manufacture

the price of China starting to manufacture its own lithography

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ASML has suffered a hard blow. Just a few hours after The Information revealed that a state-backed Chinese company had begun mass manufacturing its own immersion deep ultraviolet (UVP) lithography machines, ASML shares plummeted. They fell until 6.5% in Amsterdamits lowest level since the beginning of June, while on Wall Street they reached fall 6.3%. However, when ASML sneezes other companies catch a cold. And Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA Corp, the other large Western suppliers of equipment for manufacturing integrated circuits, were left between 4% and 7% in the same stock market session, dragged by the same underlying fear: that China, after years of trying, will finally begin to solve the link of the semiconductor chain that most resisted him. International media have not yet confirmed the name of this company, although several of them claim that it resides in Shanghai (China), so it is probably Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology, an emerging company linked to Huawei and YesCarrier. This simply means that the ecosystem of suppliers that China has been weaving around Huawei in recent years is also beginning to bear fruit in photolithography. Be that as it may, the market has already decided that the threat, although incipient, is real. ASML’s China business suffers This setback in the stock markets comes at a bad time for ASML’s business in China. Its sales in this Asian country represented 19% of your income during the first quarter of this year, and fell to 14% in the second. Even so, this Dutch company presented some solid quarterly results: net sales of 9,326 million euros in the second quarter, 21% more than a year ago, and a net profit of 2,918 million, 27% more with a gross margin of 54%, slightly above the 53.7% of the previous year. ASML still plans to deliver about 130 immersion systems worldwide during 2026 Its CEO, Christophe Fouquet, even raised its net income forecast for 2026 in mid-July to a range of between 43,000 and 45,000 million euros relying on a demand for chips artificial intelligence (AI) that is still triggered. This simply means that ASML comes to this setback with the wind in your core businessEUV lithography, a segment in which China neither manufactures nor can buy its most advanced machines. The immersion UVP, on the other hand, can manufacture it, which has precisely caused this Monday’s scare. On the other hand, we must not overlook that ASML still plans to deliver some 130 immersion systems worldwide during 2026, a volume that the Chinese company cannot even remotely match with its five units planned for this year. Even so, the simple possibility that China will no longer need ASML to produce the less advanced chips, the ones needed by cars, household appliances and much of the world’s industry, is enough for the market to begin to foresee the arrival of a different future. Image | ASML More information | Bloomberg | Blockonomi In Xataka | TSMC raises its bet in the US: there are already 265,000 million dollars for 2 nm

“The less complex the car, the easier it will be to manufacture and the cheaper it will sell”

