profitable

It is more profitable than Inditex

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International expansion and diversification strategy of Amancio Ortega investor arm He is marking a milestone in the European real estate sector. So much so that the latest financial information places its real estate, Pontegadea, surpassing Inditex in profitability. The strategic turn of Ortega Empire The magnitude of the Pontegadea assets has already raised that it has already become the Real estate with greater value in Spainand has settled the foundations to become the most powerful in Europe in the coming years. Pontegadea: the new Lencio Ortega locomotive The founder of Inditex has taken less than two decades to convert his second company into A real estate empire. His modus operandi is relatively simple: use The annual dividends which provides you with 59.29% of Inditex shares, to buy office buildings, premises in strategic locations for Inditex stores, luxury residential buildings, logistics and logistics centers Even hotels. Since Inditex dividends ascend Several billions Annual, Pontegadea has dedicated the last decades to Buy strategic buildings all over the world. The key to everything is that, upon receiving every year A generous check Inditex, Pontegadea does not need to depend on bank loans to make your real estate purchases. 0% debt 100% advantages. In what we have been in 2025, the company has invested 800 million dollars in acquiring new buildings. However, unlike Investment fundsPontegadea does not base your business on obtaining profitability of the surplus value of the sale of these properties, but of becoming the landlord of companies such as Apple, AmazonSpotify and even the main competitor of your textile empire: Primark. Profitability record in 2024 According The published by The economistAmancio Ortega’s holding registered a net benefit of 9,322 million euros in the exercise of 2024. This increase represents a increase of 17.3% with respect to the previous year, placing the group at the head of Spanish patrimonial societies. According to data of Expansion, Obtained from the accounts deposited in the Mercantile Registry, Pontegadea declared consolidated income of 43,125 million euros, growing 8.7% compared to 2023. Total assets, that is, the value of the buildings owned by Pontegadea, its renewable energy business and of Inditex’s shares, exceed 110,615 million euros, which represents an annual increase of 9.3%. For its part, Inditex has also presented historical figuresalthough a little more contained than their investors expected. The company directed by Marta Ortegayoungest daughter of the founder, He scored a benefit Net of 5,866 million euros In 2024, which is 9% more than the previous year. Although the good results of both companies in 2024 were excellent, the benefit of Pontegadea was 62.9% higher than the total that Inditex obtained, which shows Cycle change and the strength of the patrimonial sector in the investment portfolio of Amancio Ortega. Next objective: Europe During the last two decades, Pontegadea has been managing the properties he was buying around the world from the local subsidiaries that the company has created in Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, France, USA or luxembourg. However, a complete redesign of its structure has just executed to centralize all assets management of Europe, Canada and the USA In his Luxembourg subsidiarywhich becomes the control center of all assets. The only exception is the assets that manage the subsidiaries of Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, which continue to be independent. This process aims Banke Hotel Purchases from Paris for 97 million euros and the Banco Sabadell offices building in Miami for 235 million euros more. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives as one more neighbor (except for private jets and superyates) Image | Gtres, Inditex

Younger millionaires have found a more profitable investment than the S&P500: Pokémon’s letters

