National

China has just gathered 100,000 national accelerators into a supercluster. The challenge now is for them to work together efficiently.

by

China has launched in Zhengzhou the Dawning 8000, an artificial intelligence supercluster that, according to Sugon, can integrate 100,000 calculation cards developed in the country. The company presents it as the first Chinese system of this size built around a national infrastructure, from chips and network to storage and cooling. Sugon assures that the project is already connected to the national supercomputing network, although it has not yet published its complete technical specifications. The scale is not enough. The size of the installation does not in itself imply an equivalent leap in computing capacity. In loads that intend to take advantage of thousands of processors, the work must be dividedsynchronize and recompose without communication between nodes ending up consuming a disproportionate part of the time. As the stack grows, so do the points of failure, software complexity, and demands on network and storage. The real challenge begins when those cards have to behave as a single machine. The pending jump. Sugon maintains that the central node has already been optimized for more than 300 applications in about twenty fields, including large models, robotics, automotive, pharmaceutical industry and weather forecasting. The company adds that more than 70 applications have completed deployments at scale of 10,000 cards. These are relevant data to evaluate the maturity of the platform, although the information released does not detail a public load executed with the 100,000 units simultaneously. Autonomy under pressure. Zhengzhou’s bet cannot be separated from the pressure facing the Chinese technology industry. The United States included Sugon in its Entity List in 2019 and has since expanded restrictions on advanced semiconductors and equipment related to high-performance computing. In this scenario, building an infrastructure based on national technology has a value that goes beyond the power achieved. The project fits into China’s effort to expand its own capacity and reduce supply chain dependencies. The figure is not enough. One hundred thousand Chinese accelerators do not automatically equal one hundred thousand comparable Nvidia GPUs. The deployment also does not allow us to affirm that China has left behind its dependence on Western hardware to sustain its artificial intelligence infrastructure. It does demonstrate, according to Sugon, that the country can now build its own systems on an increasingly larger scale. It is not complete autonomy, but it is another step on the path to depending less on foreign suppliers. Images | Sugon In Xataka | Claude has a space in which he manipulates concepts before his final response. And it has surprised Anthropic itself

the biggest bet in its history to national chip manufacturers

by

China has defined a series of steps to become the first world power. Technological sovereignty falls within this roadmap and, to achieve the objective, a greater investment in local technology is necessary. The current battlefield is that of AI chips, a segment that Nvidia dominates with an iron fist, but if there is a way to change the trend it is with technology and money, a lot of money. And China has found its three winning horses. In short. China is a giant market for Nvidia. With Western Big Tech in his pocket (although Anthropic and Meta are looking favorably at Samsung for inference chips for the age of agentic AI), Nvidia was missing the other big pie. China is a market valued in 50,000 million dollars for whoever manages to position itself as a leader in the AI ​​chip segment, but the problem for Nvidia is that it is not easy at all. Due to bureaucratic problems on the part of the US and China itself, Nvidia is a bit in no man’s land. Meanwhile, national companies have been positioning themselves, presenting their alternatives and GPUs for training this technology. And with the order to bet on the national product, Chinese companies are clear about it. As we read in Business TimesChinese Big Tech currently invests 30% annually of its budget in national AI accelerators, but that spending will increase to 46% over the next twelve months. The horses. Some of these Big Techs are creating their own chips, or already have them. This is the case of Alibaba or Tencent, which would be a kind of Meta or Google: they offer a product to the user, to other companies and, in addition, they have their own data centers with their home-made chips. However, there are other companies that are more focused on creating the hardware to power the internal data centers of those other large companies. This is the case of Hygon Information Technology or Cambricon Technologies, but also of Huawei. All three offer AI platforms that are becoming increasingly important in a context in which Nvidia H20 chips designed specifically for China They are increasingly difficult to find due to that national order to prioritize homemade hardware. The advantage of these companies is that it is no longer about raw power, which is one of the advantages that Nvidia had (although Nvidia is much more, since it also has a complete software suite and so on), but about speed and low latency. For agentic AI, high bandwidth for fast data transfer is essential, and that seems to be a point that Chinese hardware companies are focusing on. The Ascend. The interesting thing is that this strategy is not a future plan and is already being put into practice. Zhipu AI, for example, is a company that has already trained its GLM-5 model on more than 740 billion parameters entirely with the Huawei Ascend 910C. In addition, the Chinese company is working on the development of the Ascend 950 and 960 chips that promise to achieve parity with Nvidia’s most modern architectures. And the supernodes. On the other hand, Huawei continues to push the Atlas 950 supernode. Presented a few months ago, it is a cluster of up to 9,192 Ascend 950DT NPUs per system with up to 1,152 TB of unified memory. It is, according to the company, a direct competitor to Nvidia’s NVL144 rack, achieving 6.7 times more computing power than that of the American company. It is designed for both training and inference and, although it raises doubts about the energy efficiency per computing unit compared to that of Nvidia, what is clear is that it is a product that Chinese Big Tech They will be able to ‘shoot’ for their future models. Huawei is taking the platform around the world and its next appointment is at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 in Shanghai. Whether Nvidia solutions are used or not, what is clear is that the intention is to prioritize national hardware. China is going to invest nearly $300 billion to build data centers over the next five years to boost AI across all sectors of society. For its part, at least 80% of the basic technologywhere the chips come in, will be supplied by national companies. As several have already pointed out (Jensen Huang among them), the US veto of China It was the worst move they could make. because they only achieved one thing: give wings to their accelerated technological development. In Xataka | Huawei is very close to a great technological milestone. And he is very clear about what has allowed him to do so: the US veto