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The year 1914 had just begun when Henry Ford dropped the bomb: would share half of the profits achieved in one year among all its workers. The figure, it was expected, would amount to about 10 million dollars at the time. The next day, his factory had collapsed due to the number of people waiting to enter the assembly line. The move was as bold as it was essential for the company. In those years the factories had a serious problem with absenteeism and Henry Ford was very clear about his ideas. He knew that mass production would make the production of his cars cheaper, but he needed a lot of sustained labor. It is what we know as the Fordismfrom which large-scale chain production emerged, with the consequent cost savings. And the more copies of the same product are sold, the cheaper it is because the faster the fixed costs are amortized. That is why Henry Ford did not complicate things in the slightest: “Any customer can have a car painted any color they want as long as it is black.” once said about the Ford T. The phrase was more sly than anything else but it explained well what he wanted to do with his cars. However, Ford left many other phrases related to his method of producing cars that were just as interesting. Some of them, in fact, can be applied today although, curiously, part of the original philosophy of that production process that made the Ford T the first mass car has to be adapted. From Ford T to the future electric car And when it comes to winning the market, Henry Ford was very clear that you had to pay attention to what was important: “the less complex an article is, the easier it will be to manufacture and the cheaper it will be sold”, as stated in the book My life and work of Henry Ford himself. He aim is different, the simplification of the product facilitates simpler production and reduces productive times. Therefore, it can be manufactured faster and cheaper so you can play with the price when selling the product on the street. This is exactly what according to some expertsthey have obtained from China. BYD and Tesla are simplifying their products as much as possible to save on production costs and thus be able to compete against the extremely well-oiled and efficient machinery that is Toyota. The problem for this last company is that This way of working completely rethinks your own quality standards but, above all, it forces you to rethink your entire production system. And an electric car is not manufactured the same as a combustion car. That is why there are consulting companies that have pointed out to Toyota that it is not acting correctly if it simply thinks of both technologies in a very similar way. At Ford they have been thinking about this idea for a long time. The company has acknowledged that Chinese cars have been taken to their facilities to dismantle them and understand what makes them different. Ford’s fascination with vehicles from this Asian country is such that Jim Farley, CEO of the company, He has admitted that he did not want to get off his Xiaomi SU7. To catch up, at Ford they have joined that trend that says that an electric car cannot be produced like a combustion car. With this we will escape from the single line, from the path on which the Fordism but the final goal is the same: reduce production costs. Follow the maxim of making the product the simplest possible object because that, in practice, makes production cheaper and allows you to sell cheaper. They do it by opting for tree manufacturing, which they have called “Ford’s new universal production system for electric cars”. Instead of assembling the car on a single line, Ford has devised another system that is based on three subassemblies that end up joining together almost at the end of the production process when the car should already be very close to leaving the assembly line. Thus, we have three individualized spaces: one for the front of the car, another for the rear and a last one that includes the battery, seats and console. According to the company, the new system allows them to produce their electric vehicles 40% faster at the Louisville Assembly Plant factory where the company has invested almost 2 billion dollars to renew it in depth and remove its “medium-sized electric trucks” from there. That is, electric pick-up and large SUVs that in Europe you would consider large. With this new system, they assure, it’s easier to be efficient in the design of the electronics and the installation of the cables, which represents a saving in weight and, above all, in money that must be invested in wiring. A maxim that we have already seen in other models on the market such as the BMW iX3. According to Ford data, they will need 50% fewer electrical connections, 50% fewer cooling installations and 20% fewer parts. In addition to all this, the plant will have WiFi-7 and a private 5G system for sending data which, according to Ford, will allow them to carry out more exhaustive quality controls at any point in the production process. This means finding any type of defect sooner and remedying it as soon as possible. That is to say, the company’s intention is to reinvent itself for the future but following the premises that its creator already set for them more than 100 years ago. Via | L’Automobile Photo | Wikipedia and Bram Van Oost In Xataka | Ford has been slow to adapt to the electric car, so it is going to start manufacturing batteries for… data centers

Ford and Geely reach an agreement to manufacture four cars in Valencia

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Ford and Geely have reached an important agreement for the plant that the American company has in Almussafes (Valencia). The facilities have been operating at half throttle for a long time but the agreement with Geely is a lifeline for a team that feared for its future. Here are all the details. an agreement. Geely and Ford have reached “an agreement to establish a joint venture for Europe at Ford’s production center in Valencia.” To move forward, yes, they remember that the next step is “waiting for the corresponding regulatory authorizations.” With this agreement, Geely and Ford should share facilities in the first half of 2027 but the first vehicles will not leave the facilities until 2028. This joint venture will be 34% controlled by Geely and 66% by Ford. What will be manufactured? The press release sent to the media states that the joint venture will bring about “a new generation of low- and zero-emission vehicles destined for European markets.” That is, cars with plug-in hybrid and electric technology will come out of the Valencia plant. It is also specified that “the joint venture is planned to manufacture two multi-energy vehicles from the Ford brand and two electric models from the Geely brand, starting in 2028” but no further details are offered that point to the names of said vehicles or whether deeper integrations are contemplated. The possible scenarios. With the information that is confirmed, there are different possibilities: Ford and Geely share facilities but do not share models. One line brings out the “Ford multi-energy models” and another “the Geely electric ones.” The integration of Ford and Geely is greater because one of the “electrics” of the latter company is an extended range electric, a solution in which a combustion engine is used and that fits within the definition of “electric car” and “multi-energy car.” What does Ford gain? For years, Ford’s production in Europe has been in clear decline and Almussafes has been operating at half throttle for some time. The possibility of closure has been raised on several occasions, but closing a factory involves a lot of money in layoffs, compensation to suppliers, and leaves facilities for which a buyer must be sought. Ford had already confirmed that Valencia will manufacture a new Bronco “European style” (that it will have nothing to do with with the one produced in the United States) and a multi-energy Kuga. Despite this, the factory would be released in part because it has the capacity to put half a million vehicles on the road annually. The American company is going through a bad time in Europe. It already has a agreement with Volkswagen for your mid-size electrics (explorer and Capri) and another with Renault for sister versions of the Renault 5 and the Renault 4. With all that covered, the company did not seem interested in making the necessary investments to produce more cars in Europe. What does Geely earn? The benefits for Geely are numerous. First, it will have an already built plant that requires money to modernize but which is already built. This will allow them to produce in, they say, a year and a half. It is less time than it takes to obtain permits to build a factory, build it from scratch and start producing. The second thing is that it buys European land. And with the European soil, a good part of the tariffs that are currently imposed on their cars are eliminated. Especially if we take into account that Geely will manufacture cars and will not assemble them using parts from China. (like Chery does in Barcelona)a solution that the European Union believes not enough to eliminate tariffs. What does Valencia gain? The opportunity to once again have a factory that increases its production and extends its useful life. When the rumors started Of a possible association of Geely with Ford, the doubt remained as to whether Almussafes was going to be the option chosen in the possible agreement between the companies. And Ford already has a plant capable of manufacturing completely electric models. However, if both companies do not share assembly lines and only share facilities, Valencia is an excellent opportunity for Geely since it will be able to manufacture at lower costs than in Cologne (Germany) where Ford has its electric car plant. This should result in a more attractive price, greater chances of success in the market and a clearer horizon for the future. Photo | Geely and Ford In Xataka | Volkswagen’s turbulence also affects Sagunto: the long-awaited battery factory is delayed

