manufacturing

Volkswagen is going to stop manufacturing the combustion Polo due to new emission regulations

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The future of the Volkswagen Polo will be electric or it will not be. This is what Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen, has come to say. The company’s head believes that there is no way to launch a future combustion Polo if emissions requirements do not change. And the European Commission’s proposal changes the situation very little for this type of car. Electric or electric. “Offering new models with a gasoline engine in the size of the Polo and below does not make sense considering future emissions regulations. They would be too expensive for our customers. The future in this segment is electric.” The words are from Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen, in an interview with the German media Auto Motor und Sport. In it, the top executive of the brand points out that it makes no sense to launch a new Volkswagen Polo with a combustion engine because the development costs could not be amortized if the car is to be kept at a competitive price. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? It must be taken into account that the disappearance of the Polo It has already been advanced in 2022 when it was thought that the car would die. Then it was already said that the company was not going to invest money in developing small cars with combustion engines and it seems that the idea remains. The Polo ID. In 2022, Volkswagen was considering eliminating the Polo name. As the years went by and seeing the public’s reception, the company has finally decided to call the electric that comes to occupy this space as Volkswagen ID.Polodiscarding the ID.2 designation finally. At the moment, little is known about the car, other than that it should start at less than 25,000 euros and that will be manufactured in Spain. That and throughout the Volkswagen Group they have the same approach to the combustion car: there will be no new cheap options. Seat, for example, will not launch combustion cars of this size to renew the current Ibiza but it will not do the same with electric until they are cheap enough. The regulations. In his statements Schäfer points to the emissions regulations that Europe has ahead. To start, Volkswagen has until 2027 to record its average emissions of cars sold since this year below 93.6 gr/km of CO2 if you don’t want to incur heavy fines. According to data collected by Motor.esthe Germans had the possibility of receiving more than 1.5 billion euros in fines on the table. These emissions must be halved by 2030 and non-existent by 2035. But hadn’t they changed? At the moment, no. Although everything indicates that there will be subtle changes. However, with the European Commission proposalthose who benefit within the Volkswagen Group are Audi, Porsche or Lamborghini since the cars with combustion engines that can be sold will be very expensive. And the proposal has to be approved by the European Parliament and the Member States (the Council of the EU). However, if it goes ahead, which is most likely, the important changes will be the following: The emissions. To get an idea of ​​the impossibility of complying with these limits by selling small combustion cars, a Volkswagen Polo with a 1.0 three-cylinder engine and 80 HP emits 119 gr/km of CO2. The company would have to sell more than a dozen electric cars to offset each sale of a combustion Polo of this type. Something unthinkable. And small cars are the ones that less profit margin left to a company. That is why the amortization of developments must be achieved by selling a very high volume of cars. If not, the price must be raised and the car is anticompetitive in a part of the market that is more susceptible to price changes. That leaves Volkswagen’s hands tied. The development of a platform for small electric vehicles to comply with emissions regulations has already eaten up money that cannot be invested in launching a new combustion-powered Volkswagen Polo with another stream of money in development included with such a short commercial life ahead. In fact, if Volkswagen does not sell enough electric vehicles He is not even interested in selling the current Volkswagen Polo. On the horns of a dilemma. The biggest problem this leaves us with is that the client finds himself between a rock and a hard place. For a purely technical issue, buying a four-meter electric car can be a very good solution for everyday life. Having a plug at home is perfect and the more kilometers we travel daily, the cheaper it will be for the customer. But the owner of an electric car of this type has a problem when he goes on a trip. And the price savings you are going to pay with discomfort. An electric car of this size is leaving us with versions with batteries of between 40 and 50 kWh to meet the 25,000 euros mark and that leaves us with real autonomy on the road of between 200 and 250 kilometers in the best of cases. This situation is causing the small electric car to not gain enough traction in the market. And if this type of car doesn’t start, the industry has a problem because emissions limits are already on the table and They need to multiply electric sales to comply with the figures that Europe has put on the table. Photo | Volkswagen In Xataka | I went out for a weekend with the Renault 5. This is all that awaits anyone who buys a cheap electric car