The Government says Palantir is a risk to national security. NATO, of which Spain is a member, has put it in charge of its own

by

Moncloa has begun to ask public companies not to sign new contracts with Palantir, according to Agustín Marco has advanced in The Confidential. The order is not official nor is it in writing, but an agreement has already been reached with the Civil Guard and another with Navantia. The panoramic. Spain joins France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in distrust towards the company of Peter Thiel and Alex Karp. The unofficial argument is the usual one: not to risk sensitive information in the hands of an American company with close ties to the Trump White House. The veto affects Telefónica, Indra, Correos and Navantia, all of them under the umbrella of SEPI. There is no statement, no press conference, no official note. They are indications transferred internally to boards of directors. In detail. The contract that really matters still stands. Defense signed with Palantir in 2023 a 16.5 million euro agreement for the Armed Forces Intelligence Center, and that contract expires in November of this year. According to The Confidentialthe chiefs of the General Staff have pressured Margarita Robles to renew it because there is no comparable alternative. Either Palantir or nobody. The decision remains unmade. The contrast. While Moncloa slides the veto inside, NATO announced this week that Palantir’s Maven Smart System becomes its operating system for military data management. Spain is a partner of the Alliance and has had to approve this decision, like all allies. So he voted yes in Brussels but has chosen the opposite direction behind closed doors. Why is it important. The veto does not touch the only thing that really counts: the Defense contract. Everything else (the Civil Guard and Navantia) were negotiations in progress, but not consolidated relationships. Cutting them costs little. Touching the CIFAS contract (Intelligence Center of the Armed Forces), on the other hand, would require replacing a tool that, according to sources in the military sector itself, has no rival in the market. Again: either Palantir or nobody. Yes, but. The gesture has a clear recipient: the US government. Pedro Sánchez has not received the US ambassador in Madrid, Benjamín León Jr., for months and Its Executive has invested 115 million euros in Openchip and another 5,000 million in a chip gigafactory as a commitment to European technological sovereignty. The Palantir veto fits that narrative. What doesn’t fit so well is that this same story coexists with a Defense contract that no one dares to cancel. And now what. The end of the current contract in November will test whether this was signaling or conviction: If the CIFAS contract is renewed without making much noise, the veto will have been a diplomatic gesture. If it is dropped without an equivalent replacement, Spain will be left without the tool its own military considers irreplaceable. The middle way, replacing it with European or national technology, does not yet exist. In Xataka | AI is crucial for the US military. So he’s naming OpenAI and Palantir leaders as lieutenant generals Featured image | Palantir, Wikimedia Commons