Volkswagen delays plans to manufacture batteries in Sagunto. It is very bad news for your cheap electric cars

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Volkswagen battery production in Sagunto (Valencia) is delayed. He does it because the works are not progressing in the stipulated times but the problem is greater. And the company proposed this factory as essential to have its plans for electric cars manufactured in Spain at full capacity. a delay. This is what they assure in The Confidential who, exclusively, assure that the plans to produce battery cells at Volkswagen’s Valencian factory in Sagunto are delayed, at least, “a few months.” In Xataka We have tried to contact Volkswagen but, as of this writing, we have not received a response to our questions. According to the media, the information has been provided by “sources close” to the company and “unofficial sources linked to the universe of contractors do not rule out that the delay hides more serious changes in the project.” What is the delay? Volkswagen had a calendar which was to have the manufacturing of the first pre-series units of battery cells ready in September 2026. The objective is that, with these tests, mass manufacturing would arrive during the first quarter of 2027. However, they point out in The Confidentialit will not be until December when the tests will begin, so the final production of the cells could be postponed until almost half of next year. The delay, of course, would be due to problems during the construction of the factory but not to cuts in the project. Despite everything, it comes at a bad time. A (small) breath. What they assure from the media is that the project is not in danger, neither due to investments nor due to size. And Volkswagen is in the midst of a restructuring process, with up to 100,000 layoffs hanging over European plants and the possibility of closure of some of them. The Spanish project, however, is one of the most important that the company has in the short term. The investment, adding all the phases, is expected to reach 3,000 million euros and right now 1,500 people are working there in the construction phase. For the production of pre-series cells It is expected to employ 500 people. The Spanish hub. The biggest problem for Volkswagen with the delay of these plans is that the final production to feed the Barcelona and Navarra plants is irremediably delayed. In them, the company will produce the smallest models with up to four cars that will cost 25,000 euros. In Spain alone, Volkswagen will invest 10,000 million euros. Of them, 3,000 million will go to the Sagunto plant, as we have mentioned, and the same amount is dedicated to the renovation of Martorell. The Navarra plant will be renovated with an investment of 1,000 million euros and the remaining 3,000 million will be invested in auxiliary component companies. At a very bad time. Although no work is free of delays, delaying the production of batteries is a real problem for the company. And the German company has enormous hopes placed on these cars to continue gaining share in the electric car market and, finally, to take advantage of this technology as they expected. Besides, the delivery of Perte VEC aid It is also conditioned to comply with the planned schedule. But above all because each car sold is a break in its emissions quota. In 2027 average emissions will be reviewed that the company has put on the street with each car sold. Going over 93.6 gr/km of CO2 will be an automatic fine and now In 2025 the company expected billion-dollar sanctions. Selling as many affordable cars as possible next year is essential to reduce the expected penalty. Photo | Volkswagen In Xataka | Europe has its hope in the 25,000 euro electric car and Volkswagen already knows who will manufacture it: Spain

It costs 20% more to manufacture than its competitors and it has too many workers

