manufacturing

Apple is dying of success with the MacBook Neo. So much so that its manufacturing is in danger

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Apple has a problem with MacBook Neo: You are selling it too much. The first Mac with an iPhone processor is being an overwhelming success, and it hits the keys that mobilize the average user: it is cheap, it can be used for practically all uses and… it is a Mac. The problem? That this laptop has the Apple A18 Pro It is no coincidence, and that it is selling so much is a problem for the supply chain. Why the A18 Pro. Apple is not manufacturing new A18 Pro chips for its MacBook Neo, it is recycling processors from the original production. If we look at its technical details, the MacBook Neo incorporates a five-core GPU and not six. When processors are manufactured in batches, not all of them work perfectly. Some may have specific failures in one of the CPU or GPU cores. Instead of throwing them away, Apple deactivates that defective core and can sell a trimmed version of it. This allowed Apple to create a laptop whose processor was practically at zero costa pillar for the profitability of the product. The problem. The demand for the MacBook Neo is exceeding Apple’s expectationsand the stock of the A18 Pro is starting to come to an end. According to Tim Culpan, production of this device is divided equally between Quanta and Foxconn, with an initial plan to produce about six million units. As of today, suppliers are not clear about being able to produce more MacBook Neo with the stock of A18 Pro processors. The dilemma. The Apple A18 Pro is manufactured in TSMC’s N3E process, three-nanometer technology, a chip whose production capacity is practically exhausted. Among Apple’s options would be to pay a premium to order urgent batches from TSMC, something that would allow production to resume but would end the key to the Neo: manufacturing an economical product with a profit margin. The second plan involves reallocating the wafers that Apple uses for other devices to the production of the Neo, another solution that does not seem ideal. If we add to this the current storage and RAM costs, the production of the Neo becomes complicated. No solution in sight. If demand for the MacBook Neo remains above expectations, Apple will have a decision to make. Raise Neo prices? Eliminate the budget 256 GB option? Offer new colors to revitalize the product? Be that as it may, the Neo makes one thing clear: the strategy of selling MacBooks at the lowest possible price works. And even more so when we are at that point where a mobile processor is, literally, a PC processor. In Xataka | The MacBook Neo is the biggest existential threat to the Windows laptop market. And the manufacturers have no answer

prepares total blockade of chip manufacturing machines arriving in China

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The US has been exercising its control over advanced integrated circuit manufacturing equipment for five years now to prevent it from reaching China. It is the strategy with the one that has managed to slow downbut in no way slow down, the technological development of the country led by Xi Jinping. In 2021, it approved the first restrictions that prevented machines from extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) of ASML and other advanced equipment arrive in China. From that moment on, the US Government has continued to deploy new sanctions with the purpose of increasingly limiting the access of Chinese semiconductor manufacturers to lithography and wafer processing equipment that comes not only from the US, but also from the Netherlands, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan. The US is exercising ownership of some of the patents that these machines use, and also their ability to influence the decisions made by their allies. However, the Administration led by Donald Trump still has room to tighten its siege on China. And presumably it will do so in the short term because several senators belonging to both parties (Democrats and Republicans) have proposed new legislation which seeks to impose an essentially total ban on exports of advanced chip manufacturing and wafer processing equipment to certain corporations in adversary nations. It is clear that China is in their sights. Objective: Prevent ASML’s UVP photolithography machines from reaching China State-of-the-art lithography equipment is extraordinarily complex and sophisticated. Currently, the most used by integrated circuit manufacturers to produce cutting-edge chips are deep ultraviolet (UVP) and extreme ultraviolet (UVE) machines. A priori, UVP machines are suitable for manufacturing semiconductors up to 10 nm. And with EUVs it is possible to go up to 2 nm. However, by refining the processes involved in transferring the pattern to the wafer and turning to multiple patterning It is possible to go beyond these integration technologies. The US is especially targeting SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong Semiconductor, YMTC and CXMT This technique broadly consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. It may have an upward impact on the cost of chips and a downward impact on production capacity, but it works. SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturerhas resorted to multiple patterning for manufacture 7nm integrated circuits using ASML’s Twinscan NXT:2000i UVP lithography equipment. US export controls currently prevent the sale of UVP equipment to specific factories in China that may or may not appear on the US blacklist, but do not prohibit its sale to the companies that own these plants. This is precisely what the MATCH Law seeks to change (Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware) that US senators have proposed. In practice this proposal will, if successful (and it probably will), prevent ASML’s UVP machines and other advanced wafer processing equipment from reaching any facilities of major Chinese chipmakers. The US is targeting SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong Semiconductor, YMTC and CXMT, and also their subsidiaries. He picks it up clearly. the published document by Senator Michael Baumgartner. In reality this proposal does not introduce new restrictions; what it does is change how shipping is allowed of advanced tools to prevent Chinese companies from continuing to develop sophisticated techniques, such as multiple patterningwith the purpose of producing cutting-edge chips. Be that as it may, in the medium term, China will need to have your own advanced lithography machines to be able to sustain its technological development. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Congressman Michael Baumgartner In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

