money

Bandai Namco has presented its financial results and there is an anime that has given them more money than ‘One Piece’ and ‘Dragon Ball’

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Neither ‘Dragon Ball’ nor ‘One Piece’. The anime that has given the most money to Bandai Namco in its last fiscal year will be a whopping 47 years old in 2026, and it is not associated with fantastic adventures for all audiences, but with plastic models that have little to do with pirate ships and the nonsense of the Monkey King. In fact, for a time it was considered a mere niche for collectors. The annual results that the company made public on May 13 reveal a figure that rearranges the ranking in a surprising way. The top. ‘dragon ball‘ and ‘One Piece‘are the most commercial franchises in Japanese entertainment; an idea that seems to have settled in the heads of fans with implacable firmness. However, the Bandai Namco’s latest financial results They deny it: ‘Mobile Suit Gundam‘ is the company’s most profitable intellectual property, with 254.3 billion yen in total group sales. ‘One Piece’ registered 139.3 billion and ‘Dragon Ball’, 138.0 billion. That is, there is a distance of 115 billion yen between Gundam and its most direct competitor in Bandai Namco, a figure that is approximately equivalent to 730 million euros. The nuance. Important and significant: Bandai owns ‘Gundam’ directly. ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘One Piece’ or ‘Naruto’, on the other hand, are intellectual properties that the company exploits under license: the complete rights belong to their authors, publishers and studios. Therefore, although the benefits for Bandai Namco from the licenses are astronomical, they do not fall one hundred percent on the company, as is the case to a greater extent with ‘Gundam’. That is, we do not have to read this Bandai ranking as an absolute list of global popularity. What is this due to? surprise? In 2022 Bandai Namco released ‘Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury’ (you can watch it on Crunchyroll), first ‘Gundam’ with a female protagonist. As confirmed then by the president of Bandai, Masaru Kawaguchi, the gunpla (name given to the models of the series) of the Gundam Aerial broke the initial sales record in the history of the franchise. Fiscal year 2023 ended that year with 131.3 billion yen for ‘Gundam’, the highest historical figure up to that time. SEED arrives. The next step was ‘Gundam SEED Freedom’ in 2024: film-sequel to a cult 2002 series of the franchise. You can see it on Netflix (and the series on Crunchyroll), and grossed 5.38 billion yen at the Japanese box office, becoming the franchise’s most popular film in its more than four-decade history. The 2025 financial year closed with ‘Gundam’ earning 153.5 billion yen, still below ‘Dragon Ball’ that year but already establishing the trend. The trigger: ‘GQuuuuuuX’. The final leap came with ‘Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX’. The bizarrely named series was co-produced by Sunrise (the historical studio of ‘Gundam’) and Khara, the studio of Hideaki Anno who made ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’, and which made a previous film version on January 17, 2025. Result:more than 3 billion yen at the box office and 1.8 million viewersthe second highest-grossing film in the history of the franchise, only surpassed by the aforementioned ‘SEED Freedom’. The world premiere of the series on Prime Video definitely impacted the numbers: only in the first quarter of fiscal year 2o25 ‘Gundam’ creceived 81.2% compared to the same period of the previous year. The power of synergy. Unlike other companies like Disney, which usually focus on a main launch (series, movie) around which secondary businesses sprout (merchandisingvideo games), Bandai Namco has been applying for years what they themselves call “IP synergy”: a model that coordinates releases of anime, video games, merchandisingphysical events, collectible cards, all supported with the same strength. ‘Gundam’ is the latest and most perfect example of that strategy. In this way, for example, in fiscal year 2026 the ‘GQuuuuuuX’ series, the expansion of the model lines, Premium Bandai launches and the Gundam Next Future Pavilion at the 2025 Osaka World Expo, an event for which Bandai is responsible for much of the growth. Bandai Namco believes that its toy and model arm, which has grown 12.9%, is the leader of all the company’s business segments. Another primary difference with the company’s North American and European counterparts. In Xataka | The 26 best anime of all time and where to watch them

Big Tech spent $725 billion on AI. Then they ran out of money in their pockets.