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There are companies that announce their crises with a solemn statement. Volkswagen has chosen a different path: an internal interview with its CEO posted on its intranet, which ends being filtered to the German newspaper Der Spiegel. This is how half of Europe has learned that the largest car manufacturer on the continent still cannot find a way out of a crisis that threatens the dismissal of up to 100,000 employees and with the closure of factories. Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen, published an interview aimed at offering some more information to the workforce while the board of directors decides the strategic plan that will define the future of the company. According to his words, the result is a plan that can change Volkswagen forever. A message for yours. Blume had been avoiding going into details for weeks about the extent of the cuts that Volkswagen was considering applying to stay afloat, while several workers protested outside its plants. In his interview published on the company’s internal network, Blume acknowledged that the costs of administration and support of the main business continue 20% above of what their rivals manage. This percentage conditions Volkswagen’s line of action: reduce the size of the company and, according to Blume, this involves laying off workers. The million dollar question is how many will have to be fired. “A theoretical derivation without a change in labor costs would give an adjustment of 50,000 jobs worldwide,” said its CEO in the leaked interview. To these would be added the 50,000 already agreed with the unions for Germany until 2030. The round sum is the 100,000 jobs that already resonate in the hallways of the entire company. The factories in the pillory. Blume also broke his silence on the future of the four German plants that They have been in the air for months. “The truth is also that, as of today, we still cannot confirm a competitive occupation for the Emden, Hannover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm plants,” lamented the company’s CEO. The reason is that Volkswagen has an oversized structure. The group’s European plants have the capacity to assemble 500,000 more cars than the market is asking for right now. This forces Volkswagen not only to reduce its production capacity to save costs, but also to cut its car catalog to make the assembly lines more efficient and, thereby, also reduce the number of factories. That plan could also affect Volkswagen’s factories in Martorell and Navarra, although the greatest impact of the cut is expected in its infrastructure in Germany. Volkswagen’s military path. As an alternative to closure, Blume talks about changing the use of the factories, and dedicating them to weapons manufacturing. Something similar to what it already happens in Osnabrück, where Volkswagen is negotiating with the Israeli company Rafael to manufacture anti-missile systems. However, geopolitical interests have blocked these negotiations. Qatar is a major shareholder of Volkswagen with two seats on its board of directors, and does not welcome the company manufacturing weapons that can destabilize the delicate balance of the Middle East. The weight of the “people”. On the other hand, the company is not a typical car manufacturer. The government of Lower Saxony has a very important weight on its board of directors, which makes it difficult for initiatives that are especially harmful to workers to prosper. Which guarantees that the sacrifices will not fall only on the side of the squad. In fact, the State of Lower Saxony nay of the dismissal of a sixth of its staff by twelve votes to seven. Lower Saxony controls 20% of the capital and usually rows alongside unions to protect employment in its territory. “The German automobile industry is the core area of ​​our German economy,” declared Christiane Benner president of the IG Metall union. An opportunity for China. Before the sales drums, some analysts They have set their sights on China due to the possibility of a brand signing an agreement with Volkswagen to take advantage of the company’s infrastructure to manufacture in Europe. The economist Moritz Schularick, president of the Kiel Institute of World Economywent a little further and predicted that the German auto giant “will likely be acquired by a Chinese manufacturer like BYD.” Given the institutional presence in Volkswagen’s shareholding, it is difficult for a total sale to occur. In any case, none of these options have been confirmed by Volkswagen’s management leadership and remain in the speculative realm. In Xataka | Volkswagen led an army of sheep to graze under 31,000 solar panels. It turns out that the way of producing energy began to change Image | Volkswagen