The industry has stopped manufacturing for people, it does it for machines

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On October 1, 2025, the average price of two 8GB DDR4-3200 modules was $60. Today that price is 110 dollars. Things are worse for DDR5 memory: at the beginning of September the average price of two 16GB DDR5-4800 modules was about $100, but now the price is approaching $250. In just a few months those prices have skyrocketed and we know perfectly well who is to blame: the AI. what has happened. He who warns is not a traitor: at the beginning of October we were talking about how A perfect storm had brewed with AI and data centers. This storm was going to cause notable increases in the prices of NAND and DRAM memories. And indeed those prices have skyrocketed in an astonishing and worrying way. The average price of DDR5-4800 2x16GB modules has multiplied by 2.5 in less than two months. Source: PC PartPicker 307% more. The consulting firm TrendForce, specialized in this type of market analysis, indicated this week how the price of DDR5 memories has increased by up to 307% since September, but the worst thing is not that: the worst thing is that these prices are going to continue rising and it also affects DDR4 modules, although somewhat less (“only” 158%). In fact, in a graph they showed how two 8 GB DDR4-3200 modules had gone from $30.55 to $34.42, 12.67% more expensive… than a week ago. More information. The well-known website PCPartPicker It offers among its services an analysis of the price evolution of different components. The graphics of DRAM memories were quite boring because they were almost always relatively flat, but now they have gone crazy and very unfun. In all types of memory analyzed, the increase in average prices confirms the TrendForce data. The curve is more worrying for DDR5 modules, but it is clear that all are affected. NAND are going the same way. NAND memories have the same problemand that will make SSD drives also increase in price. The demand for data centers is causing end users to suffer the direct consequences, and prices are expected to grow significantly. Khein Seng Pua, CEO of Phison—one of the largest manufacturers of this type of chips— warned that “recently all NAND companies have begun to increase their sales prices by around 50 or 75%” and warned that all this will make “the supply of NAND chips very tight for many, many years.” Or what is the same: prices that will rise but will not fall in the medium (or long term). A vicious circle. The news is terrible for those who were thinking of updating their equipment with more RAM or more storage capacity. The upward trend in prices will not relax at least in this quarter, and may continue for much longer due to this AI fever. Data centers need AI GPUs, AI GPUs (often) need HBM memories, and HBM memories cause manufacturers to put RAM on the back burner. Bad time to upgrade or build a PC (or maybe it’s a good time). It’s a vicious circle that will make upgrading or building a PC right now a bad deal. But of course, it can also be seen from another perspective: maybe waiting is even worse and this is “a good time” or at least, “the best of bad times” in the medium term. Of course the threat is there. Most expensive smartphones and laptops in sight. Of course this can also directly affect the new smartphones, tablets, PCs and laptops that appear on the market from this moment on. Price increases in components clearly impact the manufacturing costs of these devices, and it would not be strange to see significant increases in all types of devices. In fact, Khein Seng explained that some manufacturers could decide to do a kind of “reduflation” of their products by lowering specifications in order to maintain sales prices. Image | Andrey Matveev In Xataka | Samsung has its biggest competitor at home. His future with chips depends on his rivalry with SK Hynix

In 40 years they have gone from manufacturing printers to manufacturing the future