The US has just made quantum computing a national priority

by

The US is not willing to lose the race for quantum computing against China. Quantum computers are as important to these two superpowers as semiconductors or artificial intelligence (AI). It is even possible that in the future, when quantum machines arrive with the ability to correct your own mistakesif they finally do it, they will be even more so. The scientific community has agreed that classical encryption technologies they will be vulnerable before the advent of large-scale quantum hardware. In fact, Google’s quantum artificial intelligence group holds that a quantum computer with less than half a million physical qubits will be able to decipher the algorithms used by current cryptocurrencies in a few minutes. There is no doubt that the stakes are high. This is the scenario in which Donald Trump has signed Just a few hours ago two executive decrees made quantum computing a strategic priority of the State. The first sets as a goal the development of the first quantum computer powerful enough for scientific research before 2028. And the second forces the federal government’s civil systems to migrate to post-quantum cryptography before 2031, advancing the previous deadline set under the Biden Administration by four years. The US is convinced that quantum computers will take off in 2028 “We are going to invest in American quantum leadership like never before,” declared Donald Trump during the signing of the decrees. Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, was even more precise: “We believe this can happen in 2028,” he said, referring to the arrival of a quantum computer competent in scientific research. Furthermore, Kratsios described that moment as the beginning of “a new era of commercial capabilities.” The first decree requires the Pentagon to deploy quantum sensors before 2028 These decrees have come a month after the Department of Commerce announced $2 billion in financial incentives for nine companies in the sector under the CHIPS and Science Act. In any case, these measures are essentially a geopolitical positioning statement. The text of the first decree, called Ushering in the next Frontier of Quantum Innovation (Inaugurating the next frontier of quantum innovation), opens with the phrase: “The United States stands on the brink of a quantum revolution.” The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy coordinates the Government’s strategy that integrates the departments of Energy, Defense and Commerce, NASA and intelligence agencies, with the explicit objective of ensuring American leadership against China in a technology that could radically transform artificial intelligence, materials science and chemistry. Surprisingly, this decree also requires the Pentagon to deploy quantum sensors by 2028. Large-scale quantum computers could break the encryption schemes that today protect government, financial and critical infrastructure systems These devices have disruptive military applications. In fact, they can be used to guide aircraft in conflict zones where GPS systems have been blocked, and they can also be installed on satellites to detect underground activity, such as construction of tunnels or missile silos. The second decree is, if possible, even more urgent. Large-scale quantum computers could break the encryption schemes that today protect government, financial and critical infrastructure systems. The second decree approved by the US Government sets the year 2031 for migration to post-quantum algorithms validated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which implies four years ahead with respect to the 2035 objective of the previous Administration. Agencies that do not meet this deadline must submit an explanatory report to the White House Budget Office. Be that as it may, the NIST post-quantum standards they already exist. The career now is not technical, it is administrative, and requires migrating before someone takes advantage of what has been inevitable for years. Image | Xataka More information | Reuters In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

Adidas has managed to get all of Spain to wear the National Team shirt. It has also managed to get almost no one to buy it from Adidas