Lace Lithography is Europe’s opportunity to surpass the US and Asia in chip manufacturing. From Barcelona

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Lace Lithography is not just another startup. And it is not because it is developing a new photolithography technique that seeks to break down all the barriers that limit the performance of ultraviolet light technology used by the machines manufactured by the Dutch company ASML. And they are used by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix or SMIC, among other semiconductor manufacturers. A priori, the most prudent thing to do when faced with news like this is to adopt a skeptical stance, but Lace’s work deserves to be taken very seriously. Otherwise it would not have the support of Microsoft nor would it have raised $40 million in financing. The founders of this company are the Norwegian physicist Bodil Holst and the Spanish physicist and engineer Adrià Salvador Palau. These two scientists created Lace Lithography in 2023, and although their headquarters reside in Bergen (Norway), an important part of their research and development team operates from Barcelona. Be that as it may, the most important thing is that the strategy that this company has devised to solve the lithography of the next generation of integrated circuits does not resemble nor to ASML technology nor to any other innovation we have heard of so far. The first prototypes are already ready and the test plant will be ready in 2029 The itinerary that Lace Lithography seeks to follow is very ambitious. Its first prototypes, according to Reutersare already prepared, and intends to develop a test tool and a cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing pilot plant in 2029. In any case, in addition to their plans, we know some details about their technology that are worth investigating. In the integrated circuit manufacturing equipment that ASML designs and produces, ultraviolet light is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with great precision to the surface of the silicon wafer. Lace Lithography uses a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer The light used by high-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment, which is the most advanced machine that ASML has Currently, it belongs to the most energetic portion of the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, its wavelength extends in the range that goes from 10 to 100 nanometers (nm). The problem is that it is not easy to generate and deal with this form of electromagnetic radiation. And it is not, among other reasons, because it is so energetic that it alters the structure of the physical elements with which it interacts inside the lithography machine. Lace’s technology solves this and other problems that are closely linked to the use of ultraviolet radiation to manufacture chips. And instead of using light, the engineers at this company use a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer. However, the most striking thing is that this beam has the width of a single hydrogen atom (around 0.1 nm), so on paper this solution will make it possible to produce semiconductors ten times smaller than the smallest ones that TSMC, Samsung or Intel are currently manufacturing. “Our technology opens a path that potentially has the ability to expand (chip makers’) agenda, as well as make things possible that otherwise would not have been viable,” Bodil Holst declared. John Petersen, scientific director of lithography at IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Center), the most experienced laboratory in developing new integration and nanotechnology technologies that we have in Europe, maintains that the main advantage of using the helium atom beam is that it allows creating much smaller transistors than the current ones. “They are almost unimaginable,” Petersen pointed out. It sounds really good. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters | Lace Lithography In Xataka | China needs to develop a new type of chips immune to US sanctions. And your scientists have just achieved it