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This is non-stop. Big tech companies have already spent an irreverent amount of money in 2025 to not lose footing in the AI ​​race, but this year things are getting better. Together Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta have announced a capex of $725 billion, which represents an astonishing 77% growth over last year’s (also astonishing) figure of $410 billion. The numbers they are dizzyingbut they are having a worrying consequence. A lot of money saved. For years, Big Tech has been able to boast extraordinary accounting books in which revenues and profits have practically not stopped growing. They’ve built up exceptional cash flow, but now they’re taking advantage of all that money to fund an AI race that doesn’t seem to end at the moment. Cash flow plummets. The amount of investments is of such magnitude that all of these hyperscalers have encountered a problem: their cash flow—the available liquidity— has collapsedthey indicate in the Financial Times, and now it is at levels that we have not seen since 2014. Before, the average was to have 45,000 million dollars since the pandemic, but now that figure is expected to fall to 4,000 million in the third quarter of 2025. Source: Financial Times. Let’s see who spends more. Amazon leads this unique race for spend more than others. The company led by Andy Jassy foresees an investment of 200,000 million dollars in 2026, which will lead it to burn about 10,000 million of its cash flow this year. Meta will continue that same trend in the second half of the year, while Microsoft could enter negative territory in at least one quarter. Even Google, which remains positive, will post its lowest level of cash flow in a decade. Debt, new fuel for AI. To finance this deployment, both Alphabet and Meta have had to resort to massive debt issues and suspend their share buyback programs for the first time in almost a decade. Alphabet issued $48 billion in bonds recently (in February a partdoes some days other), while Meta sumo 55,000 million debt in just six months. Bet now to win later. This strategy marks a paradigm shift: it is no longer investing only with the income one has in cash, but Big Tech is mortgaging its future. The objective is what we have mentioned time and time again: not to lose step in a race where, as Zuckerberg said, staying behind is not an option. Disguising the beads. These companies fear Wall Street’s reaction to these movements, so they are moving billions of dollars in infrastructure but they are doing so outside of their conventional balance sheets. In the FT they explain how Big Tech are using special investment vehicles that allow them to attract external capital and hide debt. They are also more opaque about who will be impacted if the AI ​​does not meet expectations. The memory crisis is also having an impact: in such a way that Microsoft already has added 25 billion dollars to its investment needs this year just to be able to assume the increase in component prices. The danger of going with the flow. CEOs justify these moves by comparing them to what happened with cloud investment two decades ago, but analysts warn: investing when the competition invests is not always a strategic choice, but rather a forced response to staying out of the race. In Xataka | The chip crisis is leaving no stone unturned: motherboards seemed untouchable, but their time has come

Anthropic and OpenAI know that where AI is making money is in companies. They have found a way to squeeze that strategy

