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97% of a key mineral for Europe comes from China. Spain has a plan of 197 million to turn it around

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Constant technological development has unleashed a silent but relentless geopolitical war. At the center of the target are rare earths and critical minerals, essential for manufacturing everything from mobile phones to electric cars or wind turbines. Nowadays, how to explain Europa PressEurope is in a situation of extreme vulnerability: 97% of the magnesium we consume comes from China and 98% of the borate we import from Türkiye. However, the solution to this deep dependence could be buried under Spanish soil. A new plan. As detailed in the National Mining Exploration Program 2026-2030 (PNEM), the official document promoted by the Government of Spain20 of the 34 raw materials that the European Union classifies as fundamental have been detected in the Iberian Peninsula. Of them, 17 are considered strategic due to their high technological and defense impact. To map and take advantage of this “treasure”, the Executive has launched an ambitious plan. The financing table of the PNEM itself projects a total investment of 197 million euros for the five-year period 2026-2030, adding public financing, aid and private investment that is expected to be mobilized. A breath for Europe and an opportunity for Spain. The European roadmap, crystallized in the Fundamental Raw Materials Regulation (Critical Raw Materials Act or CRMA), is very clear: guarantee access to a safe and diversified supply. By 2030, the European Union has set a goal of extracting at least 10%, processing 40% and recycling 25% of its domestic demand for these materials. In this context, Spain is not a secondary actor, but is the only producer of strontium in Europe, hosting 15% of the world’s reserves in the Montevives and Escúzar basin in Granada, and holds the position of second largest copper producer on the continent. according to data provided by Europa Press. The main focus of exploration is located in the Variscan or Iberian Massif, an extensive geological strip that crosses the west of the peninsula from Galicia to Andalusia, passing through Cantabria, Asturias, Castilla y León and Extremadura. The official document highlights, within this great massif, the so-called Central Ibérica, Ossa-Morena and South Portuguesa Zones as priority areas for general exploration. The private sector takes positions. On a practical level, intentions are already being translated into business movements on the ground. In Extremadura the Junta has granted a license to explore an area of ​​49,500 hectares in the Cáceres regions of Los Ibores and Campo de Arañuelo. In Andalusia, specifically in Jaén, the Australian company Osmond Resources will promote the Orion projectcovering 228 square kilometers in the former mining region of Linares-La Carolina to search for unusually high concentrations of rutile, zircon and rare earths such as neodymium. For its part, the European Commission has already blessed seven strategic projects in Spanish territory to protect the supply, located in enclaves of Ciudad Real, Orense, Cáceres, Badajoz, Huelva and Seville. Cutting-edge technology versus “pick and shovel”. The National Mining Exploration Program does not contemplate blindly digging holes. The Ministry’s text outlines six great performances interconnected to locate these raw materials. The process will begin with an exhaustive review of historical data and geoscientific reports, followed by the preparation of highly detailed geological-mining cartography. From there, technology will take over. Geochemical soil prospecting campaigns and complex isotopic analyzes will be carried out to find anomalies in the terrain. In addition, cutting-edge geophysical techniques will be deployed, using everything from airborne gravimetry and magnetometry equipment (planes and drones), to remote sensing using high-resolution hyperspectral and satellite images provided by the European Space Agency. All of this will be complemented by carrying out physical surveys to confirm the mining interest of the anomalies. Finally, as the official plan highlights, all this huge amount of data will be processed using algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate predictive models of mineralization. The inevitable clash: Mining vs. Biodiversity. However, technology collides head-on with strict environmental reality. The clearest example is in Campo de Montiel (Ciudad Real). There, the company Quantum Minería has been trying to exploit a promising monazite deposit to extract rare earths. But the project has encountered strong neighborhood opposition due to the very high water consumption it requires and an unexpected defender: the iberian lynx. The recovery of this feline’s territories in the area has become a major legal obstacle for the mining company, paralyzing permits due to fear of destroying its habitat. Although before the environmental alarms go off, it is important to make a fundamental point: this National Program serves to know what we have, it is not an authorization to dig it up. The Ministry’s own document clarifies that the plan does not establish “binding or indicative objectives” for exploitation. That is, it is a purely prospective roadmap and data collection that does not compromise or zone the territory to open real mines. The mine is in the “garbage”. Faced with this paralysis and the immense difficulty of opening new mines in natural areas, Spain has an ace up its sleeve: secondary mining and the circular economy. The National Program reserves one of its main transversal lines to respond to article 27 of the European regulations (CRMA), thoroughly investigating the economic potential of mining waste facilities that were closed or abandoned in the past. The Ministry document remember thatalready in the 80s, an inventory was prepared that cataloged 21,673 waste structures (rafts and waste dumps) spread throughout the national territory. Now, the State’s objective is to review this catalog and promote geochemical characterization work to recover those fundamental raw materials that, at the time, were not of interest or could not be extracted and were discarded. As pointed out Europa Press, Research teams from the University of Seville led by professors Joaquín Delgado and Antonio Romero are already working in Río Tinto (Huelva) designing experimental plants to recover valuable metals and rare earths from the acidic waters of abandoned mines. Even beyond the mine. A clear example of this circular bet is the RC-Metals projectled by the National Center for Metallurgical Research (CENIM-CSIC). … Read more