NVIDIA has lost hope in China, which is why it has started manufacturing its own next-generation GPUs for AI

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NVIDIA faces this 2026 a crucial year. They have become one of the largest strategic investors in the AI ​​ecosystem with dozens of billion-dollar investments in other companies, models, infrastructure and robotics. But, in the end, they are a company that supplies chips and, so far, the H200 They set the tone. According to a report by Financial Timesthat’s over. NVIDIA just ordered TSMC to start mass manufacturing Vera Rubinits next-generation hardware for AI. The reason? They have lost all faith in China. In short. With the entire AI industry looking to the future, and NVIDIA that has its Vera Rubin on the starting grid, it was strange that the company continued to invest so much in keeping TSMC working on a chip as old as the H200. Although it has been around for a while, it has positioned itself as unbeatable in the industry due to its price/power ratio, so these are the chips on which it has been built. the AI ​​empire. However, time passes and NVIDIA needs to move. Data centers need more power, new models are more demanding and the spearhead of the software sector – such as OpenAI either Google– have demanded new solutions. According to two sources consulted by the financial media, and close to NVIDIA’s plans, the company has grown tired of “waiting in limbo” and has begun to accelerate the delivery and deployment of Vera Rubin. Yoncomparable. As it could not be otherwise, TSMC is going to be in charge. The Taiwanese foundry would have already been asked to begin diversifying the production line to begin manufacturing the new chips. And if you’re wondering why it’s not enough for Google or OpenAI to simply buy more H200, the answer is because the chips have nothing to do with it. H200 is a more classic GPU for a data center. It is the configuration that AI and computing companies on these servers have been working with for years. Vera Rubin, however, is a paradigm shift made up of new CPUs, new GPUs and designed so that everything works as a single rack-scale accelerator. It has not only more power, but also the latest software and hardware additions from NVIDIA and something very important: incredible bandwidth. The higher the bandwidth on such a system, the more simultaneous data it can handle. This implies greater efficiency when training, but also a lower cost in inference. It is not an update, it is a platform change designed for models with trillions of parameters. Qgoose faith in China. To put it more simply, if the H200 is like a “super powerful graphics card”, Vera Rubin is like a mini data center in itself. And if you’re wondering why they didn’t start production sooner, the reason is… China. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has been ‘fighting’ with Washington for months to open their arms in the trade and technology war maintained by the US and China. Trump ended up agreeing and Huang commented earlier this year that they had returned to “turn on” all production lines to supply the very high Chinese demand. The problem is that that demand did not arrive. At least, It was not as high as Huang expected. In the presentation of results, NVIDIA’s financial director commented a few days ago that “although small quantities of H200 for Chinese customers were approved by the US government, we have not yet generated any income. And we do not know if imports to China will be allowed.” We already told the problem: The US was leaving for NVIDIA to sell its graphics, butThe Chinese government did not seem so convinced. Your main Big Tech They were demanding NVIDIA solutionsarguing that they need them to keep up with what their American rivals are doing, but the ball was in the court of the Government and Customs. China is promoting AI that is different from that of the US, more focused on low costs and rapid acceptance by the client, and at the same time want to build your own hardware network with companies like SMIC or a Huawei that you already have your supercomputer for AI. complicated swerve. From the Financial Times they point out that the president of China, Xi Jinping, and the president of the United States will meet at the end of March to discuss export controls. The problem is that, according to their sources, even if the barrier is lifted completely and not just for certain companies and China can buy H200s en masse, turning TSMC’s ship around so that it starts producing H200s again would be complicated. It is not as simple as pressing a button and going from producing one thing to another. If this situation occurs, “NVIDIA would take up to three months to reallocate or add capacity to the supply chain to produce H200.” One of Vera Rubin’s PCBs Rebound winner. What is clear here is that NVIDIA is not going to lose from the operation. Huang already argued that the United States could not miss the opportunity to take a slice of a multi-billion dollar market (because the US let the cards be sold… with a 25% tariff), but whether it is the Chinese or the Western industry, it is from NVIDIA that they continue to buy the H200 and, ‘shortly’, the Vera Rubin. And the rebound winner in this operation is Samsung. Of the three companies that manufacture memory (and that have catapulted the RAM and SSD crisis we are in), Samsung is the one that has completed its new generation HBM4 memory. It is the one that has passed the high standards of NVIDIA and the one that is already being mass manufactured to be able to integrate into Vera Rubin systems. Everyone attentive. As we said, NVIDIA has to the entire industry at his feet. Google, xAI and Meta are working on their own chips, but together with Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, OpenAI, Mistral and Anthropic they are some of the companies that they … Read more