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We end users no longer matter much to the AI ​​giants. These companies are confirming that income is currently in the professional world, and they are already making moves to conquer that segment. And if they have to do it company by company, so be it, because now OpenAI and Anthropic are a little less AI companies and a little more consulting. AI is more business than ever. Anthropic and OpenAI have understood that the real business of AI is not currently in individual $20 subscriptions, but in integrating their AI models into all types of corporations. Both companies have almost simultaneously launched alliances with other companies to provide consulting services. The objective is simple: to stop being external web tools to become the “operating system” of thousands of businesses through these exclusive sales channels. Anthropic on the one hand… The company led by Dario Amodei has formed a joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Hellman & Friedman valued at $1.5 billion. This new firm will act as a consultancy bringing Claude directly into the operating environments of mid-sized businesses, from mid-sized banks to local manufacturers to healthcare systems. These companies have committed to provide $300 million each for AI engineers to work closely with these clients to integrate custom solutions. …and OpenAI on the other. In turn, Sam Altman’s company has not been slow to replicate that initiative with the creation of the so-called The Development Company, an entity valued at about 10,000 million dollars. It is backed by funds such as TPG, Bain Capital and SoftBank. Theoretically, OpenAI has already raised $4 billion to accelerate the adoption of its AI models in more than 2,000 companies that are already part of those investors’ portfolios. The initiative is led by Brad Lightcap, until now COO of the company, and who wants to make the GPT family models an integral part of the operations of all types of companies. Engineers on the line of fire. To promote these strategies, both companies are adopting the so-called ‘Forward Deployed Engineer’ (FDE) model, a deployment system that was already popularized by Palantir and that consulting firms traditionally use. Instead of simply selling an API, Anthropic and OpenAI will send their engineers to work with doctors, financial analysts, or IT staff so that their AI models can be seamlessly integrated into those professionals’ real-world workflows. Going public as a goal. In recent months we seem to be experiencing a race against the clock towards the IPO in both cases. With absolutely stratospheric valuations (OpenAI 852 billionAnthropic hanging around 900,000 million), the pressure to justify these figures to the public market is immense. The integration of programming tools such as Claude Code has been a clear driver of recent growth, but the real gold mine is in the automation of processes in sectors such as health or finance. If you are joint ventures fail to scale quickly, the valuation bubble could deflate before those IPOs. Conflicts of interest. When a venture capital fund invests in a technology provider and simultaneously pressures its portfolio companies to adopt that same technology, competition ceases to exist. Many companies will not have much real choice based on product quality. What is reinforced here It is that “circular economy” in which innovation is not chosenbut is imposed by financial and business interests. The customer does not buy because he needs the tool, but because his own financial owner has a stake in whoever supplies that tool. But wouldn’t AI automate everything? The dependence on the FDE model is paradoxical. Theory tells us that software must be infinitely replicable at zero marginal cost. However, these alliances show that AI is still not smart enough to operate without direct human supervision. We need someone to teach us how to use it well, the companies say, and both OpenAI and Anthropic are going to take advantage of that need even if what we really have is luxury personalized consulting. For now, AI will be more part of the services offered by a consulting firm than a truly autonomous “plug and play” tool. New Job: Deployment Engineer. Now Anthropic and OpenAI will not only be AI companies: they will also be consultancies in need of manpower. That also serves as an example that although AI theoretically will eliminate jobswill also create new ones. Here we face a growing demand for “deployment engineers” —OpenAI already requests them—, professionals who are precisely in charge of adapting these AI models to the needs of companies that want to implement them in their daily lives. And the data, what. There is another fundamental problem: medium-sized companies will not have much capacity to manage their data sovereignty. For Claude or GPT to function properly in the business, they will need access to critical workflows, medical records, or sensitive financial data. And when one cedes that control to third parties, they remain vulnerable. Not only that: the security of this data is compromised because in order to process it, it must leave and be processed in the cloud of an external provider. The AI ​​models of these companies can also probably learn from these processes, although it is reasonable to think that Zero Data Retention policies will come into play (“No data retention”). Image | TechCrunch | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | The White House wants to review new AI models before anyone uses them: first the Pentagon, then the rest of the world

The Supreme Court has declared the rule illegal, but the money is not going to return

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The Low Emission Zones of Madrid operated for years with regulations that the courts ended up declaring it illegal. During all that time, many fines were imposed and processed that thousands of drivers paid, and the City Council is clear about one thing: that there will be no refunds. What exactly happened. The Supreme Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) annulled part of the ordinance that regulated ZBEs in Madrid in December 2024, following an appeal presented by the Vox municipal group. The court considered that the economic impact report was insufficient, since it had not been correctly assessed how much it would cost citizens and small businesses to adapt to the movement restrictions, nor had less restrictive measures with equivalent effects been explored. As the ruling was not final at the time, the City Council continued to apply sanctions while appealing to the Supreme Court. However, the TSJM rejected the appeal on April 15with a sentence of 2,000 euros to the City Council for the expenses of the judicial process. Why there will be no refund. Vice Mayor Inma Sanz counted that current jurisprudence prevents giving retroactive effects to sentences when the sanctioned rule was in force at the time the fines were imposed. Along the same lines, the delegate of Urban Planning, Mobility and Environment, Borja Carabante, defended that the sanctions were placed under a regulatory framework that was valid at the time. The point that remains in the air. The City Council’s position is not completely uniform. Municipal legal services are still studying what to do with the fines imposed in the ZBEs of Plaza Elíptica and Centro (the two special protection zones) during the period between the TSJM ruling (December 2024) and the entry into force of the new ordinance (March 2026). It has been more than two years in which fines have continued to be imposed with a regulation that a court had already declared null. Carabante acknowledges that “whether or not” these specific sanctions are being assessed. The new ordinance as a shield. The Town Hall approved last month a new Sustainable Mobility Ordinance, correcting the previous one based on the indications indicated by the TSJM and keeps all ZBEs operational. The Consistory argues that this new ordinance leaves the sentence without practical effect, since it provides a solution to everything that the TSJM had requested. Among its novelties is that the vehicles of registered residents without an environmental label can circulate in Madrid as long as European pollution limits are respected. Opinion division. The Associated European Motorists (AEA) organization has publicly demanded to Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida the annulment of all sanctions imposed until the publication of the new ordinance in the official gazette, on April 6. According to data from the AEA itselfbetween September 2021 and November 2025, the City Council imposed more than 3.3 million fines related to ZBEs for a value of more than 650 million euros. Its president, Mario Arnaldo, consider that “hundreds of thousands of drivers” have been sanctioned with fines of “dubious legality” through a strategy designed to continue collecting while the judicial process lasted. What those affected can do. The Supreme Court’s decision does not automatically annul any fine, but it reinforces the options of those who want to appeal them. According to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), the situation varies according to each file. And those who appealed at the time and still have the procedure open have a better chance of recovering the money. However, the organization says that those who paid without appeal face a more complicated path, having to go through requesting full nullity. The OCU ask to the City Council to cancel the non-firm sanctions ex officio and return the amounts already collected in files still open, without transferring to the citizen “the burden of legal uncertainty created by an annulled ordinance.” Cover image | Madrid City Council In Xataka | 400 cameras and an ambitious goal: the first metro driven 100% autonomously in the Community of Madrid