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Exactly 40 years ago, HP packed up its original facilities in Terrassa (Barcelona) and moved to land on the outskirts of Sant Cugat del Vallés (Barcelona) to expand facilities that the success of your printers left small. We have visited those same HP facilities in Spain and, although the machines that manufactured printers have been turned off a long time ago, we have discovered the equivalent of a small Silicon Valley in Spain from which you imagine what will the technological future be like. From growing cereals to generating ideas The center located in Sant Cugat del Vallés celebrates 40 years since, in 1985, the company moved its facilities, taking with them the 30 employees that made up its staff at that time. In those years, the facility was designed as a production center for its printers. However, in 2000, production was relocated to Asia. Given the new situation, the center was on the brink of closure. The Sant Cugat facilities, already with more than 800 employees, of which 200 were engineers, were reinvented, transforming the center into a factory of ideas and a laboratory of innovations that has not stopped growing in its four decades of existence. Currently, the center has 11 buildings that house 2,600 employees of 60 nationalities, of which 800 are engineers who work hand in hand with other companies to develop new practical solutions for their businesses. “In 1985, there were farms here and now this space has become the Silicon Valley of the city,” Helena Herrero, HP president of Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told us proudly. No wonder, she was part of that team that made possible its transformation into one of the two largest HP R&D centers in Europe and the worldcomparable to that of HP’s headquarters in Palo Alto. Recreation in Barcelona of the Hewlett Packard garage in Palo Alto Symbolic testimony of this spirit of development is the detailed recreation of the famous garage where Hewlett and Packard created HP 85 years ago in Palo Alto that welcomed us. In that garage not only was Hewlett Packard born as a company, but it served as inspiration for the creation of that ecosystem of companies that we know today as Silicon Valley. As happened in Silicon Valley, around the recreation of that garage, HP has created a center for innovation and development of new ideas and products that will be decisive for the future in areas as diverse as Formula 1, prosthetic medicineculture, construction or work efficiency. This center registers more than 150 patents a year for HP. Ideas that have come true and we have been able to see and touch One of the peculiarities of this HP center is that companies come asking for help to solve a problem and the HP teams work with them to find innovative solutions. The most recent example is the collaboration of these engineers with the Ferrari Formula 1 team. In this case, the challenge was to lighten the weight of the car as much as possible without compromising the aerodynamic sliding of its body. Daniel Martínez, head of the large format printing division and director of the center, told us that the Sant Cugat engineering team developed a latex print that was then applied to the body of the vehicle like vinyl. This sheet reduced its weight by 17% compared to conventional paint without compromising aerodynamics. In our visit to this HP ideas laboratory We saw that engineers are developing solutions in other, much more futuristic areas in which robotics and printing come together. It looks like a Roomba, but it actually draws plans That idea born within these walls has given rise to the project SitePrinta hybrid between a printer and a robot vacuum cleaner that print on the ground the dimensions of the plans of work. Combining a complex system of positioning and inclination sensors, they allow the robot to determine its position in space and detect unevenness in the terrain, providing additional information to the construction team. 3D printed metal parts Another real application that has been developed in this avant-garde center in Barcelona has to do with the 3D printing development with new techniques and materials with technology Metal Jet. Among its novelties, the use of generative AI to simplify the design of the parts to be printed or the development of 3D printing with metals to manufacture high precision mechanical parts and components. One of the pieces that personally surprised me the most about this technology is the possibility of combining, in the same continuous printing job, flexible materials, with a rubber-like texture, and rigid areas with the hardness of a metal. These technological solutions open a whole range of opportunities for the field of prostheses and cast replacements with 3D printing. New turn towards the future: AI As a symbol of the innovative spirit and reinvention of this center in Sant Cugat, HP has rehabilitated a 15th century farmhouse that was in a state of semi-ruin on the land occupied by the enormous HP technology campus, and has converted it into La Masia Experience Design Center, the spiritual center of its new stage with the creation of the HP AI Innovation Hub. The Masia in its original state. Source: HP With this new hub focused on AI, the Barcelona facilities become the reference center in Europe for the development of AI LMM models that HP will use in its future products: from AI agents premises on their computers to videoconferencing assistance systems, to give some examples that are already on the market. Interior of La Masia Experience Design Center after its reconstruction The new AI hub will collaborate transversally in 14 business units of the company and with all the development centers that the company has throughout the world, especially with its headquarters in Palo Alto, where there is also a team specialized in AI development. As happened in 1985 and later in 2000, with the creation of the HP AI Innovation Hub, … Read more

Intel has been manufacturing chips for decades only for her. His only salvation is to make chips for all others