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Some years ago, YouTuber Logan Paul hit the nail With a formula for financial success: nostalgia + business = the new art. Take an element of your childhood, add a collecting component and the Business is assured. Ask Nintendo with their Pokémon cards. More and more young millionaires are betting on Pokémon cards as a form of investment away from the whims of bags and values that, to date They were considered refuge. It is a trend that we already saw with the Hermès bagsand now he is also emerging with the letters Pokémon collectibles. The power of nostalgia. The attractiveness of these letters not only lies in nostalgia, but also in their ability to generate benefits that exceed those of large stock market rates. Pokémon card fever is sweeping and leaving record figures in its path, such and As publishes Fortune. Collectible articles have always been likely to achieve surprising quotes, especially when they evoke memories of childhood. Pokémon’s letters, which are already approaching their thirtieth anniversary, have conquered young investors looking for more than investing in traditional actions. According to Cardder data, collectible card assessment portal published by Fortunethe annual average profitability of Pokémon letters is increasing almost 46%, exceeding the profitability of very powerful actions such as Nvidia or the average annual profitability of the S&P 500 stock market index, which is 12%. A consolidated and booming market. Since its launch in 1999, They have been manufactured more than 75,000 million pokémon cards. After a first decade of settlement, the market began to value these cards as authentic collectible assets, comparable to classic comics. According to Cardder data, the Japanese animation series cards have been revalued at 3,261% in the last 20 years. Only during the pandemic, the boredom of collectors caused the profitability of the letters to increase by 500%, as published by what was published by Business Insider. AND, according to The AthleticPokémon and Magic letters would have displaced part of the business of collectible sports cards. Almost three decades later, this business model continues to generate about 1,000 million dollars a year. Shortage increases the price. The success of Pokémon letters has generated unusual situations in retail trade. Great chains like Walmart and Target were forced toimitate the number of units By user due to high demand and violent incidents related to the purchase of cards. Pokémon’s letters have reached be the objective of theftwith thieves sneaking in stores and floors in the purest mission style impossible to get a booty of letters valued at several thousand dollars. The last one, without going any further, happened on July 12 at a Massachusetts store, where A thief took pokémon letters valued at $ 100,000. Celebrities and the attractiveness of investment. The fever for investment in Pokémon cards between millennials and the Z generation has grown even more thanks to the interest of celebrities Like elrubius either Justin Bieberwho have paid thousands of dollars for some of them. Famous youtubers such as Logan Paul have brought this passion to the extreme. In 2022, Paul He got the Guinness record When buying the most expensive Pokémon letter in history, for which paid 5.27 million dollars. “This card cost me more than my ranch. My 84 acres ranch,” Paul said. Capital and organized crime The value of Pokémon letters has reached such magnitude that even organized crime groups in Japan have used them To bleach capitalssimilar to what happens with works of art. The ease of transporting and selling these letters abroad makes them an attractive instrument for illegal activities, confirming that the phenomenon of Pokémon cards transcends Simple collecting And it has become A financial asset With global impact. In Xataka | Millionaires found in the luxury watches a refuge value. Now the bubble has exploded Image | Wikimedia Commons (Romer Jed Medina), Unspash (Omid Armin)

There was a day when buying a luxury watch was a very profitable business. The US tariffs are getting it again

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The second -hand luxury watch market has lived a roller coaster in recent years. After a record time promoted by New millionaires of cryptocurrencies and of the bag, the bubble of luxury watches exploded. Now, factors such as the rebound of cryptocurrencies and changes in the commercial war initiated by the US are reconfiguring the recovery panorama of this exclusive market. 2020: cryptocurrency boom and stock market. Interest in luxury watches not only reflects a passenger fashion. The nature of luxury watches, considered as much as works of engineering art as An alternative investment form which sometimes exceeds the stock markets in profitability, also responds to global economic movements and the search for shelter assets. During the pandemic and the later years, the rise of cryptocurrencies and the good moment of the bag generated a new wave of millionaires. Many of them, driven by the need to invest their earnings in tangible assets, launched a tropel to buy luxury watches. This trend especially affected brands Like RolexAudemars Piguet or Patek Philippe, whose most coveted models were difficult to get in traditional stores due to their limited production. That dramatically increased demand by exceeding the supply. The result: a bubble that led to the second -hand market of these exclusive watches to shoot reaching Duplicate the price They cost new. The collapse of the bubble. This bubble It soon exploded. When financial markets began to show signs of weakness, many of the investors who had acquired luxury watches They decided to sell themsaturating the second -hand market with the pieces that had bought at a price inflated a few months before. The oversight and the lack of buyers caused the watches that were previously sold for twice their original price now barely had a way out, making prices fall to historical minimum values. Stabilization and recovery factors. At present, although the second -hand luxury watches market still remains at modest levels, begins to show signs of moderate recovery. Such and as they highlight in Bloombergalthough the figures are far from the levels reached after the pandemic, the sector begins to recover, partly driven by the renewed interest of cryptocurrency investors after The rebound that has experienced In recent months. The uncertainty about tariffs To European luxury products imposed by the US, including Swiss watches, may be braking that boom, since they affect both the final prices of sale in store, and the availability of products in key markets such as the American. Tariff impact. After the announcement of the tariffs that the US was going to impose on Europe, American luxury watches suppliers reacted immediately. According to published data By Bloomberg, after the “Day of Liberation”, in which the beginning of the Trump’s commercial warthere was an increase in the purchase volume in the North American market of 150% as anticipation at the entrance of tariffs. A reaction that Not even Apple could avoid. However, the next month, purchases fell 25% because simply, suppliers had already bought everything they could and the tariff sanctions of Trump had not appliedwhich caused the supply of new watches in stores to cover the demand. So second -hand market prices have remained stable. The diversification of luxury. At the same time, the stagnation of Sales of luxury products in Asiaespecially in China, it has made luxury watches manufacturers have more stock for European and North American markets. That also contributes to stabilized second -hand prices because there is not so much pressure on the availability of new stores in store. In addition, the rise of high jewelry for men is also contributing to the recovery of the second -hand market of luxury watches develop without shocks. Until relatively recently, watches were the only remarkable jewel in male fashion. However, in recent years The trend has changed and necklaces, bracelets and other jewels are part of male outfits. Not even Mark Zuckerberg He has been able to resist. In 2023, the volume of that market was 8,500 million dollars, but by 2025 it is estimated that it will grow to 9,410 million dollars, indicating that male jewelry is gaining ground and watches are no longer the only option for high purchasing power investors. In Xataka | Casio for Gates, Omega Lunar for Bezos, Patek Philippe for Arnault: What the clock of each billionaire says about him In Xataka | Mark Zuckerberg has put on brown and gold chains to grind more. Surveys say it still falls badly Image | Rolex