its new contest for the AVE will prioritize quality over money

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Last month, Renfe gave the green light to the purchase of those 30 new AVE trains (expandable to 40) with which it hopes to renew its fleet in Spain. The railway operator has launched them into competition and it is expected that in September we will know which companies will be in charge of producing these new trains. What is clear is that Renfe does not want to repeat the chaos suffered with Talgo, and has already admitted that it will seek to prioritize quality over price. About the Avril trains. This new tender has a starting point that has given the operator quite a headache. We talk about The Talgo Avrilthe series 106 trains that today cover, among other routes, the Galicia-Madrid high-speed line. Renfe ordered 30 units in two batches between 2015 and 2016 and the result ended up being a deadline disaster. The trains arrived more than two years late, costing Talgo a penalty of 116 million euros. And when they finally went into service, the first few months left a rosary of incidents on different lines. Renfe does not want to repeat this chaos, so it intends to be more cautious in the specifications. How the new contest works. The operator has structured the scoring of the offers so that the technical proposal worth 70% of the final gradecompared to 30% that corresponds to the price. Within this technical section, almost 60% of the total is evaluated with objective criteria, but there is 10.2% reserved for value judgments, that is, a more qualitative assessment. Normally in public contracts, the price usually has much more weight. Here, Renfe is betting on paying a little more if that guarantees a better train. Interested manufacturers must submit their offers by June 9, and the opening is scheduled for September 9. The trains requested by Renfe. The specifications require that the new convoys travel at 350 kilometers per hour, that they carry the European ERTMS/ETCS and the Spanish ASFA signaling systems, and that they have at least 450 seats. The first five trains must arrive within 40 months from the signing of the contract, and the entire fleet within 78 months, at a rate of one new train every 45 days. The contract also includes the supply of spare parts and maintenance, bringing the total value of the agreement to 4,145 million euros, according to they count from CincoDías. Who has more chances to win. Two manufacturers start as favorites: Siemens, with its Velaro Novo, and Hitachi, with the ETR-100. But there are more candidates. And just as account The medium, Talgo, despite the Avril precedent, is analyzing the specifications to see if it can present an improved version of that same model. Alstom could also opt with its Avelia AGV, the same train that operates in Italy. The elephant in the room: Chinese trains. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, announced the contest at the end of March in the Congress of Deputies. Puente has been sending messages about the possibility of buying Chinese trains to reduce costs, an idea that has generated controversy in the sector. For now, the specifications point in the opposite direction, since both the technical requirements, the deadlines and the weight given to quality over price would make it very difficult for a Chinese manufacturer, with no presence or history on the Spanish railway network, to compete. At least in this particular tender. Why the secrecy? Renfe has shielded the documents with a confidentiality clause. Whoever wants to see them has to request them directly from the company, sign a commitment signed by a manager, and receive them in hand. The reason that the operator has officially given is the liberalization of the high-speed market and the presence of competitors such as Iryo and Ouigo, to whom Renfe does not want to give clues about its commercial strategy. Renfe has also warned of possible legal, civil or criminal actions against anyone who leaks the content. What’s coming now? If the schedule is met, Renfe could know in September who it will buy its next AVE from. With 124 of the 160 high-speed trains circulating in Spain, the fleet needs to be renewed, since some models have been in operation for many years and their withdrawal is urgent. Cover image | Renfe In Xataka | Two floors, 200 meters long and one objective: to modernize the most used and chaotic Cercanías line in Spain