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Let’s make a trip to the past. The year is 1997 and Steve Jobs has just returned to Applebut the state of the company is terrible and its future, uncertain. To try to save her Apple began to look for strategic alliances, and that was when she announced an absolutely unusual with Microsoft. Bill Gates’s company would invest 150 million dollars in Apple And both would collaborate on several fronts. That unique agreement seemed impossible. Both companies were large rivals, but the truth is that both won with that alliance. Now it seems that we could live an analogous situation with two other companies that are also large rivals. On the one hand Intel, which is as low as Apple was in 1997. On the other TSMC, which dominates in the semiconductor market like Microsoft did it in the software then. According to The Wall Street Journalboth companies are negotiating a possible alliance that is certainly surprising, but has very interesting ramifications. If TSMC helps Intel’s “salvation”, That will give you an advantageous position in future agreements with the US government. This government is now the owner of 10% of Intel’s shares, and for better or worse to get along with Intel, it means getting along with the administration. Taking into account the current policy that practically forces to manufacture chips and components in the US to get rid of tariffs, that potential alliance becomes profitable. Not just that. The agreement also favors TSMC interests when avoiding possible antitrust. How is it going to be a monopoly when you are helping a competitor not go to pique? As They demonstrated Apple and Microsoft, eliminating competition is not the only way to win the game. A promising transition The Historical crisis For which Intel has been going through his new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, to make very difficult decisions. The mass layoffs They are part of that strategy, but the company has also attended a deep restructuring that It is “chopping”. But there is even more. In fact, Intel’s strategy seems to be recognized and Accept the failure of the era of “exclusive chip”. The firm has admitted that manufacturing by and for it had no route, and now wants to focus on a business model on which it is A chips factory for third parties. That is exactly what has placed TSMC where it is. If the alliance with TSMC is completed, a unique strategy would be confirmed by Intel in which in a few weeks we have lived a unique opening to alliances of all kinds and condition: SoftBank injected 2,000 million dollars USA bought 10% of Intel for 8,900 million dollars Nvidia invested 5,000 million dollars Apple is a candidate for a collaboration agreement And now TSMC could also follow those steps All these steps certainly open an escape for an Intel that seemed to be against the strings. If such alliances fruit, Intel will only lack his two great future objectives. The first, fulfill your promises With the 14th node to which everything has opted. The second, Get customers For that node. And that is where those agreements can be very useful. Image | Intel In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

The main car manufacturing countries, exposed in a devastating map that shows the Asian domain

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It depends on what car segment let’s put the magnifying glass, but I know esteem that in 2024 They sold Between 75 and 85 million vehicles worldwide. It is a growth of more than 2% compared to the previous year, and if you have wondered which country is the one that manufactures the most cars, this map responds to perfection and highlights its own name: China. There are also trend changes that should be analyzed. Asian domain. Prepared by Visual Capitalist With data from the OICA (International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers), we can see in blue the countries that dominate cars manufacturing. China produced more than 31 million Of vehicles in 2024, the United States more than 10.5 million and Japan more than eight million. Among the three, 54% of all vehicles built during the past year, but we put the focus on Asia. Apart from China and Japan, India with six million and South Korea with four million are two other countries of that Asian “axis that contribute to the domain of the area in exports worldwide. All have more or less stable production compared to the previous year, being Japan that stars in a 10% decrease in production, but staying between the powers. The opposite case is Thailand, which closes the Top 10 with 1.4 million vehicles produced, assuming a 20% downturn compared to the previous year.

The Samsung chips manufacturing subsidiary walks on the tightrope. Tesla will save her from collapse