airlines are not profitable on a 1,300 km trip

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Usain Bolt bending seven rivals, letting go in the last 15 meters and, despite everything, running faster of what no human had done until then. Is there any better metaphor to explain the launch of Chinese high speed trains? That year, while Usain Bolt flew inside the nestthe stadium in which the Beijing Olympic GamesChina took the opportunity to show the world that it was already a modern country. And part of that modernity passed, of course, through high -speed lines that came into operation that same year. 17 years later, China is the First country in the world With more kilometers on high -speed roads. Like Bolt in 2008, growth has run at such a devilish speed that it has left powers such as France, Japan and, Spain, because We are the second country in the world with more kilometers of high speed. In less than two decades, the impact of Chinese high speed has been very high. The railway framework in a country of the size of China is very important for long displacements. And, for the moment, they are convincing people. So much that their airlines have given an alarm voice: the train is stealing customers. Better by train While Europe is still trying to bet on the train but the low flight prices are still competitive enough to opt for them mostly when it comes to making a long journey, the incorporation of bullet trains in China has completely changed the way of understanding trips in the Asian country. At the end of 2024 They presented their most advanced traincapable of reaching 450 km/h. CR450AF is only the last example of Chinese development. This year it should come into operation on the high -speed roads already built, so its maximum speed will be 350 km/h. However, the intention is to have finished in 2027 the railways that will hold the more than 400 km/h mentioned. Then, travelers will have one more reason to opt for the train on the Beijing-Shangai route, a journey to which according to South China Morning Post 52 million passengers were uploaded last year, for just 8.6 million travelers that the airlines added. This figure served at the service to grow 3.62% in its income, until adding more than 42,000 million yuan (about 5.8 billion dollars). And net earnings increased by 10%, raising to 12.8 billion yuan (near 1.8 billion dollars). Traffic is so intense that 100 trains circulate daily between both cities. To understand why the train has triumphed in front of the plane, you just have to understand its figures. Just over 1,300 kilometers separate Beijing from Shanghai but the current Chinese train is able to reduce that distance to four hours and 18 minutes of journey. In the worst case, adding all the stops, the trip stays in less than eight hours. At the high frequency and reduced time of the journey, we must add that, according to SCMP For many it is essential to stay connected while traveling. While in a plane it is impossible to maintain this digital connection (At least for the moment)on the train it seems to be assured. In fact, if something made us clear to us Beijing Winter Olympic Games The latter was one of the great concerns. They highlight in the environment that the Chinese Air Transport Association defines as “eroded” the competition between both means of transport that are seeing how even the upper classes are opting for the train. China Eastern Airlines and Air China have recently linked forces, with the aim of sealing this passenger leak. Both companies total 55 flights between cities and had one of their most faithful groups in the upper class. However, leaving and arriving from the city center and the punctuality of the train (in addition to connectivity) is attracting more and more customers. Airlines have tried to stop this offering their clients facilities to change flight schedule or even putting limousines to bring them closer to the center of the cities. Airlines warn that if this does not work, they will have no choice but to lower prices but maintaining the line is, less and less viable. On the other side of the railway currency, SCMP It also emphasizes that the success of the line between Beijing and Shanghai is not repeated in much of the country where the interior lines are deficit. Something that as Spaniards already sounds more? Photo | N509FZ In Xataka | China has the “most difficult in the world” railway tunnel: 34 kilometers crossing a hostile mountain