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro vs Google Pixel 10, when you offer more for much less money

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Nothing has surprised us again with a mobile phone that manages to stand out in both its mid-range and high-end. In fact, it can compete with much more expensive models, as is the case with the Google Pixel 10. But… How are these two phones different? Let’s go over it in this article. Nothing Phone (4a) Pro (8 GB, 128 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The differences between the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro and the Google Pixel 10 Design and screens One of the most important differences is in size. He Nothing Phone (4a) Pro bets on a larger diagonal of 6.83 inches, while the Google Pixel 10 It is more compact with a screen size of 6.3 inches. The curious thing is that, despite the size, There are only six grams of differencewith 210 grams for the Nothing and 204 grams for the Google. On the back we also see a very striking difference. The Google Pixel 10 maintains the sober appearance that we have already seen in previous generations, while the Nothing mobile incorporates a larger rear camera module, in which we find several cameras and a screen (Glyph Matrix) with luminous points that turn on and off when receiving notifications or listening to music, shows the time and can even be personalized. Processor and RAM and storage configurations While the Google Pixel 10 comes with the Google Tensor G5the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro incorporates the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. The Qualcomm processor offers balanced performance for the mid-high range and stands out for its energy efficiency. On the other hand, the Google chip is aimed at the use of artificial intelligence functions, although it heats up excessively when executing intense tasks. Both phones start with a minimum storage configuration of 128 GB, but while the Google Pixel 10 comes in this case with 12 GB of RAM, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro stays at 8 GB. Keep in mind that this configuration of the Nothing mobile phone can be very tight if we are going to use many apps or process AI locally. Photographic section Google phones usually stand out for their photography section and the Pixel 10 is no exception. However, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro has hit the table by betting on a much more attractive telephotodespite having fewer increases. The Nothing mobile telephoto offers processing that is supported by the hybrid zoom of up to 7x and the results are very good in terms of detail, sharpness and color. Its maximum digital zoom is 140x and, although it takes time to process the image and can sometimes invent some details, the level of success is adequate. Battery Both phones come with batteries with quite similar milliamp figures, since the Google Pixel 10 incorporates a 4,970 mAh battery and the Nothing mobile comes with another 5,080 mAh. However, we do have differences in the charging options: The Google Pixel 10 supports 30W fast charging and 15W wireless charging. This means that it will take a while to have the battery at 100%, especially if you use wireless charging. The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro supports only 50W fast charging (although it also supports reverse charging), which means that you will have a 100% battery in less time than with the Google mobile, but you will not be able to use a wireless charging base. Software, support and price Both phones come with Android 16, but they are different. Nothing’s mobile relies on its NothingOS customization layer, which incorporates a minimalist aesthetic and is supported by three years of updates and six for security patches. For its part, the Google Pixel 10 has purer softwarewithout a customization layer. Support in this case is seven years of updates and security patches (six taking into account that the mobile was launched in 2025). And if we talk about prices, we are faced with two mobile phones that compete in different ranges. The Google Pixel 10 is currently available for a price of 599 eurosbut it was initially launched for 899 euros. On the other hand, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is currently priced at 479 euros. In summary: which mobile phone to choose according to your tastes and needs Why choose the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro has been a surprise. Its price right now is 479 euros and it stands out in several aspects: Its quality-price ratio: Nothing’s mobile phone stands out both for its price and for its processor, the photographic section and, of course, the design, especially on the back, where we find the Glyph Matrix screen. fast charging: Despite not having a battery that supports wireless charging, the 50W fast charging allows it to be recharged to 100% in less time than the Google Pixel 10. telephoto sensorthe icing on the cake to a good photographic section in the mid-range that yields very attractive results for the price of the mobile. Why choose the Google Pixel 10 The Google Pixel 10 continues to be a very good purchase option. It has been dropping in price since its launch and is now available for 599 euros. Where it stands out the most is in: Minimum storage configurationwhich despite only having 128 GB of internal storage, at least comes with 12 GB of RAM. wireless charging so as not to be limited to using only wired charging. Google supportwhich offers six years of software updates and security patches. Technical sheet with the main differences between the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro and the Google Pixel 10 Nothing Phone (4a) Pro google pixel 10 SCREEN 6.83 inch LTPS flexible AMOLED panel 1,260 x 2,800 pixel resolution Adaptive refresh from 30 to 144 Hz 2160Hz PWM 1,600 nits maximum brightness with 5,000 peak nits Gorilla Glass 7i 6.3-inch OLED panel Resolution of 2,424 x 1,080 pixels 60-120Hz refresh Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 3,000 nits peak brightness DIMENSIONS AND … Read more