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Samsung has reached an agreement with Tesla. An important agreement. According to Bloombergthese two companies have signed a commitment that will run until 2033 and for which the subsidiary specialized in the manufacture of integrated circuits of this South Korean company will produce for Tesla chips for a value of 16.5 billion dollars in its Texas plant (USA). Not bad at all, especially if we are in mind that Samsung urgently needs that its semiconductor division Increase your presence in the market. Jay Y. Lee, the president of this company, sent in the middle of last March An internal statement in which it synthesizes with great precision what this company faces: “Our technological advantage has been compromised in all our businesses. It is difficult to see that efforts are being made to boost great innovations or assume new challenges. There are only attempts to maintain the status quo instead of generating disruptive changes. “ The Samsung subsidiary specialized in the manufacture of semiconductors is largely the company’s engine, and to recover health it is essential that its competitiveness increases. However, to carry it out it is necessary that its integration technology of 2 nm pelee from you to you both with the equivalent lithography of Intel, and, above all, with that of TSMC. However, Samsung’s starting point is favorable. And it is because He has been working in which it is undoubtedly The most important photolithography in its history. The 2 nm are crucial Samsung has led for more than three decades the industry of integrated dram circuits, but the rise of the artificial intelligence (AI) has triggered something that just two or three years ago would have seemed unthinkable: now it is also the South Korean SK Hynix the manufacturer of integrated memory circuits that LEADS THE HBM Chips Market so much (High Bandwidth Memory) that work side by side with the GPUs for the The one of the DRAM memories. Chips manufacturers need the candlestick performance of their avant -garde nodes to be at least 70% In current circumstances it is evident that Samsung needs to trace as soon as possible. And it seems that it is in it. At the beginning of 2025 several South Korean media anticipated that Large scale manufacturing of 2 nm chips It had already begun in the company’s South Korean plants. However, this does not mean that Samsung already has everything tied. Chips manufacturers need The performance by wafer of his avant -garde nodes is at least 70%and, according to the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbothis company currently moves in the range of 40 to 50%. Even so, the Japanese chips designer for the preferred networks (PFN) and a South Korean company specialized in the design of neuronal processing units (NPU) They were already interested in early 2025 in which Samsung manufactured his designs in his new 2 nm node. There is no doubt that at the delicate moment this company is going through, having several agreements tied before its competitors initiate large -scale production with equivalent photolithographs is very important. However, this is not all. And is that just five months after that news the South Korean medium Chosunbizwhich in the matter of semiconductors does not usually give stitch without a thread, said Samsung I had already started the evidence In its 2 Nm node For Nvidia and Qualcomm. This test process does not guarantee that Samsung is finally going to manufacture integrated 2 Nm circuits for these two US companies, but their interest in the technology of this South Korean company is an oxygen ball. There is no doubt about that. Image | Samsung More information | Bloomberg In Xataka | This is the chips war: a former SK Hynix employee is suspected to deliver stolen technology to Huawei

A giant is ready to get into the market of chips manufacturing machines: LG Electronics

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The HBM memories market (High Bandwidth Memory) that work side by side with the GPUs for artificial intelligence (IA) Three companies lead it clearly: Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology. Interestingly, memory chips are The South Korean economy engine Trade dependent. And Samsung and Sk Hynix are Companies that support this industry In this Asian country. In fact, these two South Korean companies compete with each other to master the lucrative HBM memory chips. AND They do not supply when it comes to manufacturing as many integrated circuits as their customers demand. The most important of all of them is, as we can intuit, Nvidia. The export of semiconductors in South Korea increases, but its chips stocks 33.7% fell in April of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023 according to the National Statistics Office. In any case, another South Korean company is ready to enter the market for integrated HBM memory circuits, although it will not compete with SK Hynix and Samsung. LG is preparing a unique machine to produce HBM memories Manufacturing integrated VAGUARD HBM circuits is not simple. The processes involved in the production of these chips are complex, and in them very advanced technologies are involved. SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron are manufacturing on a large scale, although with different success12 -layer HBM3E memories. The two South Korean firms will produce large -scale HBM4 chips during the second semester of 2025, and Micron will do so in 2026. However, CXMT (Changxin Memory Technologies), one of the Chinese companies specialized in the production of memoirs, will launch Your first HBM3E chips in 2027. The main quality of this equipment will be its ability to allow the stack of integrated circuits in a much more efficient way China has several memories manufacturers Important, but they currently do not have solutions capable of competing with the best of SK Hynix or Micron. This circumstance reminds us of how complex it is to manufacture latest generation HBM chips. LG Electronics is going to enter this marketbut you will not compete from you to you with memory chips manufacturers. The opposite; aspires to be your customers. Koo Kwang-Mo, the president of this company, has confirmed That its strategy is to participate in the hardware industry for AI, but it will make it marketing its own chips manufacturing equipment. In fact, LG is developing a machine that will be specifically designed to produce avant -garde HBM memories. According to this company, the main quality of this equipment will be its ability to allow the stack of integrated circuits in a much more efficient way than with the technologies currently available. In theory, the innovation in which LG engineers are working will contribute to the tuning of HBM memories of more capacity and with a lower heat dissipation index. LG plans go to make their HBM memories production team in 2028. The main manufacturers of these machines are the American company Applied Materials and the Dutch Besi, so these are The companies with which LG will compete If finally its memory semiconductor production machine comes to fruition. If so, it is likely that Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron are interested in their team, although it is also possible to apply materials or kiss forward to LG. In fact, SK Hynix and Samsung plan to introduce this technology this year. More information | Economic Seoul In Xataka | Chinese memory chips manufacturers are a nightmare for the US and South Korea. There is a lot at play

