpenAI burning money. There are also questions about OpenAI’s ability to invest that amount. It is true that it has raised significant sums in the latest investment rounds, but the company is a money burning machine. Arab money and debt as exits. As the aforementioned Siegler article reveals, an important part of that investment may come from the United Arab Emirates through MGX, the investment fund. Another option is to resort to debt, which has already been very common in SoftBank’s investments (they have 150,000 million invested with that formula). Meanwhile, OpenAI looks for other girlfriends (Oracle). The project is also revealing other parallel movements. In The Wall Street Journal They highlight how OpenAI is beginning to look for options for its alliance with Microsoft, something that both have admitted. At OpenAI they complain that Microsoft does not give them the computing power they need, and they seem to be testing alternatives like Google. Perhaps Oracle is also among the candidates, especially now that it will be one of the participants (along with NVIDIA) in the creation of the large data center in Texas. It seems clear that OpenAI wants to not depend so much on Microsoft (or anyone) and Stargate may be a vehicle to achieve this. Image | TechCrunch In Xataka | The money invested in Stargate has a basic problem: there is no clear or agreed plan to reach the AGI

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