The US threatens Apple with a 25% tariff if you do not manufacture the iPhone there. It would continue to be more profitable in India

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Donald Trump has launched a direct threat to Apple: If you want to sell the iPhone in the United States, you must manufacture them there. Otherwise, you will have to assume a 25%tariff. This threat is part of its new commercial offensive, which also includes a 50% tariff to European products and measures against other great American technological ones. Apple, however, had already begun to reorder his production map. Tim Cook announced that “The majority” of the iPhone sold in the United States in 2025 will be manufactured in India. It is a message: Apple has no intention – not real capacity – to transfer its production to American soil in the short or medium term. In figures. Today, making an iPhone in China costs around $ 450. If that production was transferred to the United States, the cost per unit would shoot up to $ 1,400-1,600. And if the entire supply chain in US territory was also replicated, the final price to the consumer could overcome the 2,000 dollars.. Apple’s margin would not endure that blow. And consumers either. Yes, but. Moving production to India barely represents an increase from 10% to 15% compared to China. With an average sale price in the United States of about $ 1,000 to $ 1,200 per unit, Apple can absorb that difference, affect the customer or a mixture of both. Always without turning the iPhone into an unattainable luxury product. Trump’s 25% tariff, if applied, would be even more expensive. Between bambalins. India is more than a momentary escape route. Apple has been preparing for this turn for years. Foxconn has invested $ 1.5 billion to expand its plant in Chennai, and Tata Electronics has accelerated the construction of new assembly lines in Tamil Nadu. In 2024, 18% of the iPhone have already left India. In 2025 it will be 32%. Cook does not improvise: he knows that producing in the United States would have been reconstructing the infrastructure and technical specialization that Asia offers today. India is not China, but it has something that the United States does not: a young, cheap and trained population, as well as a government (that of Modi) willing to encourage every dollar invested. The context. Apple has already promised to invest 500,000 million dollars in the United States in the next four years. But it will do it in chips, data centers and artificial intelligence servers, not in iPhones factories. Trump knows it, and that’s why he attacks: investment is not enough. It wants production. And he wants to see her inside her borders. By the way, half Billón’s investment had a small print of Cantabria’s size: On the other hand, manufacturing iPhone is not riding furniture. It is a high precision operation, with thousands of components assembled in record times for workers in 12 -hour shifts. The United States does not have the ecosystem, nor labor, nor the right labor cost to replicate that. Trump can press, but cannot alter the economic laws of global logistics. And now what. Apple will play time. You can negotiate exceptions, delays or adjustments, as did in 2019 with Chinese tariffs. But if Trump fulfills his threat, he will have to choose between paying billions in tariffs … or raising prices. And there is the paradox: If Apple manufactured in the United States, the iPhone would cost 1,200 to more than 2,000 and even $ 3,000. If it remains in India, with 25% of Trump included, it would rise only to about 1,500. Manufacture in India, even penalized, is still more profitable than producing at home. In Xataka | Apple anticipates 900 million dollars of tariff impact. It is equivalent to the cost of producing almost two million iPhone Outstanding image | Xataka

Inditex has discovered that its giant stores are less and less profitable. The problem is that you can’t close them