These are the chips that are capable of manufacturing without resorting to the most advanced Machine of ASML

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TSMC is not the largest semiconductor manufacturer on the planet by chance. Morris Chang He founded this veteran Taiwanese company in 1987, but his leadership took several years to consolidate. At that time the most important integrated circuit manufacturer was Intel, but The TSMC domain In this industry during the last two decades it is irrefatable. Today monopolizes approximately 60% of the market of the manufacture of integrated circuits, and nothing indicates that in the short term Intel or Samsung, its two main competitors, will be able to dispute your leadership. The success of this company has mainly based on its ability to manufacture large -scale chips using the most advanced integration technologies available and with a very high wafer performance. Here lies its very high competitiveness. And, in addition, he has managed to preserve this position for many years, which has helped him transmit confidence to his solid clients such as a rock. His economic performance is nothing other than a consequence of his career: in 2024 he entered 34% more than in 2023. TSMC claims to be able to bring asml UVE lithography equipment to the limit This integrated circuit manufacturer has confirmed that the tests of its 2 Nm node are being successful, so you can start the large -scale manufacture of semiconductors using this photolithography during the second semester of 2025. However, its medium -term plans do not end here. And is that at the end of last April advance During his North American Technological Conference that is also testing his next avant -garde integration technology. It will call it A14 (1.4 Nm), will enter large -scale production in 2028 and we already know some of its most interesting characteristics. Kevin Zhang ensures that TSMC does not need the ASML UVE High-Nna lithography team to make 1.4 Nm One of its most important spots will consist that you will use transistors Nanosheet Gaa (Gate-alall-around) Second generation. The first generation will arrive next to the Lithography N2 (2 Nm) this year. In addition, this integration technology will land with the promise to make possible the manufacture of integrated circuits with higher performance, higher energy efficiency and a more flexible design. The usual. However, TSMC, fortunately, has been wet and in its event some figures made public that allow us to assess to what extent the arrival of the A14 node will be important. And, according to this company, the integrated circuits produced with the A14 lithography will be 15% faster than the chips manufactured in the NEN N2 with the same consumption; They will reduce energy expenditure by 30% at the same speed, and, in addition, they will put on the table the possibility of increasing the density of logic by 20%. According to Kevin ZhangSenior Vice President and Deputy Director of Operations of TSMC, the A14 node will be attractive to make chips for consumption devices and for strictly professional applications, such as, for example, GPU for artificial intelligence (AI). There is no doubt that TSMC’s promises about their lithography A14 sound good, but there is more that we should not overlook. Zhang says that they will not use the equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) and haute opening (High-na) that manufactures the Dutch company ASML in this node. This is a technical capacity exhibition. These machines, the most advanced that currently exist, are suitable for producing integrated circuits of 2 nm and beyond. In fact, The lithography 14a (1.4 Nm) It will be the first in which Intel will use the Uve High opening equipment of ASML. However, as we have just seen, TSMC says it can produce chips capable of dealing with comparable semiconductors of Intel and Samsung using conventional UVE equipment. 2025 will be the year in which the lithographs of 2 nm will start, and, therefore, it will be the prelude to a presumably even more bloody battle: that of the 1.4 Nm. Image | ASML More information | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | ASML’s new lithography team divides chips manufacturers. TSMC considers not using it until 2030

In his effort for national manufacturing, the US has threatened Samsung. It will serve as little