Foxconn wants to manufacture everything. ALL

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Vivatech was held last week. It is one of the largest technology fairs in the world and one of the least concrete. There is humanoid robotsrobots that are dedicated only to doing funny things, robo-assistants, artificial intelligence, beauty products, a quantum computer, virtual reality and even a feelings monitor. Yeah. However, what surprised me most was not the glimpse into the future, but the deployment of the Taiwanese Foxconn. When we talk about Taiwan and technology, TSMC is the name that comes to mind the easiest, but Foxconn is the main component manufacturer worldwide, the engine of Taiwan’s exports and the controversial assembler of products such as the iPhone or the Xbox. The point is that Foxconn wants to stop being the largest telephone assembler to become one of the main multinationals in the world and the path is clear: robots, cars and artificial intelligence. And all that plumage is what it showed at the Paris fair. Vera Rubin, the jewel in the crown Nvidia is currently a driving force for many companies and Foxconn has been one of the last to enter under the umbrella of the American giant. The company led by Jensen Huang already has everything ready so that those who manufacture its platforms have the machines at maximum production for Vera Rubin. Two of the modules of a server This is the new AI platform that promises to be at the forefront of trainingbut also of the inference in the models and Foxconn recently joined as one of the leading suppliers of both Groq 3 LPX and cabinets Vera Rubin NVL72. These cabinets They are one of the grails of data centersa liquid-cooled supercomputer in which 72 Blackwell GPUs and 36 Grace GPUs behave as a single large accelerator to train and infer trillion-parameter models. It is an impressive platform that could be seen at the Vivatech stand next to one of the modules behind glass and signed by Huang himself. You can see that Foxconn is proud of this, wow, but apart from the injection of money, also because of the possibilities it opens up for them as a company that wants to start doing everything. Robotics and digital twins Because to become multidisciplinary, now youyou have to be an AI company. And something that goes hand in hand are robots and digital twins. At the fair we couldn’t see much about this, although they did show a couple of glimpses. On the one hand, a humanoid robot (from the hips up) that is in charge of setting up the servers. He places pieces and screws them with the necessary precision and force so that everything is adjusted to the millimeter. They told us that it is not the fastest at work (of course), but in the end there are still many of these working in parallel. On the other hand, the digital twins. This technology is very interesting because it is a software simulation of elements of the physical world. Thanks to AI and algorithms, engineers develop exact replicas of the physical world, but in the virtual world. Imagine a car, for example, not only modeled to the millimeter with all its parts in software, but that software simulates the weight of each of the components. The objective of creating these 1:1 replicas that respect the laws of physics, but in the virtual world, is to perform tests on the software that then accelerate developments in the real world. In a factory to create engines or any sensitive part/component, these digital twins are allowing much of the trial and error testing to be done in a virtual environment without the need to invest construction time in the real object. Basically, they exist so that sensitive parts of the development are carried out in an environment in which the price of error is lower, to fine-tune the shot for physical prototypes. And, for that, enormous computing power is required that Foxconn achieves with platforms like Nvidia’s, but also with another of its ambitions: data centers. Data centers If you want to have computing power without depending on increasingly expensive GPU rentals, you must have a data center. It is something that opens the door to both meeting your needs and the possibility of offering your equipment to whoever needs it (for a good pinch). And, within the framework of Vivatech, reported that the French electricity company Schneider had signed an agreement collaboration with Foxconn to set up a data center. It is a partnership that makes perfect sense, since one provides the energy and the other provides the AI ​​platforms that, as we have just seen, are being developed for Nvidia itself. The cars. Because they also have cars, of course. And if each leg of the business makes sense on its own, the unifying point is the most striking product they brought to the fair: the car. The cars, rather. In 2020, Foxconn introduced Foxtron, a subsidiary focused on manufacturing electric cars under the open platform. MIH. This platform has been named “the Android of electric cars”since it is a platform that combines a modular chassis, power electronics and software so that third parties can build their own models and services. Model D interior Foxconn’s goal is reduce entry barriers to the EV segmentlower development costs and shorten market launch times, but of course, they have also taken the opportunity to create their own models. At the French fair they brought both the Bria (an SUV) and the Model D (more of a van) that stand out for their screens inside and an aggressive aerodynamic design in some parts. The company told me that the Bria, for example, It has about 300 or 350 km of autonomy (depending on how much you push it) and that it is powered by chips from MediaTek and Nvidia for the smartest features. The autonomy is nothing remarkable and it all depends on the price at which they market it. Interior of the Bria News regarding this? … Read more

90 years ago a Basque company decided to manufacture the “Rolls-Royce of staplers”. It hasn’t gone particularly well