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Barclays has put his finger on the sore of the Inditex business model. His analysts question whether the megatiendas of the textile giant can continue to generate the productivity improvements that have promoted their growth during the last decade, according to Five days. The origin of the doubts is in its weak growth of the start of the fiscal year, which has slowed that until now it was a strong and almost uninterrupted growth. What has happened. Between 2019 and 2024, Inditex has increased its sales by 37% despite reducing the number of stores by 29%. The average size of its establishments grew 23% to 836 square meters, but sales growth is deflated: 11% in March 2024 to 4% in March this year. Why is it important. The figures show an uncomfortable paradox: While online sales grow with higher margins and minor costs … … physical megatiendas devour resources and generate decreasing profitability. However, closing those megatiendas, in emblematic or high visibility locations, with very high costs that eat a good part of the margin, could be counterproductive. The context. The Inditex megatiendas They are not just stores: they are Showrooms strategic Its real function goes beyond maximizing sales per square meter, they also serve to legitimize online prices. A jacket of 80 euros on the Zara website seems reasonable because the customer can touch it, try it and validate its quality in a store, especially in a 1,000 square meters in the center of Madrid or Barcelona. And because of the fact that this brand is there, conquering that space. In detail. The model works like this: Megatiendas create the perception of premium brand that justifies online prices. It is not something that has invented Inditex or exclusive to fashion stores. McKinsey already talked about this phenomenon Before pandemic. Without that physical presence, Zara would lose some reputational credibility in the face of much cheaper purely digital competitors such as Shein. Physical spaces act as confidence anchors that allow to collect higher prices on the digital channel. Yes, but. The equation is complicated when the profitability of these Showrooms It deteriorates. Barclays estimates that the growth of sales per square meter will decelerate 8% historical annual to 3% in the next four years. Maintaining very expensive spaces that do not generate proportional direct benefits is a bit more difficult to sustain in the long term. Turning point. Inditex will possibly redefine your megatiendas without loading your strategic value. Closed would save costs but destroy a part of the credibility that supports online prices. Keep them as the margins are erodes. The departure is to reinvent them as brand theaters that justify their cost through their impact on the digital business. It is something very similar to what happens with telecos stores, especially Flagship: They maintain strategic establishments in central and privileged locations for a more reputational and Awareness (Brand recognition, perception, prestige) that by pure profitability. Outstanding image | Inditex In Xataka | Wallapop taught us to sell what was used. Decathlon has learned to earn money with it

Chatgpt is already the most downloaded app in the world. And it doesn’t even manage to be profitable

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Analyzing application tops is usually especially boring. Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and WhatsApp, the crown has always been of a social network. Until March 2025 in which, for the first time since 2013 (the year in which the most downloaded app was Candy Crush Saga), An app of this category occupies the podium. Chatgpt, the most unloaded app in March. The latest Appfigures report Collect three interesting data. Chatgpt was the most unloaded app worldwide with an accumulated of just over 46 million downloads. It is the first time in twelve years that a social network does not occupy the podium, although by the hair. Instagram also is around 46 million downloads, but occupies second place. The dynamics of consumption between iOS and Android. Chatgpt is the most downloaded app with 13 million downloads, above Threads and Capcut. In the case of Android, Instagram is still a leader, followed by Tiktok and with ChatgPT occupying third place with 33 million downloads. It is a good photograph about how the Application consumption dynamics According to operating system, and how perhaps iPhone users are looking for everything they do not find in Siri, something especially vitaminated with the integration of the OpenAI model into Apple’s voice assistant. That Openai has devastated in March is not a coincidence. Chatgpt has been appearing in the most unloaded apps in the main operating systems for months, but understanding its success in March is impossible without talking about Ghibli fever. A fever that managed to make They add five million users … in one hour. Openai’s opening to its image generation model in the free model went viral in just hours, generating saturation on servers which they had to respond with limitations. Sam Altman himself said that “it is very fun to see people love the images in Chatgptbut our GPU are melting. ” The monetization challenge. The OpenAi chatbot presents a paradox: it is one of the most unloaded apps in the world, but its monetization is not consolidated. The operation cost is very highand the consultations to GPT-4 cost millions of dollars to OpenAi every day. Openai itself reports that most users use the free version with GPT 3.5. Here the challenge is important: if the free version is limited too much, there is a risk of cooling demand for chatgpt. But if it is not limited, the server cost will end up being unsustainable. According to last year data, GPT has Something more than 10 million payment subscribersfact that you have to add an additional million for business plans, with a higher rate. It is not enough. Openai is not profitable, and we still know if it will end up. One of the collateral effects of the commercial war points directly to the price for using AI. Muddu Sudhakar, Aisa CEO, warned That if building data centers ends up being more expensive, it will also be to operate artificial intelligence systems. Competition with Google Gemini either does it helptheir AI models are not so expensive and are sweeping their competition in Benchmarks. If we add that not even the GPT Pro subscription, which gives access to Your best models included Sorait is profitable with a price of 200 dollars a month, the scenario is uncertain. According to Altman, GPT’s payment users “use it much more than expected”, flying through the service of the service. Image | Mockuups Studio In Xataka | Openai wants to square a circle with GPT-5: earn money and become the “new Google” offering something free