China and the US have focused on the race for humanoid robots. Now China is clear about which ones make money: dogs

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It is difficult to talk about all the open fronts that China and the United States have. The technological war covers everything and, if there is a race for artificial intelligencethere is one just as fierce in the field of robotics. The two powers are focusing on the humanoid robots to put them in factories or in customer service, but the market is talking and it turns out that they prefer dogs. Robot dogs, specifically. In short. Right now, China is the summit of robotics. Not only because of how advanced their robots are, but because they are already putting them to work. work in factories, stores either museums. They are not theory, they are practice due to government support and, above all, because the components to make a robot are manufactured… in China. This advantage is something that no other country has and that is essential (let them tell the eTSMC’s 60 minutes strategy in Taiwan). There is multitude of robotics startups and, although the humanoids are the most striking, the robodogs are the ones that make money. In an article by SCMP They explain how quadruped robots are preferred by robotics companies because they are becoming business drivers. AgiBot is one of those companies, and has just expanded its robot portfolio with the creation of a subsidiary -AgiQuad- focused exclusively on quadruped models. Their justification is that they consider that it is what is going to boost the robotics business and they do not want their robodog to live “in the shadow of a humanoid robot.” That is, instead of launching under the same brand a humanoid robot and a quadruped one and that customers have to choose (and compare), they prefer to ensure that each branch of the business operates a different type of robot. Projection. AguQuad plans to become a 500 million yuan (about $73 million) business by this year, scaling to 10 billion yuan by 2030 with 300,000 annual robot shipments. At the moment, they say that they have everything sold and that they continue producing units because they are completely out of stock in the warehouse. And they are not the only ones. Other companies like Amap or the giant Alibaba They want to get into this robot fight to stand up to Unitreebut in the field of four-legged robots. Speaking of the dancing queen, it is estimated that Unitree’s quadruped robot division generated 490 million yuan in revenue in the first three months of 2025 alone. That is, in just three months, it generated as much as what AgiQuad expects to generate this year. Already Deep Robotics He is also doing well in this field. Deployment. According to IDC analyses, the quadruped robot market generated $180 million in 2024 and is expected to generate $700 million this year. The estimate is that the segment will reach 50,000 million yuan, about 7,329 million dollars. And the question is… where are these robots going? Many go to exhibitions and fairs in which the robotic muscle of Chinese startups is shown, but there are others that are already operating on the ground. China wants ‘civilian’ quadruped robots, like assistance for blind peoplebut there is also deploying units among firefighters and, as we said a few days ago, within the Chinese army with support, reconnaissance and attack units. The race doesn’t stop. This scenario makes sense if we take into account several details. The first is the most practical: quadruped robots have years of analysis behind them and have already proven to be very useful in various scenarios. the chinese army He’s not the only one who has them. and, for example, in the United States they are beginning to be deployed in data center surveillance tasks. And the second reason is because those years of research and development have led to them becoming increasingly cheaper to produce, allowing their manufacturing to scale and leaving more margins for manufacturers. Prices are also falling and it is easier for different actors to integrate them into their workforce. Precisely for this reason, quadruped robots can be a viable commercial product for those same companies that continue to push the development and commercialization of humanoid robots. The Unitree itself that we talked about before just started to sell its R1 model through AliExpress with a planned launch for the United States, Japan or the United Arab Emirates. Price? $8,200, but you start somewhere. In Xataka | China will bring together more than 300 humanoid robots in a half marathon. The goal goes beyond running

Netflix makes more money than ever and its shares fall 9%. The explanation is that Netflix is ​​the new mainstream