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Or Apple manufactures the iPhone in the United States, or the Trump administration will impose an additional 25%tariff. The last weeks of May are starring New threats to technology companiessome that They will serve as little in the case of Apple. As much as a new tariff is imposed, the company is still more profitable to manufacture in India than in the United States. It is not the only one under the spotlight. Trump has recently stated that “Samsung and any other that manufactures this product” (the smartphone) will face tariffs. The message is clear: if it is sold in the United States, you want to be manufactured in the United States. Samsung, under the spotlight. In the general photography of best -selling mobile brands in the world, there is not much beyond Chinese brands. Samsung and Apple are the main protagonists, with a minority participation of giants such as Google or Motorola. Trump has made it clear that all telephone manufacturer that manufactures out of the United States will have to face new tariffs. And there is not one that manufactures there. Vietnam as refuge. The history of the Samsung supply chain is one in which China ceased to be present more than ten years ago. The company made a strategic bet for Vietnam, its investments in the country in 2024 exceeded 220 million dollars, and employs more than 100,000 people in which, for years, it was its main refuge against the commercial war between China and the United States. The South Korean giant production chain is strategically diversified between countries such as Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil or Indonesia, having closed its last Chinese phone factories in 2019. The possible impact. Samsung is in a situation similar to Apple’s. Currently, plants in Vietnam are more than 50% of their global production volume. This country has a minimum labor costof just three dollars an hour in electronics. Moving the production chain to the United States is simply unassumable, due to labor costs, factor and R&D, degree of automation in Vietnamese production and lack of a pool of thousands of technicians willing to work in the shifts that make possible the current rhythm of Samsung in Vietnam. A tariff hurts, but less than moving the production chain. A 25% tariff would destroy the current margins of Samsung and force both to absorb a certain part of them and to raise the price of the product in the United States. It is still a better plan to allocate decades to rebuild from scratch an infrastructure and technical specialization in which they have been allocating millions of dollars for more than ten years. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Samsung had it difficult with its exynos processors. Google and Xiaomi have only aggravated their situation

Intel’s future is linked to the success of a single chip manufacturing node: 18A technology

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Intel is facing one of the most difficult stages Of all its history. And its story is not exactly brief. In fact, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce founded this company more than half a century ago, in 1968. As we have explained in other articles, The future of factories and Intel chips packaging and validation centers is uncertain. However, it is possible that these facilities are finally incorporated into a joint company Managed by Intel, TSMCand, perhaps, by some other company of the integrated circuit industry. Anyway, the short -term competitiveness of this company is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: 18A photolithography. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that the 18A node already has the maturity necessary to enter large -scale production in 2025. and also assured that it will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated since the 20A node. In the current scenario the 18A node will be the true protagonist. That is not the slightest doubt. More transistors. More performance. And less consumption This statement by Joseph Bonetti, main manager of Intel engineering programs, expresses very well The important thing that is the 18A node for this company: “Intel leaders, Board of Directors of Intel and Donald Trump administration, please do not sell or give the control of Intel Foundry to TSMC just when Intel is taking the technological front and starting to take off. It would be a terrible and demoralizing error.” Bonetti also maintains that Intel is not lagging for its competitors, and that the advances that their engineers are achieving in the field of chips production are very important. Bonetti does not expressly mention the 18A integration technology, but his statement is supported by it because right now is the asset that Intel has to compete with TSMC and Samsung in the market for the production of integrated circuits in a year in which 2 Nm photolithographies They will take off yes or yes. In the last months Intel has been revealing some of the characteristics of this integration technology, but just a few hours ago and as a prelude to the semiconductor conference ‘2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circu has made public more interesting data. Powervia proposes to physically separate the feed lines and signal signal within each integrated circuit Lithography 18a is erected above all about two essential innovations: Ribbonfet Gate-Lall-Around (GAA) transistors and energy delivery technology Powervia. The purpose of this last improvement is to solve the limitations imposed by the introduction in the integrated circuit of smaller transistors, which are also together more. This scenario causes that within each chip the power lines and signal compete for the same resources, which triggers the appearance of bottlenecks that perceptibly limit the performance and energy efficiency of a CPU. The purpose of Powervia technology is precisely to solve this problem. And to achieve this, what proposes is to physically separate the power lines and signal signal. So far both lived in the same physical space, but From Intel 20A lithographythat It was commercially dismissed In September 2024, the distribution of transistors and food and signal will acquire the form of a sandwich. In this way the transistors will be housed in the center, while the feed lines will reside in a lower layer and those of signal in an upper layer. In any case, for us, the users, the most interesting thing is to know that Intel promises that their lithography 18a will deliver a 25% higher performance using the same voltage as the integration technology Intel 3, as well as a 36% lower energy consumption by using the same frequency and the same voltage. And by reducing this last parameter and moving from 1.1 volts to 0.75 volts, lithography 18a delivers a performance of 18% higher and a consumption of 38% lower. It sounds good, but we should not ignore that This information comes from Intel itself. Whether it is evident that we are interested in consumers that both Intel and TSMC or Samsung have the best state possible. Image | Intel More information | Intel In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

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