This map shows what the Earth will be like in 250 million years. If it comes true, Spain will be very lucky

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About 200 million years ago, the last supercontinent began to break up. The division of Pangea It gave way, very little by little, to the current geological composition. But what was separated will come together again. The continents keep movingcrashing into each other, and one theory suggests that it will be within 250 million years when another supercontinent will emerge. We have named it as Pangea Ultimaand the truth is that it will not matter exactly which countries we have as neighbors. Pangea Ultima. plate tectonics It is curious because they continue to move one under the other, and that is what has led to the theory of continental drift. These movements are studied to understand the past, as well as to decipher the future, and one of those scholars is Christopher Scotese. This American geographer is the creator of the PALEOMAP Projectwhich seeks to show not only how the elements have moved these last 1,000 million years, but is also attributed the prediction of that future supercontinent. and Scotese elaborated this map: What is it that has inspired the one who opens this article: Curious neighbors. According to this, within about 50 million years North America would have rotated so much that Alaska would be at a subtropical latitude and Eurasia would also rotate, but in the opposite direction, making Britain closer to the North Pole. Africa will move closer to Europe and Arabia, both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean will disappear and, within 100 million years, the Atlantic will begin to shrink. It will be in 150 million years when the Atlantic will disappear as a result of being sucked in by the American continent, bringing America and that block composed of Eurasia and Africa much closer. And the culmination will occur within 200 million years when this new supercontinent is formed, with the Indian Ocean as a central sea and a curious neighborhood mix. According to this model, Latin America would be more or less the same, but with African neighbors to the east. Cuba would be attached to the United States, Greenland would be next to Canada (bad luck, Trump) and Spain would continue to border France and Portugal, but also with Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. England would also be close to France and Korea would be in a curious sandwich between Japan and China. It will make exactly the same. But the truth is that it doesn’t matter what your new neighbors seem to you, not because, obviously, you won’t be there to suffer them, but because humanity may have become extinct by then. Not because we sometimes put effort into it, but because the conditions will not be the most ideal for the life of mammals. In a study Published in Nature, researchers predicted that 92% of the Earth would be uninhabitable for mammals. The reason is that, in a simulation of the climate of this new supercontinent, it is estimated that the temperatures of a large part of Pangea Ultima will be more than 40ºC, but in addition the amounts of CO₂ will make the life of mammals… complicated. Due to the number of collisions between plates, there will be great volcanic activity that will increase the CO₂ emissions into the atmospherea, not only warming the planet, but also encouraging the levels of this CO₂ to double the current levels. In addition, the Sun will be 2.5% brighter at that time because its nuclear fusion rate will have increased and this is something that will also contribute to making the planet drier. Spain not so bad. It’s not a very encouraging outlook, to be honest, since plant life will also experience mass extinction, but researchers point out that conditions may not be so bad in all parts of the new world. Thus, those closest to the top of the North Pole could have cooler conditions that facilitate better adaptation to life. And Spain, Portugal, Morocco or England are in that scenario. It is also possible that we become specialists in desert environments, becoming nocturnal animals in something similar to what was seen in ‘Dune‘. Alexander Farnsworth, one of the researchers who have simulated the climate conditions of that future, also analyzed From the most serious point of view, how life makes its way in the climate of Arrakis and points to this parallelism with the Earth in 250 million years. one more. Is this what the Earth will look like in 250 million years? Namely, but there are several hypotheses formulated in recent decades that, in one way or another, point to the existence of that supercontinent. One is Novopangeawhere the Pacific will close. another is Auricawith the closure of both the Atlantic and the Pacific. And another model is Amasiawith the union between Asia and America. And it doesn’t matter the model, they are still similar to the last Pangea and, after this new supercontinent, the estimate is that the Atlantic will open again, separating the countries and beginning a new cycle of rupture. What will happen to life? Well, it will make its way, as the great Jeff Goldblum already said in ‘jurassic park‘, because mass extinctions… there have been several. Image | Coffee In Xataka | The Earth has moons that we don’t know about: exploring them is key to revealing the secrets of our solar system In Xataka | This map is a journey through time: this is how the Earth has evolved for 750 million years A version of this article was published in 2025

OpenAI is the most successful company on the planet. Also the one that plans to lose 85,000 million dollars in a single year