by

I’m sorry I can’t link it but the other day I read a tweet that said something like: “In these moments of extreme polarization, there is only one thing that unites all of Spain: the fake National Team shirt.” In cascade, there were the answers. One after another, fans fed up with the abusive price of football shirts, an accessory that It is already transversal to the sport itself but for which many are not willing to pay more (much more) than 100 euros for a product that you can have at home for just over 20 euros. At the gates of a World Cup, with a Spanish team that excites and a shirt that has had a deep impact since its presentation, the team’s second kit, the white one, can already be seen everywhere. And, of course, it’s not always official. It complicates your month According to Bankinter datathe median salary in Spain for a man was about 26,000 euros in 2024, the latest data published. That of women was just over 22,000 euros. That leaves us with a gross salary, of course, in 14 payments of just over 1,800 euros for them and less than 1,600 euros for women. With that salary, whoever wants to buy the official shirt of the Spanish National Team, replicating all its details, will be dedicating around 15% of the money that enters their account at the end of the month. Official Authentic T-shirt: 150 euros Player name: 20 euros FIFA patch: 10 euros Euro champion patch: 7 euros The accounts come out quickly and easily: 187 euros It is what it costs to wear the same shirt with which Lamine Yamal will take the field in Atlanta (United States) on June 15 at 6:00 p.m. (peninsular time) to face Cape Verde. That, of course, if you manage to get your hands on any of the t-shirts that They have already flown from the Adidas website. For much less, just 23 euros, you can have a replica at home in less than two weeks. It’s not that I asked one of the many in my close circle who have already gotten one. There is simply a website that ranks ahead of Adidas itself on Google. The German company says that “Spain’s away shirt pays tribute to this country’s incredible literary legacy, with intricate prints inspired by manuscripts, a nod to the cultural depth of the Spanish language that connects culture and football.” Let’s say that that other website does not offer such a literary description but what is certain is that there must be plenty of clients. The (pen)last example The second Adidas kit has highlighted the rise of fake t-shirts replicas and the enormous popularity they have garnered in recent years. Sid Lowea British sports journalist welcomed by the Asturian community, echoed this article in Digital Freedom in which the enormous popularity of Spain’s second shirt is mentioned. The one that no one seems to have paid at the price that Adidas lists on its website. Click on the image to go to the original tweet The responses criticizing the high price of the official set and the defense of getting one, let’s say, less official are repeated one after another. Click on the image to go to the original tweet The answers seem to concentrate each and every one of the issues surrounding the underworld that football shirts have become in recent years. Those of us who have dressed Saturdays, Sundays and summer holidays in football shirts and shirts know that replicas do not have the same feel as an original. No? Sure? Without a doubt, it looks a lot like him. It’s something I’ve known from conversations with friends and because… well, he who is free from sin… An example: Real Madrid shirt 99/00. Pushed by the nostalgia effect dosmilerothe aftershocks multiplied their presence in the streets. To the point that Adidas took advantage of the pull to reissue them and make good money. At least, to get mine and that of enough fans who spend our 110 euros to buy a shirt with more than a quarter of a century of history. In my case it was because I wanted to have the shirt with which Raúl dribbled past Santiago Cañizares to score Real Madrid’s third goal in the Champions League Final in Paris. He wanted “the one on Eighth”, the black one. Because the white one had already been given to me a few months before and this one was not entirely true. And, despite this, I had to go to the closet to rescue the shirt that I was wearing when I was eight years old and had an R. Carlos (3) on the back to certify that it did not have the same shiny patina that the official one had. Nor was the stitching of the shield the same, of course. No, it wasn’t the same, but it was almost identical.. And that is enough for many, many of us to wear the shirt of our childhood on the street again. It doesn’t matter if the shirt is from Raúl’s best years, Djalminha wearing Feiraco on the chest of Deportivo de la Coruña or Maradona carrying Buitoni to levels of popularity they never imagined. They all share a single code: they are fashionable. So much so that Adidas has not hesitated to reissue iconic designs from the nineties and 2000s. Without going any further and taking advantage of the return of the World Cup to the United States, For 110 euros you can dress like Clemente’s Spain in 1994. At least, the Germans have had the detail of not reissuing the second kit, forever anchored in a Luis Enrique bloodied. The football shirt phenomenon has become a transversal fashion that transcends genres, decades and teams. They are there when you go to buy bread, when you have a party with friends and when you go to the summer music festival. That has also created a … Read more

The Pentagon labeled Anthropic a national security risk. So Anthropic is suing the Pentagon

by

The soap opera between Anthropic and the Pentagon has a new chapter (and now they are going…). After the push and pull of the last few weeks, Anthropic stood and that ended up causing The US put the company on the blacklist. Anthropic was not amused. what has happened. Anthropic has sued the US Department of Defense (or War), calling the decision to blacklist them “unprecedented and illegal” and arguing that it will cause irreparable harm to the company. . In statements to Fortunean Anthropic spokesperson has assured that they remain committed to protecting national security and want to find a solution, but that “it is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers and our partners.” The administration has not commented on this lawsuit. A lot of money at stake. By blacklisting Anthropic, the government prevents defense contractors and suppliers from using Claude in their Pentagon-related activities. Additionally, Trump ordered the entire government to stop using Anthropic’s AI. The company says government contracts are already being canceled and other private contracts are in jeopardy. Anthropic’s commercial director, Paul Smith, has assured that there is a client who already Claude has been swapped for another generative AI. This contract alone will make them lose at least 100 million dollars. Doubts about legality. Anthropic says the government’s move is not legal. Are they right? According to legal experts at Lawfarethe “supply chain risk” label will not withstand judicial scrutiny. The main reason is that this designation is intended for foreign adversaries, as happened with Huawei. The law’s definition is “the risk that an adversary could sabotage or subvert a covered system,” it says nothing about using it as punishment to a national company for a disagreement. According to Lawfare, the statements by Trump and the defense secretary “frame the action as ideological punishment of a political enemy.” The disagreement. The origin of this escalation is in the red lines that Anthropic put Basically, the company refused to allow its model to be used for mass surveillance of citizens and especially the development of lethal weapons without human supervision. The concern is justified: a soldier can refuse to carry out an illegal order, an AI cannot. The Pentagon does not like red lines (from others, of course) and demanded to be able to use their technology without limits. In Trump’s words in a Truth Social post: “We will decide the fate of our country, NOT an out-of-control radical left-wing AI company run by people who have no idea what the real world is like.” Meanwhile OpenAI… Shortly after Anthropic was blacklisted, the government found a new candidate to carry out your plans: OpenAI. According to the company by Sam Altman, its development has more safeguards and hey, calm down, it’s not that big of a deal. What has followed is an image crisis for ChatGPT, with resignations and mass uninstalls of users who have switched to Claude. But let’s not fool ourselves, although Anthropic has won the battle of public opinion, if the US keeps up, the future looks pretty bleak for Amodei’s side. In Xataka | Anthropic has become the Apple of our era and OpenAI our Microsoft: a story of love and hate Image | Anthropic (edited)