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Reed Hastings founded Netflix 29 years ago with an idea as simple as it was revolutionary: charge a fixed fee in exchange for access to content on demand and without interruptions, in a digital version of the video store by mail in which the company took its first steps. This Thursday, as the company posted solid quarterly results that still disappointed Wall Street, it was announced that Hastings will step down from the board of directors in June. The man who built Netflix is ​​leaving now that the platform is no longer what he envisioned. The results. The results for the first quarter of 2026 are, in absolute terms, notables. They reached 12.25 billion dollars, 16% more than in the same period of the previous year, meeting what the company itself had projected and slightly exceeding the average expectations of analysts. Net profit grew 82% to $5.23 billion. It is a spectacular percentage, yes, but that earnings per share of $1.23 includes the $2.8 billion break-up fee Frustrated deal with Warner Bros. Discoverywhich inflates the accounting result. Without it, the number would have been more modest. And that’s why shares fell 9% on Wall Street. Fall in the stock market. The main reason for this stock market crash was not the data for the quarter, but the outlook for the second. Netflix projects 13% growth in revenue for Q2, to about $12.6 billion, when the Wall Street consensus was closer to $13.1 billion. The difference is small in relative terms, but enough to remind us that investors have been accustomed for years to Netflix far exceeding its forecasts. Goodbye Hastings… The company has also announced that Reed Hastings, co-founder and until now president of the councilwill not stand for reelection when his term expires at the shareholders meeting on June 4, 2026. This ends 29 years with the company which he himself co-founded. Hastings had already given a step back in January 2023when he left the co-CEO position in the hands of Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. His definitive departure from the board, the company explained, responds to his desire to focus on philanthropy and other projects. During the call to analysts after the presentation of results, Sarandos had to respond to whether Hastings’ departure had any relationship with the failure of the operation with Warner Bros. Discovery. Sarandos stated that “I’m sorry to anyone who seeks palace intrigue. Reed was a great defender of that agreement.” …hello to the announcements. Hastings was for years one of the most visible skeptics within the company regarding the use of streaming advertising. In 2022, when Netflix first lost subscribersdeclared to be “against the complexity of advertisements.” Four years later, the advertising business has become one of the structural pillars of the company. The company works with more than 4,000 advertisers, 70% more than the previous year, and the advertising-supported plan already accounts for more than 60% of new registrations in the 12 countries where it is available, according to data from Netflix itself. The projection of advertising revenue for 2026 is 3,000 million dollars, double the 1.5 billion generated in 2025. It is paradoxical that the platform that has been seen as an evolutionary step of traditional television, without its inconveniences (among which, without a doubt, is advertising), now competes directly with YouTube and linear television for brand advertisements. What’s more: Netflix has migrated its advertising technology to its own platform, leaving behind dependence on Microsoft, and programmatic purchasing It is already close to 50% of its advertising business not tied to events. The paradox. That is, everything in these results points to a great paradox. The company itself recognizes which represents less than 5% of the share global television, but projected annual revenues of between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion place it among the largest media companies on the planet. And meanwhile, its shares fall 9%. There is an explanation for all of this. For years, Netflix was a company of exponential growth, the type of asset that technology funds love: skyrocketing subscriber metrics, unstoppable geographic expansion, its own content that accumulated prestige and audience… Now it is something else: the mainstreamprofitable and predictable, with several monetization levers (subscription, advertising, live sports, gaming) and a business model that is no longer surprising, but widely imitated. A solid company, with a dominant position and prospects for growing profitability, but at a calm pace, in the medium term. It is certainly not the Netflix that Hastings built. In Xataka | Netflix is ​​desperate to find the next franchise that will make it gold. The problem is that he can’t find it.