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Something special is going to happen in 2026: both OpenAI and Anthropic are going public. This will finally mean that individual investors can invest in them and bet on their future with their money. It will be the definitive exam for the credibility of companies that have grown exceptionally in recent years but also They have burned the money as if there were no tomorrow. But be careful, because there is a compelling reality here: they are going to continue burning it in an even more astonishing way. The two sides of the IPO. The Wall Street Journal has had access to the financial documents submitted to investors before the IPOs proposed by both OpenAI and Anthropic. They reveal extraordinarily striking data that have two sides. Amazement and concern with OpenAI. For example, OpenAI has indicated that it will almost double its revenue this year. According to their forecasts, they could become profitable in 2026 if one excludes the cost of training their models (which are stratospheric, of course). But there is the other reality: OpenAI expects to spend $121 billion on computing power in 2028, so even doubling revenue it will lose, attention, $85 billion. No company has ever lost this amount of money and survived, but OpenAI not only promises that it will survive, but that those losses will end up being almost anecdotal. I tell you the truth, but only part of it. Both companies wanted to show two different versions of reality when talking about how they present their profitability. In one, the very expensive model training processes are included, and in others in which these costs are excluded under a heading called “computing for research.” Excluding those costs, OpenAI is on track to achieve a small pre-tax operating profit this year. Anthropic also promises to achieve this if its most optimistic scenario comes true. Excluding the cost of training models, both OpenAI and Anthropic could be “profitable” this year. Source: WSJ. Until 2030, no real profitability. If the costs and investment in model training are included, OpenAI indicates that it will end up being profitable in 2030, a fact that They had already planned a long time ago and that could not hide a forceful reality: the company has not only not stopped spending money until now: it is going to continue spending it, but to an even greater extent with projects like Stargate to the head. Saying that in 2026 they will be profitable if we do not consider training costs is like an airline telling us that it is profitable excluding the cost of fuel. Anthropic, by the way, expects to be fully profitable in 2028. Revenues growing fast, costs even faster. In addition to those training processes, both OpenAI and Anthropic are spending billions of dollars every year in inferencea section that is beginning to be even more important at an operational and strategic level. Currently, these inference costs represent half of each company’s revenue, although inference technology is expected to becomes cheaper and therefore the costs too. Here, however, there are two big differences between both companies: OpenAI: most ChatGPT users do not pay to use the service, so OpenAI assumes these inference costs without making them profitable. According to OpenAI, this facilitates adoption and will allow users to become subscribers in the future, something that is not happening too much at the moment. Anthropic: This startup has managed to win over many companies that pay to use their models, and it is evident that the company is absolutely focused on making you pay to use their models if you want to use them. And if not, Tell OpenClaw. Betting on the future. The companies and venture capital funds that have invested billions in OpenAI or Anthropic have made a bet on the future. They have blind faith that these companies will end up taking over the world, so the fact that today they are still not profitable does not scare them… or not enough to withdraw from this expensive race. Both have experienced spectacular growth that serves as an argument for investors. In addition, the growing interest of companies in integrating AI solutions by paying for them has boosted Anthropic and even caused OpenAI to reorganize and change its strategy. Less fireworks and hypemore focus in what makes money. The IPO as a trick to survive. Both companies are going to continue burning money like there was no tomorrow in the coming years, but now they hope that investors will be the ones to sustain their businesses. The amount of money they will need has made even the Nasdaq make things easier: It will allow newly listed companies to join its renowned index more quickly, giving them access to larger capital reserves. Now it will be the public market and to a large extent the individual investor who will decide whether they want to bet on that future or not. A small survey. Would you invest in OpenAI or Anthropic if it went public? It is evident that both companies generate different impressions, and although their strategies and ways of doing things are different, it is clear that this public sale offer is going to be very striking when it occurs. So, it is a good time to find out a little about what you, the xatakeros, think about this financial movement of these companies. Image | TechCrunch | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | NVIDIA has so much money that it is becoming something different: the largest startup incubator in the world