A Japanese toilet company has been manufacturing key parts in the chip industry for years. And now it is going to be key in AI

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Toto, world famous for their toilets with a trickle that we usually miss so much when we return from Japan, has been quietly manufacturing key components for the semiconductor industry for decades. Just like account Financial Times, an activist fund has focused on that part of its business, and the market is starting to pay attention. What has happened. Palliser Capital, a UK-based activist fund, has sent a letter to Toto’s board of directors arguing that the advanced ceramics the company works on are being ignored and underestimated by the market. The fund, which owns a stake among the 20 largest in the company, according to share from FT, calls Toto “the most underrated and overlooked AI memory beneficiary.” What is important. Toto is not just a bathroom company. Since 1988 it has been manufacturing the so-called ‘electrostatic chucks’ in series.‘ (electrostatic jaws), high-precision ceramic components used in the manufacture of NAND memory chips to hold silicon wafers during the production process, controlling temperature and avoiding contamination. This business, which they fit within their “advanced ceramics” division, already represents around 42% of the company’s total operating profit, according to data from Bloomberg. The connection with AI. He data center boom for artificial intelligence has skyrocketed the demand for memory chips. Companies like Meta, Amazon or large memory manufacturers (SK Hynix, Samsung, Kioxia) are accelerating their production to face a widespread shortage. That translates into more demand for the components that Toto manufactures. The company’s ceramic technology is also specially adapted for cryogenic etching, a process that is expected to gain popularity as memory chips become more complex and layered. Business tips. According to share The fund also criticizes that Toto is not explaining well to investors the importance of this segment and that the allocation of internal capital is not prioritizing this lucrative sector. The fund proposes that the company expand its ceramics business, sell cross-stakes in other companies and make better use of its 76 billion yen in cash (about $496 million). If Toto did all that, Palliser estimates the stock could rise more than 55%. The market had already started to move. Toto shares have accumulated a revaluation of more than 60% in the last year. Just like share Bloomberg, at the end of January, after the support of Goldman Sachs, which raised the value to buy pointing to the memory shortage as a tailwind, the stock rose 11% in a single day, its biggest rise in five years. Be careful with the warnings. The idea that Toto would have that competitive advantage before other competitors can be at that level comes from Palliser himself, who has an obvious interest in making that narrative credible. Tom’s Hardware points out that while electrostatic jaws play a real role in advanced manufacturing processes, whether that translates into sustained growth still depends in part on large memory manufacturers committing to expanding production and, for now, they are being cautious faced with the risk of oversupply if the AI ​​market cools. The phenomenon is not exclusive to Toto. Japan has a long history in chip production, which has led companies with very different profiles to develop businesses related to semiconductors almost without anyone noticing. Just like share Bloomberg, Ajinomoto, known for its broths and its mastery of umami, makes insulating films for chips based on its expertise with amino acids. Kao, a cosmetics company, has a silicon wafer cleaning business. The AI ​​business is revaluing companies that, a priori, had nothing to do with it. And Toto is the latest example of this. Cover image | Taylor Vick and Upgraded Points In Xataka | What future awaits artists with the rise of AI? In Ireland they see it so black that they are already preparing a basic income