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What do they have in common the MoMA, Vladimir Putinthe former Colombian president Andres Pastrana and the veteran reporter Gillian de Bonowho for decades dedicated himself to advising wealthy readers of Financial Times How to spend your money in style? The answer is only two characters long: M5the Basque brand stapler The Helmet. His name may not ring a bell, but it sure does. your imageneat, efficient, sophisticated. So much so that it has elevated the stapler to the category of art worthy of the desks of leaders and museums. Despite all that and its centuries-old history, El Casco has not managed to avoid bankruptcy. After declare bankruptcynow his legacy is sold to the highest bidder. The art of putting together pages. Life offers us many kinds of pleasures, but there is one that we did not know about until the Basque company El Casco got to work: collecting papers. This was recognized a few years ago, Gillian de Bonothe veteran reporter of the How I spend it (‘How I spend it’) from the diary Financial Times. In 2017, after testing the M5 stapler from the Guipuzcoan company, recognized to his readers that he had never enjoyed stapling papers so much. It hasn’t been the only one. The design, efficiency and above all the elegance of El Casco staplers (the M5 is perhaps the most famous and exclusive, but in the catalog of the company there are many more models) has led them to such unexpected places such as the collection of the MoMA museum in New York or the desks of Vladimir Putin and Andrés Pastrana, as well as the offices of executives from around the world. After all, stapling report sheets may be a mundane task, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done glamorously. “The Roll-Royce of staplers”. Perhaps the best definition of the M5 was given years ago by designer Juli Capella. For him, remember The Countrythe Basque creation is something like “the Rolls-Royce of staplers.” It may sound like an exaggeration, but the phrase is better understood if several factors are taken into account. First, the design of the article, which has allowed it to be passed from parents to children in many cases and continue to fulfill its function. just like decades ago. Second, its history: the company behind it traces its origins to before the Civil War. Third, its exclusivity (and prices): in its online catalog You can find different models ranging from 150 to almost 400 euros. And yet… All of the above guarantees El Casco staplers a privileged place in the history of national design, but that does not mean that at a business level they have to do well. On the contrary. The passing of the decades, the change of habits, digitalization and competition of articles low cost Asia is over taking its toll to the company, unable to balance its accounts. At the beginning of the year, Tuncalya, the Eibar-based company behind the El Casco brand, declared bankruptcy and months later, in May, was auctioned most of the machinery and facilities that allowed it to manufacture its staplers. Brands, domains and know-how. Now comes the second (and final) chapter of its corporate epilogue. As I remembered a few days ago The Mailthis week the other part of his business legacy is auctioned: around twenty trademark registrations in different countries, the know-how accumulated after decades of activity, its commercial fund and a series of web domains that will remain valid at least until October 2026 or 2030. The bid is organized by Pacelma Auctions, it comes out in a single Lope with a starting price of 50,000 euros and is part of the bankruptcy procedure supervised by a court in San Sebastián. More than just design. Although what probably made Putin, Pastrana and Bono fall in love with it is the design of the staplers, El Casco stands out for another reason: its history. The roots of the company must be found in the Basque Country of the 20when Juan Olave and Juan Solozabal (former Orbea employees) founded a business in Éibar that was initially dedicated to weapons. After a few years marked by the Great Depression and the Civil War, the company decided to focus on office supplies. What didn’t change was his mentality. “A staple should move through the stapler with the same precision as a bullet through the barrel of a revolver,” explains Joan Solozábal, grandson of the founder. Against all odds. Throughout its extensive history, the firm has encountered the occasional crisis. In 1937, just a few years after it began manufacturing stationery, the business suffered the blow of the Civil War: the town suffered bombings that left the company damaged. Over time, it was able to resume its activity, it was equipped with a larger factory and, already in the 60s, it gathered around 200 employees. The crises of the following decades, digitalization and competition from low cost However, they undermined his business. In 2014 the company was forced to bankruptcya delicate situation that was saved thanks to the Turkish investor (and former client of the firm) Bayrak Vedak. Their disembarkation gave a boost of oxygen to the Gipuzkoan company, but it has not allowed them to fully weather the storm. Twelve years after that critical episode and despite attempts to refocus the business, the firm declared bankruptcy at the beginning of 2026. Now its future remains in the air. Images | The Helmet and Wikipedia In Xataka | What happened to Barreiros, the Spanish automotive company that manufactured Dodges “made in Spain” in the second half of the 20th century

The world was tired of depending on TSMC to manufacture all its chips. This is what is causing Intel’s great resurrection