a million Spaniards continue to watch it every year

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Each Easter weekWithout fail, something happens that defies any logic of the audiovisual market: millions of Spaniards sit down to watch a film that they have already seen, which lasts almost four hours, which was filmed 65 years ago in Rome and which is not recommended by any algorithm. A chariot race that, for some reason, continues to draw viewers as if it were a recent release. The figures. Since 2008, the film ‘Ben-Hur’ has been broadcast on Spanish channels (free and pay) a total of 85 times over 17 Holy Weeks. That is equivalent to an average of five passes per holiday period, according to data from the consulting firm Barlovento Comunicación. has provided ‘El País’. No other religious-themed title has accumulated so many broadcasts in that interval. It is followed by ‘Quo Vadis?’, with 73 appearances on the grid, and ‘The Ten Commandments’, with 61. Completing the usual group are films such as ‘Barabbas’, ‘Spartacus’ or ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, almost all of them produced between the 1950s and 1960s. It doesn’t sound familiar to me. Well, they are all titles from a time in which Hollywood turned the biblical epic into an industrial venture, with million-dollar budgets and excessive technical ambition. ‘Ben-Hur’ cost $15 million in 1959 (the largest budget of any film up to that time) and grossed approximately $80 million worldwide. It won eleven Oscars from twelve nominations, a record that only ‘Titanic’ (1997) and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003) have equaled. Why do they still work? ‘Ben-Hur’ has an advantage: Jesus appears in it as a peripheral figure, with his back turned or in the distance, which turns the film into an epic adventure production with a Christian subtext, rather than a typical religious film. The chariot race, filmed in five weeks with 15,000 extras and on a gigantic set in Cinecittà, works as a hook regardless of the viewer’s beliefs. ‘Quo Vadis?’ places Saint Peter fleeing Rome during Nero’s persecutions, but a vision of Christ appears to him asking where he is going, and Peter turns around and returns to the city to remain with the martyrs. It is the only scene in which Jesus has a direct presence, since he always appears mediated by his apostles, or with the conversion process of the Roman commander Marcus Vinicius. But the spectacle that the film sustains for the non-believing public is another: the burning of Rome, the circus with the lions, the megalomania of Nero… The hearings. Since 2021 La 1 has programmed ‘Ben-Hur’ every year on the after-dinner meal on Thursday or Good Friday. The results: screen shares of 11.4%, 10.7%, 12.5%, 11.3% and 11.1%, with figures around one million viewers in the three and a half hours that the film lasts. Today few programs achieve those numbers on a regular basis. The record remains the Holy Thursday screening of 2012, when more than two million people watched it on the night of La 1. For this year, RTVE has confirmed that La 1 will broadcast ‘Ben-Hur’ and ‘Pompeya’ on the afternoon of Good Friday, and ‘The Ten Commandments’ during the weekend. La 2 will offer ‘The Sacred Robe’ on Holy Thursday at 10:00 p.m. The private ones, less pious. Since 2018, La 1 has broadcast a total of 45 films with religious themes or those linked to Holy Week. Antena 3 barely reached seven. Telecinco, four. Atresmedia and Mediaset are betting on other types of programming on these dates, leaving the religious field almost exclusively to RTVE… …and the autonomous ones. These have turned this niche into their own asset. Between 2018 and 2025, Telemadrid programmed 99 films with religious themes, Canal Sur 82 and CMM (Castilla-La Mancha Media) 72. These are figures that reflect both the cultural harmony of these stations with their territories and a very economically efficient programming strategy: the rights to these classic titles are considerably cheaper than those of recent productions. And Channel 13. This is what takes logic to its ultimate consequences. The Episcopal Conference network has broadcast almost 300 religious films during Holy Week over 17 years. In 2025 alone, it programmed 19 different titles in that week, with more than 50 hours of special content that included broadcasts of processions, connections with the Vatican and film series ranging from Cecil B. DeMille classics to premieres such as ‘His Only Son’ (2023). Thirteen seems like a television built specifically for these dates. Last stop: ‘The Life of Brian’. There is a case that deserves separate analysis: ‘The Life of Brian’, the 1979 Monty Python film, has been broadcast at Easter on Spanish channels on 22 occasions over 17 years. In most cases it was on thematic channels, and La 2 only dared to program it in 2020 and 2021. The results were clear: a 7.4% share in full confinement and 5.5% in 2021, figures well above the channel’s usual average. Neox issued it the last two Good Fridays with equally notable results for its usual figures: 2.6% and 3.4%. The data is revealing because it makes it clear that the viewer of Holy Week is not necessarily looking for devotion, but rather cultural markers of the period. ‘Life of Brian’ fits that way just like ‘Ben-Hur’, albeit from the opposite end of the spectrum. In Xataka | We believed that Generation Z was returning en masse to the Church. An error in a survey is to blame for the mirage

The company that earns 2,000 million a month is already worth 852,000 million dollars