Madrid and Catalonia are losing national population while gaining foreign population

by

The latest data of the INE on population flows show a curious phenomenon (almost contradictory) in two of the most populated regions of the country: Community of Madrid and Catalonia. Although both maintain their capacity to attract emigrants from other countries, they have been losing already resident populations for some time. in favor of other autonomieswhich translates into an “internal” migratory balance in the red. In short: your migratory motor has two speeds. The big question is to what extent it is the result of housing cost. What has happened? that the latest data from the INE confirm that Madrid and Catalonia remain the favorite destinations for immigrants who decide to move to Spain, but at the same time both communities see how many of their own neighbors pack their bags to move to other regions neighbors, such as Castilla-La Mancha (case of Madrid) or the Valencian Community (case of Catalonia). The data is especially interesting if we take into account that they arrive with a residential market with skyrocketing prices. Community Total immigration balance SM Exterior indoor SM Andalusia 61,912 67,770 -5,858 Aragon 18,024 17,048 976 Asturias 14,225 10,340 3,885 Balearics 17,118 15,735 1,383 Canary Islands 27,770 27,331 439 Cantabria 5,977 5,051 926 Castile and León 26,407 24,316 2,091 Castile-La Mancha 27,746 23,819 3,927 Catalonia 122,593 129,030 -6,437 Valencian Community 115,742 104,776 10,966 Estremadura 4,008 5,096 -1,088 Galicia 30,325 27,730 2,595 Community of Madrid 100,971 113,964 -12,993 Murcia region 17,531 18,704 -1,173 Navarre 6,976 7,264 -288 The Basque Country 24,190 23,420 770 Rioja 3,906 2,998 908 Ceuta 217 416 -199 Melilla 630 1,460 -830 Is the trend so clear? Yes. It comes with taking a look at the tables of INE immigration balances to verify it. If we look at the balance of foreign migration (the difference between the population from other countries that moved to Spain and the Spanish population that settled in other nations), in 2034 the Catalan community registered a clearly positive result: +129,030 people. Things change when we talk about “internal migration”, which reflects population movements between the different Spanish communities, always within the country. In that case the balance left a negative result: -6,437. That is, there were 53,585 people from other regions who settled in Catalonia, but 60,022 Catalans who packed their bags to go to other autonomies. And in Madrid? The ‘photo’ It’s not very different. Its external migration balance showed a positive result of 113,964 people, but that of “internal migration” left a negative balance, with the loss of 12,993 residents. In 2024 there were 100,342 people from other communities who registered in one of the municipalities of Madrid, but 113,335 did exactly the opposite: they decided to pack their bags and change the capital for other regions. In fact, the Community of Madrid shows the worst internal migration balance (at least in net terms) in the country. Only Catalonia (-6,437) and Andalusia, which showed a negative balance of -5,858, come close (and by far). It’s not really a surprise. In May we told you how there are people from Madrid moving to Valladolid and taking the AVE every day to continue working in the capital. Can it go further? Yes. The INE allows you to go beyond the autonomous communities and obtain data at the municipal or even submunicipal level, by neighborhood. It is an interesting tool because it confirms how this double phenomenon is exacerbated in the two main cities of the country: Madrid and Barcelona. In the first (Madrid) the external migration balance was 73,959 people and the internal one was -18,722. In Barcelona these indicators marked +46,974 and -17,020, respectively. Valencia also presents a positive external balance and a negative internal balance, despite the fact that the community as a whole gained migration. Why is it interesting? Because population flows are not isolated phenomena. They occur in a context marked by multiple factors, among which is (especially if we talk about recent years) the increase in price of housing and an increase in ‘overcrowded homes’those in which people reside in overcrowded conditions. There are also another clear trend: the increase in certain migratory flows, such as those of Venezuelan origin, a phenomenon that is being felt in neighborhoods of all types of income. A recent study from Idealista confirms that Madrid and Barcelona are two of the most expensive cities in Spain. And he is not the only one. Photohouse calculate that Madrid and Catalonia are two of the regions with the most expensive second-hand housing in Spain, only surpassed by the Balearic Islands and (in the case of Catalonia) the Canary Islands and Euskadi. Does housing have that much influence? The INE study suggests this, especially because it appreciates differences within the municipalities themselves. “In some of the main cities it is observed that the most central districts are losing population, while the most remote ones are gaining it,” comments the organizationwhich cites several specific cases already confirm the trend: “In 2024 in Madrid, the subdistricts on the southeastern periphery were the ones that had the highest balance. In Barcelona and Valencia, those in the south were the ones that gained the most.” Of course more factors come into play. The Canary Islands or Balearic Islands, two regions very marked by rising housing prices and tourism, closed 2024 with a positive balance in both external and internal migration, just like the Basque Country. Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León also grew, receivers of a good part of the population that decided to leave the capital, and the Valencian Community, also a destination for internal migration from Barcelona. Images | Joshua Aguilar (Unsplash) and INE In Xataka | The silent surprise of Venezuelans: the number of immigrants has skyrocketed in Madrid, eclipsing Romanians and Moroccans