is already manufacturing the “Formula 1” of carbon fibers

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Carbon fiber is a material widely used in industry, from aeronautics to motorsports to wind turbine blades or bicycle frames. But there are fibers and fibers: While the industry standard is the T300 and T700, there are high-performance ones like the T800 or T1000. If we talk about the best and the most advanced, the high-performance aerospace grade T1100 comes into the picture. Of course, it was only manufactured in two countries: Japan or the United States. China is about to change that. An industry located in two countries. More specifically, in the T1100 producing industry, the Japanese Toray Industries It is the absolute reference (they invented that nomenclature). Then there is Hexcel in the United States, with its counterpart the HexTow IM10. In the United States there is also a Toray plant in Alabama, which the Japanese company advertisement back in 2022 with one goal: to meet the demand of the US defense sector. That’s if we talk about industrial scale, because in the laboratory Russia, South Korea wave India They are making their first steps. And of course, China. China makes a virtue of necessity. The Asian giant has achieved a milestone: going from the laboratory to the production plant with a 95% success rate in the city of Langfang, according to CGTN. They explain that, to ensure stable production, Shenzhen University worked hand in hand with the Changsheng Technology company since 2023. Why is it important. To begin with, because you can produce small laboratory samples, but the difficult thing is to scale to industrial volumes. This is what happens with a good part of the promising materials. But by combining state capital, university laboratory and factory research side by side, China has achieved a brutal synergy in the development of new materials: CGTN mentions expressly advances every 3 or 4 months and more than 30 rounds of iteration examining hundreds of factors to eliminate defects and reach mass production. The fact in itself is a milestone, but what is truly important is the consequence: technological independence. Once launched, China’s aerospace and defense programs will no longer be limited by the supply of this carbon fiber from abroad. T1100 carbon fiber is strategic. It is the material strongest structural (in strength-to-weight ratio) and lightest that humans can produce on a scale: it has a tensile strength of 7,000 MPa and a thickness of just five micrometers. It is seven times stronger than steel while weighing only a quarter as much, it synthesizes a scientist from Shenzhen University for CGTN. And it is essential for the manufacture of fighter aircraft, satellites, rockets and civil aircraft. It is, therefore, a strategic and sensitive material due to its dual civil and military use. For this reason, Japan and the United States have strict export controls. That is, if you want T1100 grade carbon fiber to cover your fighters, for example, you have to check out if everything goes well, because obviously such a strategic material is subject to geopolitical diplomacy. This point is important because How about GPUs?the United States may block its sale to China. And in fact, does it. Also Japan, via Wassenaar Agreement. In perspective. Toray launched the T300 in 1971quickly making this carbon fiber the industry standard. Forty-three years later, the Japanese company announced the T1100 in 2014. China, on the other hand, had to wait until 2008 to have his own T300, but he has stepped on the accelerator and in just 18 years he has caught up. In Xataka | Xi Jinping’s “made in China 2025” plan is becoming a reality: this is how he is conquering the key technologies of the future In Xataka | China has a metamaterial capable of making its fighters invisible. “It is the key to winning future wars” Cover | CGTN

Ukraine is proving that kamikaze drones are the future of warfare. And that is why Spain is going to start manufacturing them