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Just a year ago we broke the same news: OpenAI had broken the record for the largest financing round in the history of Silicon Valley. Then it was $40 billion, which raised the startup’s valuation to $300 billion. The curious thing is that today, a year later, history repeats itself, but with much (very much) higher numbers and also more doubts flying over the environment. Add and continue. OpenAI has broken the record again of Silicon Valley’s largest financing round, raising no less than $122 billion, which places its “post-money” valuation at $852 billion. OpenAI claims that this investment will allow them to expand their computing capacity and thus be able to sustain the development of their frontier models. Why it is important. OpenAI is the most valuable private company in the world, ahead of giants such as JP Morgan, Samsung or Visa. There are only 14 companies listed on the stock market that exceed their valuation, but they have also tripled it in just one year. All this happens in the shadow of a possible bubblewith many doubts about your business strategy and, above all, IPO on the horizon nearby. Who puts the money. Already They confirmed it a few days ago: Of the 122,000 million, NVIDIA, SoftBank and Amazon have contributed 110,000. The person who has contributed the most has been Amazon, which has put 50,000 million in OpenAI’s pocket. For their part, NVIDIA and SoftBank have contributed 30 billion each. The absence of Microsoft is striking, especially since they were expected to contribute “several billion more.” The remaining 12 billion come from venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Of these, at least 3,000 million have been raised from individual investors through banks. An act of faith. OpenAI enters 2,000 million dollars per month, is a ridiculous figure compared to all the money that burns. Furthermore, we must not lose sight of the fact that those who are investing the most in the company are the ones who later charge it for using its chips (NVIDIA) and its data centers (Amazon). This circular financing scheme has not gone unnoticed and It is very reminiscent of another bubble from a while ago. Despite everything, investors seem to still have faith in OpenAI’s business model. Refocusing. OpenAI receives this round of funding amid its efforts to reorient its business model. After 2025 in which They have shot at everything that movedit seems that they have finally realized that AI is not won through memes. One of the most forceful steps in its new direction is Sora’s closurebut also They prepare a super app and They plan to double their staff. The underlying reason is that Anthropic is eating their toast in a field that is less viralizable, but much more profitable: business clients. We will see if this new OpenAI can be profitable. Image | Own edition with background Unsplash In Xataka | Here’s a disturbing message for OpenAI investors: Sam Altman’s new priority is finding money

Spain awarded 20 million euros to Stellantis to create jobs in Galicia. Europe has prevented the money from being delivered

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20,660,434 euros. That was the aid that the Government of Spain granted in 2017 to PSA (now Stellantis after its merger with FCA) as “regional incentives for the correction of territorial economic imbalances.” Just two years later, the European Commission already doubted the appropriateness of this aid. Almost a decade after its delivery, Stellantis will have to return the money. 20.7 million euros. It was the money given by Mariano Rajoy’s Government in 2017 to the automobile conglomerate PSA. The company, then directed by Carlos Tavares, had been looking for money framed within the “Industrial Plan 2014-2020” in which funds from the European Union were available. The Spanish subsidiary of PSA, known as PCAE, requested aid of 392 million euros in 2014 to carry out the necessary actions to modernize the plant and launch a new model. The aid program was expanded, with another 100 million in subsequent years because PSA was going to produce a new vehicle platform and a new SUV car in Vigo. In 2017, shortly before Mariano Rajoy left Moncloa, the Government of Spain provided the aforementioned aid of 20.7 million euros since it corresponded to the maximum percentage allowed with respect to the investment that was planned to be used. many doubts. In 2019the European Commission was already beginning to doubt the legality or compatibility of this aid. In a document submitted thenquestioned whether the subsidies provided were meeting the criteria to create employment in the area. In said letter, PSA was already invited and the Government of Spain has explained the reason for this aid. In that document, the European Commission questioned whether the positive effects of the aid outweighed the negative ones and, therefore, that the decision to financially support the company with those more than 20 million euros was not economically doping its commitment to our country instead of taking production to the Trnava plant (Slovakia) with which Vigo competed. According to the European Commission, it believed that both plants were competing on equal terms and that the socioeconomic context of the Slovaks was no worse than that of Vigo. Furthermore, they pointed out that the defense that this aid helped preserve employment in Galicia in the face of a possible relocation to Morocco (a position defended by Spain) was not sufficient because PSA had already previously relocated other vehicles that were previously manufactured in Spain. Seven years of research. Already in 2020, Europe continued to defend that the Commission had its doubts “regarding the contribution of investment projects to the development of the region in question”, as they stated in elDiario.es. Then it was thought that the company’s true intention was to improve the factory facilities with the sole objective of improving the company’s competitiveness but that it had nothing to do with an improvement in innovation and local investments. There were even doubts about the compatibility of being able to deliver these aid to a company like PCAE (the Spanish subsidiary of PSA). One of the most compelling reasons presented by the European Commission is, as they point out in The Worldthe choice of the Vigo company to the detriment of the Slovaks. And it is considered that opting for a more economically developed region to receive aid contravenes the principles of cohesion of the European Union, which prevents the delivery of this type of subsidies. Case closed. Now, the Government of Spain has notified the European Commission that it is withdrawing the subsidy of 20.7 million euros. He has done it because he cannot prove its legality. As the money has not yet been delivered, the European Commission has closed the investigation, they explain in the Galician media. praza.gal. At this time, Spain has not been able to demonstrate that the number of jobs increased after the aid was granted nor that it represented an economic boost in the region. In fact, it was possible that the number of jobs could even be reduced, as they point out in Motorpassion. During this time, the money has not been delivered because it remained frozen with the European investigation. Now we know that Stellantis will not charge it. Photo | Stellantis In Xataka | The Stellantis factory in Figueruelas has been looking for a reconversion plan for years. You already have it: make Chinese electric cars