chip factories will have to use 50% national technology

by

Since the US allowed NVIDIA to sell its H200 chip to China, there have been two reactions. On the one hand there are the Chinese companies, such as Alibaba or Bytedancewho want to get hold of them as soon as possible. On the other hand, the reluctance of the Chinese government whose main objective is to stop depending on the US. Now they have taken another step in that direction. what has happened. According to one Reuters exclusivethe Chinese government has imposed a new rule on semiconductor manufacturers that want to expand their production capacity: they must do so using at least 50% equipment manufactured in China. It is not a public standard that is included in an official document, but they say from Reuters that manufacturers that have recently expanded their factories have found themselves required to demonstrate that half of their equipment was ‘made in China’. If they do not comply, it is normal that they will be denied. Why is it important. It is further proof of Beijing’s determination to prioritize national chips, but it goes even further by requiring that the necessary machinery also be national. In this way it impacts the entire supply chain, not just the chips. The striking thing is by making the minimum 50% it is causing manufacturers to have to prioritize Chinese technology even in areas where they could be done with foreign technology. The goal is clear: total self-sufficiency. The winners. Before the ban, Chinese chipmakers like SMIC typically used American equipment and Chinese manufacturers were their last option. Now they have no choice but to turn to companies like Naura Technology and AMEC, whose demand for lithography machinery has increased exponentially and with it its income. Furthermore, this demand has caused them to improve their technology more quickly, something that is reflected in the registration of patents. In 2025 Naura registered 779 patents, more than double that of several previous years. Self-sufficiency. The biggest challenge is in semiconductors; Without access to the most advanced lithography machines, Chinese chips are several years behind the most advanced ones made by companies like ASML or TSMC. In parallel to all these policies to prioritize national chips, China is promoting projects to ‘hack’ that technology and be able to place themselves at the same level. At the level of AI chips, they are also promoting companies that They seek to be ‘the Chinese NVIDIA’ like MetaX or Moore Threads. They still have a long way to go, but it is no longer a question of if, but when. Image | Nick Woodedited In Xataka | Huawei and SMIC find the key to creating 7nm chips: do an ‘Ikea ​​hack’ to the oldest ASML machines

The US electrical grid depends on Chinese devices. And that worries their national security