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Europe has been talking about defense as an abstract concept for years, but the war in Ukraine turned the threat into something physical and quantifiable: drones, missiles, loitering munitions and a logistics chain under constant fire, forcing NATO to assume that the modern battlefield is a “death zone” where those who do not mass produce are at a disadvantage. And in that equation an unexpected nation has emerged: Spain. The new shield of Europe. To that strategic pressure after the invasion of Russia and the appearance of his ghost fleet An even more uncomfortable factor has been added: the political tension with the United States and the growing sense that the Western security umbrella is no longer It is not an automationbut a negotiation. In this double impulse is born the rush for a European defensive shield (perhaps that repeated drone wall), and not only in radars or interceptors, but in industry, stocks and real response capacity, where manufacturing speed matters as much as quality and where technological sovereignty becomes a survival requirement. The unexpected actor: Spain. In this scenario of rapid rearmament and need for autonomy, Spain aims to go from being a country that buys to being one who producesand also do it with a weapon that defines contemporary war: the kamikaze droneor loitering munition, which watches, waits and strikes with precision at costs much lower than manned aviation or traditional missiles. The move is ambitious because Spain does not compete from the heavy industrial tradition of other European partners, there is no doubt, but from a commitment to the most demanded segmentscalable and urgent of the moment: cheap, numerous, quickly upgradeable platforms and capable of saturating defenses. The political and military thesis seems clear: if Europe’s immediate future is decided by who can produce and replenish drones the fastest, then a country that leads that manufacturing not only wins contracts, also influence. Comparison of UAVs in the international market The Indra-Edge alliance. The core of the movement was in the news yesterday with the agreement between Indra and Emirati giant Edge to create a joint venture focused on the development, production and full lifecycle support of loitering munitions and smart weapons, with an estimated order book of about 2 billion euros annually. There is talk of manufacturing drones and sustained capacity: design, assembly line, maintenance, replacement and scaling, something essential in a type of war where systems are consumed at an industrial rate. Indra relies on experience Edge on suicide drones to accelerate the technological leap, while underlining that the real value for Europe is in pproduce in European territoryfulfilling the logic of sovereignty and reducing dependencies and deadlines in a market that is moving due to urgency and not by comfortable calendars. Castilla y León as a military-industrial hub. The bet has taken concrete form with two plants in Castilla y León: in Villadangos del Páramo (León), a production facility dedicated to drones and loitering munitions will be built, with an investment of about 20 million euros and a forecast of up to 200 jobs at full capacity. Another plant focused on micromotors will be installed in Boecillo (Valladolid), a critical component that defines autonomy, reliability and production capacity. The combination is revealing: it is not only the “final product”, also, and very important, the control of key pieces, which allows manufacture without bottlenecks and sustain a high exit rate when the strategic environment demands constant replacement. The objective is for Spain to not only be an assembler, but also part of the industrial heart that makes war with drones possible. Defense turns it into a state program. The Ministry of Defense has presented the project as part of the Industrial and Technological Plan for Security and Defense approved in May 2025, and has stated that the León factory will produce “the most advanced drones that can operate today in Europe and NATO.” Beyond the owner, what is relevant is that the new company would already be born with valued contracts around 2 billion of euros, with a workload committed to covering the needs of the Spanish Armed Forces and also other European armies, and with a performance horizon in 2026 and 2027. The implicit message is that Spain wants to be in the industrial layer that supports the European defensive shield, not as a secondary actor, but as a real supplier of a capacity that decides tactical survival on the front. Politics gets on the drone. The announcement, furthermore, is made with a staging in the Senate and in a pre-electoral context in Castilla y León, where the local impact (those 00 jobs distributed between León and Valladolid) turns the defense industry into territorial policy tool. The narrative mixes national security and reindustrialization: Small areas such as Villadangos del Páramo appear as recipients of a project of high technological value, while it is presented as a historic turn for the Spanish industrial base. At the same time, it is linked to other military initiatives in the community, emphasizing that rearmament It is not only a strategic debate, but a map of investments, works, infrastructure and employment that reorders public priorities. The real game. Finally, the movement also gives clues about the future of Europe with Ukraine as a mirror: the defensive shield It is no longer measured only in troops and doctrine, but in the ability to produce cheap, intelligent and massive systems, with short innovation cycles and controlled supply chains. Somehow, Russia has imposed the pace of the threat, and Washington has added the political pressure of not depending eternally on an external guarantor. In this scenario, Spain tries to occupy an unexpected gap: become the protagonist of the European loitering ammunition, the tool kamikaze which not only serves to attack, but also to deny space, saturate defenses and impose costs on the adversary. In a Europe that has belatedly discovered that modern war is also won in factories, Spain wants are in their territory. Image | Khamenei.ir In Xataka | Europe faces … Read more

Europe is the world leader in heat pump manufacturing. The only problem is that Europeans don’t use them