The French AI startup profiting from geopolitical chaos just raised $830 million. For European data centers

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The French startup Mistral has raised 830 million dollars and it has done so with one objective: to create AI data centers in Europe that will be based on NVIDIA chips and technological solutions. That’s good news, but it also has a disturbing side. Merci, Monsieur Trump. There is a geopolitical irony in the rise of Mistral. The French AI startup has become a reference in Europe, but it has done so not so much because of its models or technology (that too) but because of Donald Trump. Since the American president returned to power and began to destroy the era of globalization, the demand for “sovereign” European alternatives to the large US technology platforms has skyrocketed. Governments and companies that previously turned to Microsoft, Amazon or Google without thinking are now trying to look for options that free them from those dependencies. Mistral is precisely the clear alternative in terms of AI. 830 million to have its own infrastructure. The round that Mistral has raised is not venture capital, but debt financing granted mainly by French banks such as Bpifrance, BNP Paribas, HSBC and MUFG. It is an interesting aspect and shows that the company no longer needs to convince investors, but rather finance the infrastructure necessary to scale its business. Those $830 million are destined for its future European data centers, starting with its facilities in Bruyères-le-Châtel, near Paris. Said center will house 13,800 GB300 chips from NVIDIA and will begin operating before the end of June. Debt, not equity. There is an important difference between the venture capital rounds that have financed Mistral until now and this new round of debt. Venture capital is not returned: investors bet on a stake in the company and get paid if the company grows and is sold or goes public. The debt is repaid, and it is with interest, regardless of how the business is going. That Mistral has opted for this mechanism suggests that it is optimistic about the future, but it also represents added pressure for the company, which will not be able to afford consecutive quarters of losses. Betting with other people’s money has its problems, but doing so with borrowed money also has important problems. The success of the 13,800 chips. May that French data center get 13,800 GB300 chipsthe most advanced from NVIDIA, is not a minor detail. These AI accelerators are on the waiting list of many companies, and here Mistral competes with hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google or xAI that buy tens of thousands of units and have priority agreements. That this European startup has managed to secure that amount seems to demonstrate that it has negotiating capacity or a special relationship with NVIDIA and its CEO, Jensen Huang. European AI ecosystem. Mistral is little by little becoming the perfect European ecosystem for companies that want not to be exposed to dependencies on North American partners. Having everything under European control is what more and more governments are looking for in Europe, and here we are facing an effort that wants to offer that certain independence… which of course is anything but complete. Be that as it may, Mistral has become the great European seller of sovereignty as a product. But. Mistral expects to achieve 200 MW of computing capacity by the end of 2027, including a €1.2 billion facility in Sweden with 23 MW that will begin operating next year. These are decent numbers in a European Union that has barely raised its head in this segment, but they are very far from those in China and especially the United States. OpenAI and its partners have agreements worth several hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure, and while here we move in megawatt capacities, there we talk about gigawatts. The distance is still enormous. And the dependency still exists. The paradox that no one seems to want to allude to is important: the European “sovereign” infrastructure that Mistral is building depends entirely on chips designed by an American company and manufactured in Taiwan. If for any reason Washington decides to make Europe a banned region for its technology and prohibits the export of GB300 chips, Mistral’s expansion would be paralyzed. The quest for digital sovereignty is interesting, but the reality is that Europe will continue to depend on US technology and Taiwan’s manufacturing capacity to an even greater extent than the US o China depend on its rival. The old continent has activated some measures for mitigate the problembut that will not prevent it from continuing to exist in the long term. Paris, European capital of AI. The French startup has turned France into one of the great European references in AI. Mistral was valued at $12 billion after raising $1.7 billion in financing led by ASML. In addition, they expect to exceed 1,000 million in annual recurring revenue. This company is now joined by the recently launched startup Yann LeCun: Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs (AMI Labs) has already managed to raise more than 1 billion dollars and will also be based in Paris. Another detail should be highlighted: Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, is leading the round. That is significant, because that means that the one supporting this initiative is the French state. In Xataka | Mistral does not generate hype, it is a discreet AI, it does not boost the shares of any company, but it already makes more money than Grok

A comedian has explained what the song from ‘The Lion King’ means in Zulu. It was fake and could cost you 27 million