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Who has seen you and who sees you, Intel. The legendary semiconductor firm seems to be leaving behind its painful journey through the desert, and the latest news points to a true resurrection. The signature has achieved a spectacular contract to manufacture three million Google TPUs, and Nvidia is also studying the possibility of use Intel 18A node for future multi-die GPU designs. This is spectacular news for the company. Promising future, at last. The agreement with Google’s cloud division is a huge boost for the chip manufacturing business (foundry) from Intel. This deal will see Intel produce millions of AI chips at its advanced 3-nanometer node. With it, the firm achieves a decisive step to compete with TSMC, which until now was the absolute reference for those who wanted to access advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes. There is another crucial geopolitical factor here: part of these chips will be produced in the US, which helps in the objective of not depending so much on Asian countries for this process. Flirting with Nvidia. But Nvidia also seems to be interested in Intel’s 18A photolithographic process. The company led by Jensen Huang is considering the use of this node for its future multi-die architectures for its GPUs. Nvidia has managed to become TSMC’s main customer, but this manufacturer cannot satisfy Nvidia’s demand, so this company is looking for plans B, and Intel is serving it one on a plate. The signature by the way, already bought 4% of Intel in September 2025, so it is the first interested in Intel doing well. The PowerVia revolution. There are two big technical arguments that are apparently convincing Google and Nvidia. The first, the transistors RibbonFET. The second, even more important, PowerVia technology. This system is a qualitative leap because it physically separates the power and signal lines from the transistors, which avoids bottlenecks and improves both performance and efficiency of the CPUs that use this technology. Chip sovereignty. This decision by Google and Nvidia’s plan respond in part to the pressures that the US government is doing—and boosting with its CHIPS Act— to recover technological sovereignty and avoid dependence on foreign countries. Both companies know that 90% of the planet’s advanced chips depend on that island called Taiwan, and taking advantage of Intel’s renewed capacity is a great opportunity for kill two birds with one stone. They reduce their dependence on TSMC, and comply with the demands of the US government. War makes strange allies. The current situation is unique, because it is causing companies that competed fiercely in the field of hardware (Intel and Nvidia) to now be forced to collaborate out of pure necessity. Intel needs clients of this type to demonstrate to investors that its division foundry can operate independently of its consumer processor or server division. And Google and Nvidia in turn need Intel to break manufacturing monopoly of semiconductors that TSMC had. Intel finally resurrects. The big winner of these agreements is Intel, which has gone through a really compromising stage but has for a year has not stopped growing. We can see it in its valuation on the stock market. A year ago its shares were trading at $20.68, and now they are trading at $107.04 and with these agreements that value may continue to improve. Good for Intel. Image | Intel In Xataka | Bill Gates has X-rayed Intel. And his diagnosis is overwhelmingly accurate.

Tesla’s solar roof was going to revolutionize this segment. Ten years later it pivots to manufacture lifelong solar panels

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A decade ago Elon Musk seemed capable of anything, and many of us believed that had another revolution in his hand with Solar Roofthe Tesla solar roof that revolutionized conventional installations to camouflage them with the roofs of our houses. Their goal was to install 1,000 of these solar roofs every week by the end of 2019. The reality: there are about 3,000 solar roofs in total, and the company has decided to pivot to survive. Now it is a much more conventional company that may achieve the success that its original version never came close to. Promises and realities. The deployment of the “solar roof” proposed by the Tesla subsidiary It has been an operational failure. In 2016, the promises of performance combined with sustainable design and architecture (tempered glass tiles that generated light) were very striking. Ten years later, the product represents a residual fraction of Tesla Energy’s income, and the company has decided to surrender to the evidence. They will do what others were already doing: manufacture traditional solar panels mounted on existing roofs. Complex installation. Tesla’s big mistake was not in the panels themselves, but in the physics of the construction itself. A conventional roof is installed in a couple of days, but the Solar Roof required weeks of work for an ultra-skilled workforce. Being made up of hundreds or thousands of small individual tiles, installers had to make multiple electrical connections in an environment exposed to environmental conditions. Costs skyrocketed. Thus, a single failure could render an entire section unusable, and to make everything perfect the installation costs were high: about $106,000 before incentives, when putting solar panels on a conventional roof costs about $50,000 less. Payback is achieved in about 15-25 years, compared to 7-12 for conventional panels. In a lawsuit from several clients was revealed that in some cases the price of the installation ranged from 72,000 to 146,000 dollars. Difficulties everywhere. These types of projects proved to have many obstacles. For example, the different geometries of the roofs or their shadows. There was also the fact that Tesla tried to control the entire installation process with its own personnel, but labor shortages were a bottleneck that delayed deliveries. A reasonable (but late) decision. In early 2026 Tesla launched its new solar panel, the TSP-420which makes use of a new optimization system based on 18 energy zones. Among other things, this panel solves a problem that affected the inverter architecture of Solar Roof panels. It is a much more reasonable strategy, especially since it is much more profitable and faster to install a standard panel on a roof than to do so with Solar Roof’s original proposal. It is curious that the power generation business has not worked out for him, but yes do it that of storage with their Powerwall. Musk once again promises the (perhaps) impossible. At the Davos conference, Elon Musk announced that Tesla had as its objective create 100 GW per year of solar panel manufacturing capacity in the United States. For this purpose, the purchase of solar panels and cells is proposed. worth 2.9 billion dollars to the Chinese company Suzhou Maxwell Technologies. Too many promises. The goal seems once again exaggerated. Global solar installations in the United States in 2023 reached 32 GW, and Musk aims to reach 100 GW by the end of 2028. He would have to triple the total installed capacity that there was three years ago, and do it at a frenetic pace without any problems. We have heard this story before. The challenge seems too colossal even for the tycoon, and reminds us of the promise that he himself made in 2016. It was then that he assured that his solar roof would end up costing less than conventional roofs with traditional solar panels. He also said that the SolarCity Solar Gigafactory would produce 10 GW per year. Neither of those two promises came true. In Xataka | Mexico has a brutal potential for solar energy: at the moment it has begun to exploit it with agrovoltaics