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Not to get grandiose, but Europe has never had so many renewables underwayhad never made so much clean technology and never had talked so much about energy independence. And yet, winter has arrived again and the ritual is always the same: turning on the heating still means burning imported gas. Although if we reach this point it is not for lack of alternatives, because they are there. The problem is much more mundane: in much of the continent, heating with electricity it’s still more expensive than doing it with gas. The energy shock that changed everything. A recent EMBER report has detailed how Europe abruptly lost access to cheap Russian gas and had to replace it with much more expensive liquefied natural gas in a highly volatile global market. The result was an unprecedented price shock: an accumulated extra cost of 930 billion euros during the energy crisis. More on fossils. Far from being a problem caused by the green transition, the document indicates that the impact was concentrated precisely in the sectors most dependent on imported fossil fuels. Energy-intensive industries reduced production and, in many cases, never returned to pre-Ukraine war levels. This reading coincides with that presented by researcher Jan Rosenowwho rejects the idea that dismantling climate policies would make energy cheaper. The problem, he maintains, was not going too fast, but rather having delayed electrification for decades and having kept gas as the pillar of the system. Here the central contradiction emerges. According to EMBERheat pumps are a mature, efficient and strategic technology: they produce between two and three times more heat than a gas boiler for each unit of energy consumed. Even if that electricity came entirely from a gas plant, the net fuel savings would still exist. However, in practice, the technological advantage is diluted in the bill. In most EU countries, electricity costs 2 to 4 times more than gas for the end consumer. The average electricity-gas ratio in the EU is 2.85, and in some member states it exceeds 4. The problem: the pricing structure. As pointed out in the consultancynon-energy costs —taxes, tolls and public policy surcharges— can represent up to three quarters of the final price of electricity, while gas maintains a much lower tax burden. The result is an obvious distortion: the most efficient technology appears expensive and the most polluting technology appears affordable. You save but not. For an average home, this anomaly has a direct effect, since changing systems reduces energy consumption, but it does not always reduce the bill. And when that happens, adoption slows down. Furthermore, the data confirm that this is not a cultural or climatic issue, but rather an economic one. In countries like the Netherlands, where electricity is only slightly more expensive than gas, heat pump sales are soaring. On the other hand, in Germany, Poland or Hungary —where electricity can cost more than three times as much as gas—, adoption is much lower. The lever that remains to be activated. Solutions exist and many are immediately applicable: transferring the costs of electricity policies to public budgets, reducing electricity VAT, taxing fossil gas more coherently or implementing specific rates for heat pumps. From there, technological deployment is no longer a promise, but a reality. In fact, Europe leads the global heat pump industrywith manufacturers such as Bosch, Vaillant, NIBE or Danfoss, and with industrial projects that already operate on a large scale. These are not prototypes or pilots, but rather functioning infrastructure. Real limits and tensions. None of this eliminates obstacles. Europe still need gas to stabilize its electrical grid. The infrastructures are stressed, the flexibility of the system is insufficient and any cold winter can send prices skyrocketing again. Added to this are the physical frictions of the transition. The massive expansion of offshore wind in the North Sea is generating unprecedented conflicts between countries due to the so-called “wake effect”, which reduces the production of neighboring parks. Electrification is not only a matter of political will, but also of technical coordination and supranational planning. The anomaly that Europe has not yet corrected. Europe already has the technology, the industry and the climate goals. What it has not yet corrected is a basic anomaly: fiscally penalizing electricity while de facto subsidizing fossil gas. As long as that distortion persists, heat pumps will continue to advance more slowly than data, engineering, and economic common sense would allow. As the EMBER report concludeselectrifying heating is not a green whim, but a strategy for energy security, industrial competitiveness and price stability. The transition is not about inventing new machines, but about deciding which energy is made cheaper and which is left behind. And today, in Europe, that decision continues to be reflected—very clearly—in the invoice. Image | freepik Xataka | While the US and China dominate different sectors, Europe leads an unexpected leadership: heat pumps

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

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