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A Zimbabwean comedian went viral last month after claiming on a podcast that the Zulu phrase that opens the legendary theme song of ‘The Lion King’, ‘Circle of Life’ meant, simply and plainly, “Look, there’s a lion.” However, it was a joke: a false translation. Now the original composer, the South African Lebo M, is demanding $27 million from him in a federal court in Los Angeles. Aaaaa stork. Since 1994, millions of people have hummed “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba” without having the slightest idea of ​​its meaning. The phrase opens ‘Circle of Life’, the song with which ‘The Lion King’and is written in isiZulu and isiXhosa, two of the twelve official languages ​​of South Africa. The official translation used by Disney says: “Everyone hails the king, we bow before his presence.” It’s a Praise Imbongia form of oral royal praise poetry rooted in South African cultural tradition. Author, author. The song composed and performed by Lebohang Morakeknown artistically as Lebo M. Morake lived in exile in Los Angeles during apartheid. Hans Zimmer asked him to contribute his voice and his knowledge of African music to ‘The Lion King’ and the result was that initial scream that, as dawn broke on the savanna and the Disney logo rose, made the hairs on the back of the viewers of the time stand on end. The song was nominated for an Oscar for best original song and a Grammy, although it lost both to another piece from the same film, ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’. The false translation. In February, Zimbabwean comedian Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, known as Learnmore Jonasi, appeared on the ‘One54’ podcast. The presenters began to sing the phrase from memory, like every neighbor’s son does. Jonasi stopped them: “That’s not how you sing, don’t destroy our language.” He then offered his translation: “Look, there’s a lion! Oh my God!” When one of the incredulous drivers asked him if he was serious, Jonasi insisted: “That’s exactly what it means.” The clip went viral in a matter of days. The song that seemed like an epic proclamation was actually just pointing to an animal. The demand de Morake acknowledges that “ingonyama” can be literally translated as “lion” in Zulu, but argues that in the context of the Praise Imbongi The word functions as a metaphor for royalty and ancestral authority. Jonasi’s translation would be, in the words of Morake’s lawyers, “a manufactured and trivializing distortion, intended as a crude joke for personal gain.” According to the same legal document, Jonasi has been making this joke in his repertoire for eight years. Who is Jonasi? The comedian, born in Zimbabwe and based in Pittsburgh, rose to fame in 2024 when he placed fifth in that year’s edition of ‘America’s Got Talent’. His comedy usually revolves around the contrasts between his life in Africa and American culture, and part of his regular repertoire includes criticism of the representation of Africa in Hollywood, such as the lions in ‘The Lion King’ having American accents or the baboon Rafiki speaking English with a South African accent. The joke was, in that sense, consistent with his usual discourse of questioning how Disney had treated African culture. Can a joke cost 27 million? The legal key to the whole matter lies in a well-established principle in American law: the First Amendment protects parody and artistic satire, but not false statements presented as true, even if said in a comedic context. Morake’s lawyers argue precisely that: that Jonasi did not present his translation as a joke but “as authoritative fact.” The lawsuit also cites: Jonasi’s attempt to monetize virality through merchandising. The amount requested amounts to more than $20 million in actual damages, plus $7 million in punitive damages. It is alleged to justify it that the viral is directly damaging Lebo M’s professional relationship with Disney and reducing his income from royalties. Disney has not made any statements on the matter. The answer. Jonasi launched a GoFundMe campaign titled ‘Help Learnmore Fight an Unjust Lawsuit‘ with which he has raised more than 16,000 of the 20,000 dollars he asks for. There he says that he never intended to cause harm and that he needs support to “protect his right to speak and tell jokes.” Before that, posted a video on Instagram in which he declared himself a fan of Lebo M’s work and proposed making a video together explaining the real meaning of the song. In networks, the composer responded that Jonasi “crossed a line by insulting African culture and spreading colonialist propaganda.” In Xataka | We all assumed that ‘The Simpsons’ would never end. Now, its showrunner has just confirmed it

Renfe is already maneuvering to get a new contract in France. And the 1,000 million euros at stake is the least of it