by

United States national security has always been measured on aircraft carriers, missiles and satellites. Today, however, a growing part of that security depends on something much more everyday: electricity. The grid that powers homes, hospitals, data centers and military bases is going through —despite political resistance from the Trump administration— an accelerated transformation towards renewable sources. But that transition, key to the country’s energy future, has introduced a silent vulnerability. The back door open. The expansion of solar energy has made the US electrical grid depend massively of inverters made in China, essential devices for converting solar energy into electricity usable by the grid. They are not simple pieces of hardware: they are digital systems, connected, with software, remote communication capabilities and, in many cases, manufactured by companies with direct or indirect links to Beijing. For years, this dependency was seen as an industrial or commercial problem. Today, for those responsible for national security, it has become something very different. The agency notice. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI published a joint notice in which they alleged that cyber actors sponsored by the People’s Republic of China had compromised and maintained persistent access to critical US infrastructure. The identified group, known as Volt Typhoonhad managed to infiltrate organizations in key sectors such as energy, water, transportation and communications. The objective was not to steal data or obtain financial benefits. According to the security agencies documentthe behavior detected “is not consistent with traditional espionage” and points, with “high confidence”, to a different strategy: enter critical systems, remain hidden for long periods and wait. Wait for a crisis or conflict scenario in which those same infrastructures may be interrupted or degraded. It’s exactly the scenario that FBI Director Christopher Wray has described before Congress warning that China is positioning itself to attack American civilian infrastructure as part of its strategic planning. From stealing secrets to preparing chaos. For years, cyber activities attributed to China focused on the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets. Today, according to security officialsthe objective is different: to create the ability to cause internal chaos in the United States and limit its room for maneuver in a conflict, especially in the Indo-Pacific. The systems attacked by Volt Typhoon—such as ports, regional power grids, or water utilities—have no immediate economic or political value. Precisely for this reason, experts conclude that the only reason to infiltrate them is to be able to sabotage them later. It is not necessarily about causing a national blackout. As government sources explainselective interruptions, cascading failures or highly visible incidents would be enough to generate social panic, put pressure on policy makers and condition decision-making. Towards the transition. The U.S. power grid is increasingly reliant on solar inverters and storage systems—so-called investor-based resources— which are not simple pieces of hardware. They are digital, connected systems that regulate the flow of energy, stabilize the frequency and constantly communicate with other elements of the network. According to the In Broad Daylight reportprepared by Strider Technologies, since 2015 China has exported nearly 2.68 billion kilograms of inverters to the United States, dominating two-thirds of the world market. To understand the scale of the phenomenon: 86% of electricity companies analyzed by Striderwhich represent about 12% of the installed capacity in the United States, use at least one Chinese supplier considered risky. Together, these devices are present in 5,400 megawatts of solar capacity spread across 22 states, enough electricity to keep more than a million homes powered for a year. The concern is not trivial. A Chinese manufacturer remotely disabled inverters installed in the United States and other countries amid a contract dispute, demonstrating that manufacturers retain operational control on already deployed equipment. Furthermore, research cited by The Washington Post reveal the existence of undocumented communication components in some inverters, capable of connecting to external networks without the operators’ knowledge. According to Striderthe problem is compounded because Chinese academic and military institutions have produced thousands of studies on foreign power grid vulnerabilities, many of them focused on deliberate disruption scenarios. China has come forward against the accusations. A spokesman for its embassy in Washington responded to Reuters and Washington Post rejecting that there is a security problem and denouncing what he described as a “generalization” of the concept of national security to discredit Chinese advances in energy infrastructure. Beijing has not announced technical reviews, external audits or changes to the control mechanisms of these devices. A dilemma without a simple solution. In the short term, US authorities have ordered electric companies to limit or monitor external communications from these devices. However, as officials recognizethe fragmentation of the electricity sector—with thousands of operators and unequal standards—makes a uniform response difficult. In the medium term, the dilemma is more complex. A massive recall of Chinese hardware could put energy supplies at risk at a time of strong demand growth. Maintaining it implies accepting a strategic vulnerability. In the long term, the consensus among analysts is clear: energy is no longer just an economic or climate issue, but a matter of national security. As Strider’s report concludesensuring the transition to clean energy without creating new strategic dependencies has become a defensive priority. The new dimension of national security. The US power grid does not need to be attacked tomorrow to become a pressure tool today. The vulnerability already exists, integrated in the form of everyday devices, invisible to the end user but critical to the functioning of the country. The question raised by the official documents themselves is not whether that capacity will be used, but in what context and for what purpose. Because, in the strategic competition of the 21st century, the control of energy can be as decisive as the control of territory. Image | Unsplash and freepik Xataka | The US and China are involved in a controversy over renewable devices: what we know (and, above all, what we do not know) so far