His biggest problem is not money, but balance

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Spending a vacation on board a cruise ship is a tourist option increasingly in demand even by travelers high purchasing power. However, Mario Salcedo, a millionaire who made his fortune in finance, decided 26 years ago to turn his daily life into a vacation. Since then, he has been linking cruise trips turning these giants of the sea in your home. However, this life of luxury aboard some of the largest pleasure ships has taken its toll on him: he has lost “his land legs” and is no longer able to walk in a straight line when he arrives in port. Always live on vacation. The millionaire of Cuban origin counted in 2019 to The New York Times He was never interested in starting a family, so his life on land only consisted of working and working. So one day he decided to leave his apartment in Miami behind and embark on a cruise. The experience impacted him so much that since then he has been combining one cruise with another and now his house has several decks, swimming pools, dance floors and some fleeting neighbors with whom he socializes whenever he can. After being a regular among the passage of the Royal Caribbean companythe crew already knows him as Super Mario. “I don’t have vacations. People come here to spend vacations. Not me, I’m here to live my life,” explains the millionaire. Life on board. The millionaire investor uses a reserved table on one of the cruise ship’s decks where a handwritten sign reads “Super Mario Office.” Obviously They do not refer to the Nintendo characterif not to the place from which the millionaire sits every day for a few hours in front of his laptop to telework. In this way he has paid for the more than 1,154 cruises he has completed in his life on the high seas. The millionaire claims to dedicate between 70,000 and 100,000 dollars a year for his travels. The millionaire counted on an interview for Condé Nast magazine, who booked an inside cabin without a balcony, because “I don’t do anything in my cabin except shower, get dressed and sleep,” he explained. The rest of the day he could be found in his “office”, socializing with other travelers or dancing in one of the ship’s dance rooms. To avoid having to constantly change cabins, Salcedo plans it 150 reservations in advance, linking one voyage to another. The worst thing about living on a cruise ship is getting to port. Everything would indicate that the biggest cost of living on a cruise ship is money. However, for “Super Mario” the greatest sacrifice is going ashore. After more than 25 years rocked by the sway of the waves on the best cruises, the millionaire has developed a rare disease called landing disease. This is a rare disorder that affects the vestibular system of the ear which affects balance giving a constant sensation of movement even when you are stable and motionless on dry land. It is popularly known as “earth legs.” Usually, this is a disorder that lasts at most for a couple of days, but when your life takes place on the high seas, and you only spend a total of fifteen days a year on land, the disease becomes chronic. “I have lost my land legs. I sway so much that I can’t walk in a straight line. I am so used to being on boats that I feel more comfortable than on land,” he said in his interview. Doesn’t usually go ashore. There is no doubt that Mario Salcedo is like a fish in water on board a cruise, so the few times he goes ashore he does so to take a plane to take him to his next cruise, when they dock in Miami to check that everything is still in order in his apartment or when he has to make arrangements with the bank or medical visits. Luckily, except for his problem with balance when he steps on dry land, the millionaire in his sixties is in good health. A key factor for “Super Mario” to continue his adventure on the high seas, given that shipping companies prohibit that a person who requires constant medical care comes on board. In Xataka | Amsterdam has grown tired of too many tourists. And he has found a solution: fight the cruise ships Image | Royal Caribbean A version of this article was published in 2026

LIDL has joined the latest trend to make lots of money: setting up your own low-cost operator

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Lidl is at the doors of launch a low-cost mobile phone serviceeven more competition for a Spanish MVNO market that is beginning to become saturated and in which it seems practically impossible to surpass the current king: Digi. The LIDL plan. Grupo Schwarz, owner of LIDL, has acquired 9.9% of the communications provider 1Global, currently operating in Spain under the Orange network. The plan is to create a virtual mobile operator (OMV) to offer low-cost telephone services, wanting to expand the proposal throughout Spain and 30 more countries. The how. The service will be offered through LIDL’s nerve center for the smartphone: LIDL Plus. The application will allow the contracting and management of the service, ensuring the executive of the hypermarket chain that it will offer “simple connectivity.” LIDL has an important advantage over the rest of its rivals: physical presence throughout the entire Spanish territory and a potential customer in search of low prices. It is not the first in its sector: Eroski and Carrefour They were among the first in Spain to offer this service. {“videoId”:”x85jqs5″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”DIGI TV Ad: "Enjoy with DIGI the advantages of going it alone"”, “tag”:”mobile”, “duration”:”40″} The electrical phenomenon. The MVNO market is beginning to become saturated with more and more companies outside the sector. The keys? Low operating costs and high margins. The most recent example is PcComponentes, which overnight became an operator with the help of Likes Telecom, a Spanish company focused on the creation of telecommunications brands. We also have recent examples in Revolut, Klarna or N26, players in the financial sector introduced into the world of telecommunications. A simple way to diversify sources of income and build customer loyalty through applications they already use. In Xataka Digi is dropping prices to attract more and more customers in Spain. The problem is that he still doesn’t make any money. Yes, but. None of these players are fighting to win the telecommunications market, where the king is simply unbeatable. DIGI is not only the low-cost operator with the largest volume of clients in Spain: it is the only one that can face giants like Telefónica, MásOrange or Vodafone (whom to pretend to surprise in the coming months). In Xataka | Digi wants to become one of the largest teleoperators in Spain. And that is why it has gone from 4,000 to 10,000 workers. (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news LIDL has joined the latest trend to make lots of money: setting up your own low-cost operator was originally published in Xataka by Ricardo Aguilar .

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