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Arrive in Paris. Three words to summarize Renfe’s great objective in the neighboring country. After living with competition on our roads for more than five years, the Spanish company seeks to achieve one of its great challenges in its international expansion. A new route originating or ending in Paris is underway. But, so far, France has not made it easy. Target: Paris. Be that as it may. And Renfe is already preparing an offer to participate in the tender for the Paris-Dijon-Lyon line. That is what media outlets like Expansion either Forbeswho state that the Spanish company will participate in the tender to operate a route that, ten years from now, would be valued at around 1,000 million euros. The striking thing is that this line is not high speed. The link between Paris and Lyon that Renfe will serve uses regional trains, contrary to what the Spanish company has always pursued in the neighboring country. It would be, for the moment, his only way to reach Paris, a city that continues to resist him. A complicated landing. And Renfe has tried to reach Paris by all the means at its disposal. These were, as could be expected, offering their services on a high-speed line as required by Europe and Spain is allowing Ouigo and Iryowith French and Italian origins respectively. However, France has tried to torpedo As far as possible, Renfe runs its lines. Right now, the Spanish have managed to launch a corridor between Madrid and Marseille and Barcelona and Lyon. However, the French have managed to protect the arrival of the Spanish company in Paris, where a very substantial part of the high-speed business is located. What has been argued from France is that Renfe trains do not meet the technical criteria to be able to operate on the lines that reach Paris. And in this way he has achieved that Renfe will not operate in the city while the Olympic Games were organized from Paris, which would have given a great boost to his project. Go for the regionals. Aware of the difficulties they are encountering to continue expanding their borders with high speed, Renfe has decided to take the leap with regional trains. In Forbes They explain that the process requires the final offer for the Paris-Dijon-Lyon line to be presented before the end of 2026. Next year the award of the line would be confirmed and between 2029 and 2030 the company that has received the approval must begin operating. Renfe’s great rival, everything indicates, will be the French SNCF. The Burgundy-Franche-Comté region, which is responsible for this line, has already put out a first batch of the tender that fell into the hands of the local company with hardly any opposition, they point out in Five Days. And in Spain? As we can see, Renfe has already shown interest in operating on regional trains in neighboring countries. However, in this case it is Spain that is putting all possible obstacles to delay competition on this type of lines in our country. According to the deadlines established since In 2016 the Fourth Railway Package will be approvedcompetition on these lines should have been a reality from December 25, 2023. In 2024, the contracts should have been awarded. However, Renfe is still the only company that currently offers this service and it does not seem that it will change. And it is that The Government has been working to delay the launch of new competitions in these ways. According to ABCthe current Renfe contract extended from 2018 to 2027. This year, 3% of the contract was to be put out to tender but the Government and Renfe have signed, without making it public, an addendum to it that extends said contract until 2028. Photo | Anthony Delanoix and Xataka In Xataka | Spain forced to open its lines to Ouigo. France is now doing everything possible to prevent the entry of Renfe

Imagine you are offered $26 million to convert your farm into a data center. And then imagine that you reject them

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The market price of agricultural land in Mason County, Kentucky, USA, is around $6,000 per acre. Last year, an unnamed company — the suspect is one of the AI ​​majors — offered Ida Huddleston and her family about 10 times that amount for half of their 1,200 acres. They tempted her with 26 million dollars to build a data center there but Huddleston, 82, rejected the offer without thinking. Farmers of yesteryear. Delsia Bare, daughter of the owner, counted on a local television station as for them “26 million means nothing. Although the phrase is blunt, it is likely that more than indifference to money it reflects a different scale of values. The land matters. Bare explained how his family has farmed that land for generations, paid taxes on it, and kept it productive even during the Great Depression. “We even grew wheat during the Depression and kept bread production lines running in the US when people didn’t have access to other foods.” For the family, the sale would be a break with those values. Obsession with data centers. The Huddlestons’ story is not an isolated case, and Bare herself claimed to be one of dozens of homeowners in the area who had received similar offers from the same anonymous buyer. We all know that large AI companies have been seeking for months to expand the presence of data centers throughout the US, and several of them have announced astronomical investments to achieve that future computing capacity. cheap land. Rural areas are perfect because they are far from urban centers but still have access to resources such as water for their cooling systems and electrical networks with sufficient capacity. In Kentucky the price of agricultural land is relatively low compared to other areas, and that availability of water and energy is a very attractive combination for companies that want to create new data centers. From stupid farmers, nothing. Huddleston, 82, explained that turning down the offer is surprising: “They call us stupid farmers, but we’re not. We know when our food is disappearing, when our land is disappearing.” The owner is clear that the conversion of agricultural land into the basis for digital infrastructure will have consequences on water, food production and the economy of rural communities itself that for decades have been very outside of these technological cycles. Lies. Those who wanted to buy his land claimed that the project would bring jobs and economic growth to the area, but Huddleston has a very different opinion. “I say they are liars, and the truth is not in them. That’s what I say. It’s a scam.” Gone with the wind. His daughter compared this symbiosis with his land to that reflected in the mythical film ‘Gone with the wind‘ and what her protagonist in the film, Scarlett O’Hara, experienced: “She was very attached to that land. Her spirit would never die. The same thing happens to me. As long as I am on this land, as long as it feeds me, as long as it takes care of me, there is nothing that can destroy me if I have this land.” But. Despite the Huddlestons’ refusal, the project has moved forward. Other neighbors in the area have agreed to sell, and the AI ​​company has adapted its plans to use those plots. It is therefore likely that the Huddleston family farm will end up being very close to that future data center if it is finally built, but one thing is certain: for now they are holding out. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | OpenAI has signed countless billion-dollar agreements with other companies. We are discovering that they are made of paper

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