There is a national symbol that Japan has been invariable for generations: a very expensive school backpack

by

No one forces them to use them. There is no decree, nor regulationnor order of any other type that requires your purchase. And yet every year (especially In May or August) The families of Japan with children about to start school are subjected to the same ritual: they travel stores to choose with great care the backpack that must accompany the child during their six years of primary school. They do it paying attention to colors, shapes, fabrics … but not to the model. That is taken for granted: the backpack must be a ‘raondoseru’. ‘Rondoseru’? Exact. The word may not tell you much, but if you usually read comics or watch Japanese series and movies it is likely that the article itself is familiar. THE ‘RANDOSERU’ (A style, not a commercial brand) are the backpacks used by Japan children during their early years in school, the equivalent of our primary. Large, rigid, usually of leather, they usually always share the same design: rectangular shape, straps and a huge flap. Where do they come from? The ‘Randosseru’ connects with its origins, at the end of the 19th century. The word is a kind of adaptation of the Dutch “Ransel”, which can be translated as “backpack” or “backpack.” And it is no accident. It is said that the first to use the ‘randoseru’ were the Japanese soldiers at the end of the EDO period, who used them for their luggage. The design must like the prestigious Gakushūininstitution created to train the children of the aristocracy, because Towards 1885 He decided to incorporate a similar model as an official backpack. Other versions They say that in those years, at the end of the 1880s, the Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi He gave the prince Yoshihito (eight years old) A backpack for the school made with leather and remembered the backpacks that the soldiers loaded behind the back. Whether or not, the ‘ramoseru’ ended up triumphing and established a tradition that has managed to survive the nineteenth to the twentieth and twenty -first century, with their wars, political swings and fashions included. A symbol of distinction? Today they are a community symbol. With the passing of the decades, the ‘ramoseru’ have become so popular, have extended so much by the schools throughout Japan, which have become almost a timeless icon. They were used by parents and use them children. In fact they are usually The grandparents Those who give them to their grandchildren and families spend time, resources and attention to choose the best backpack for their offspring. Mainichi Shimbunone of the most relevant newspapers in the country, defines it as something similar to “a rite of initiation” for children who are about to start at school. “Getting a backpack ‘ramoseru’ before the first grade is an important mile In June Moe Yamamoto. Maybe it sounds exaggerated, but families often choose backpack with a surprising anticipation, a year before the child is going to step on the classrooms (they get to work in May in the face of the course that will start in April) and pay attention to all the details. In the department stores Isetan It is even celebrated A special event with hundreds of models to choose designs, colors or materials. How common are they? In 2024 the reporter of The New York Times In Tokyo Motoko Rich He dedicated them A report It starts with an interesting experiment. Rich recounts the first day of the school year at a Koto school, in Tokyo, and then looks at how many of the elementary children carry the famous backpacks. His conclusion is resounding: “almost all.” “It is not a rule imposed by anyone, but a rule that we all comply with together,” confirms Shoko FukushimaDeputy Educational Administration professor at the Chiba Institute of Technology. But … what are the ‘Randoseru’? Although tradition has remained over the last decades, backpacks have not been alien to fashions. Before The usual It was that the boys carry black backpacks and the red girls, but that has changed. And we know it for sure because there is an association of ‘randoseru’ that Monitoring trends: Colors (L Lavender and Rosa triumph among the girls, more than red), sizes, materials or even dates and places of purchase. Unlike what happened a few decades ago, today the offer is wide and includes models of different shades and with cartoon characters, embroidery or linings of various fabrics. The objective: that each one has their ideal ‘raondoseru’. Comfortable and cheap? There are reasons to doubt the first. And objective reasons to deny the second. The ‘raondoseru’ are heavy. Vacuum, the classic model Round the kilo and a halfand Motoko Rich acknowledges that when books, notebooks, cases or even tablets are added to more than four kilos. In Your report He speaks, for example, of a student of the first course that one morning left for school carrying a three kilos backpack. It may not seem much, but it supposed more or less a seventh pass of his body weight. As for prices, Rich Explain That the average leather models is around $ 380, although that is just a reference. There are much more expensive versions, which go to more than 500 or even exceed The 1,000 barrier. Of course it is not necessary to resort to such heavy or expensive bags. Mainichi remember That manufacturers have created alternatives to traditional leather wallets, such as Nylon editions that weigh between 650 and 1,200 grams (far from the 900-1,500 g of the oldest models) and can be bought for less than 70 dollars. Another alternative is to pay for backpack subscription services that in exchange for a monthly payment allow the portfolio to be changed every so often. Are they used in Spain and Europe? The undeniable thing is that the ‘ramoseru’ have aroused interest outside of Japan, something that is found to see the amount of articles that the western press has dedicated to him in recent years. One of the … Read more

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.