that Intel and Samsung manufacture their advanced chips in the US

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Apple is no longer TSMC’s largest customer. It has been since 2014 and has maintained this position for just over a decade, but in 2025 Nvidia established itself as the main customer of this Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer. Until December 31, 2025, Nvidia generated 19% of TSMC’s revenuecompared to 17% for Apple. Even so, there is no doubt that the Cupertino company continues to be a priority customer for TSMCalthough this scenario could change in the short or medium term. And, according to BloombergApple is exploring the possibility of Intel and Samsung manufacturing the advanced chips for their devices in the US. In all likelihood, the loss of influence and priority in the TSMC production chain that it has maintained for more than a decade has led to this decision. Now Nvidia has these privileges. However, to understand why Apple is considering leaning on Intel and Samsung, we also need to look in another direction. Betting on Intel or Samsung makes sense, although it involves risks There are several compelling reasons why Apple may be interested in Intel manufacturing its integrated circuits in the US. Or Samsung in its state-of-the-art plant in Texas. Or you could even work with both companies simultaneously and not completely sever your business relationship with TSMC. Either way, this diversification strategy would allow Apple to effectively protect itself from supply chain disruptions triggered by geopolitical instability. And also the shortage of some components caused by the massive construction of data centers to artificial intelligence (AI). Apple is a candy for Intel and Samsung. There is no doubt about that In fact, last week Apple recognized during the presentation of its economic results that its current supply chain is not very flexible. And in the current situation of instability, having Intel and Samsung as partners is a very attractive option. Furthermore, for these two companies it is very important get Apple as a client. In 2024 this last company represented approximately 25.2% of annual income from TSMC. And in 2025 this figure dropped to 17%, allowing Nvidia to overtake Apple with 19% of income generated for TSMC. Still, Apple is a candy for Intel and Samsung. There is no doubt about that. For Intel, having Apple as a client would represent a definitive boost for its integrated circuit manufacturing division for third parties. And for Samsung to manufacture a part of Apple’s SoCs would be a very important boost that would probably allow it to attract other clients in the fight it has had with TSMC for years to dominate the cutting-edge chip manufacturing market. Whatever Apple executives decide, it is highly unlikely that this company will abandon TSMC. This Taiwanese chipmaker has proven for years that it is perfectly capable of manufacturing cutting-edge semiconductors on a large scale and with indisputable consistency. You don’t have to prove anything, but Intel and Samsung do because it’s currently unclear whether they can reliably deliver the kind of production and scale that has made them TSMC in the dominant custom chip maker. Apple may end up outsourcing part of the manufacturing of its SoCs to Intel or Samsung, but nothing indicates that it will break its already long-standing commercial alliance with TSMC in the medium term. Image | Apple More information | Bloomberg In Xataka | Apple had been able to maintain prices despite the crazy rise in RAM. That’s over

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