Europe’s boycott to the United States is real and is being noticed in one of its most profitable sectors: tourism

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David Pereira is 53 years old, Reside in France And like others thousands Millions of Europeans have been raised under the influence of the US culture. The songs he listened to, the series he saw as a child, the films they threw in the cinema of his city or the cars he dreamed of driving: all ‘made in use’. Hence, when Pereira saw enough money, he decided to make his bags and meet the country in person. And he has done it conscientiously. He has been there almost a dozen times. Two years ago the national parks of the west coast was toured. His idea was to return this summer with his family to Yellowstone. But after two months of Trump administration, Pereira has changed plans. A few days ago I recognized To the CNN that has decided, in conscience, to cancel the trip. Your case connects with A trend which begins to be received in the powerful US tourism industry. A percentage: 17%. That the change of harmony between the US and Europe is taking its toll on American tourism is not a novelty. Weeks ago than the sector emits signals In that direction. And from both banks of the Atlantic. In Europe there are agencies that They find a loss of interest In the US. And on the other side of the ocean there are organisms that They start talking of a puncture in the demand. The clearest track of what is happening, especially in the flow of Europe-Use tourists, it gave it however Financial Times (Ft) a few days ago in An article with A holder that leaves little margin to interpretations: “European tourists cancel their trips to the US for Trump’s policies.” What are they based on? Basically in A percentage: according to international trade administration data (Itafor its acronym in English) visitors from Western Europe who spent at least one night in the US over March 17% collapsed with respect to 2024. It is a considerable fact. Especially if the relevance of the tourism industry is taken into account as an economic engine: represents about 2.5% of the country’s GDP. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Are there more indicators? Yes. Trump does not have not been at the head of the White House for three months, so there is still a perspective, but throughout the last weeks they have been published figures and testimonies that suggest that something is changing in US tourism. And not for good. FT He has prepared graphics They show that the flow of travelers with destiny has collapsed from Austria, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Norway or Spain, sometimes with setbacks that exceed 20%. There is also a puncture on the flights of different regions. “Something is happening”. In general Ita has found that in March they traveled to the US 12% less of foreign visitors who during the same month of 2024. And that the percentage excludes the arrivals from the residents of Canada and Mexico, two markets that do not seem to look with too much enthusiasm American tourist destinations. You have to go back to 2021, when the sector still suffered the pandemic hangover, to find a more dire March. Probably in that percentage has influenced the fact that last year Holy Week fell in March and in 2025 it will do so in April, but the sector acknowledges that there is a background trend that goes much further. “It is clear that something is happening … and it is a reaction to Trump”, Recognize Tourism Economics. Fall of reservations. They are not the only ones to point in that direction. In early April the French hotel group Accor SA, behind several brands and highlighted accommodations in the USA, confessed to Bloomberg TV that European reserves to visit this summer the country of bars and stars have collapsed 25%. Simply, tourists seem to opt for Canada, South America or Egypt. In Spain the Confederation of Travel Agencies (CEAV) also recognized A few days ago that perceives a loss of attractiveness of the US for tourists. With those data as a backdrop, Tourism Economics He has rethink down its forecasts this year for the US sector. If in February it foresee a fall of around 5%, that percentage has worsened until 9.4%already around. The French Voyageurs Du Monde has also recognized the CNN chain that since Trump’s investiture the reserves to the US have fallen by 20%. But … why? “It is probably anxious to enter an unknown territory,” He reflected the executive director of Accor when talking about the trend with Bloomberg. The truth is that the change in tendency in the sector coincides with a complex geopolitical framework: the distancing Between Washington and Brussels after Trump’s return to the White House, the escalation in the Commercial Warthe recession drumsthe speech about the European rear and, in Paul English opinionKayak co -founder, a change in the reputational image of the US. Throughout the last months several European countries They have updated Their recommendations for travelers who move to the US or have shown concern about changes in migratory and border control policies, including guidelines that affect trans people. Denmark ha issued an alert and in Spain exterior has updated Its guidelines. In the US attraction they also influence The news about arrests at the borders. Beyond Europe. The phenomenon goes beyond Europe. China He has issued Warnings on the “deterioration of economic and commercial relations” with the US and warns its citizens: “completely evaluate the risks of traveling to the US and travel with caution.” In Canada the Statistics Office registered in February A 23% drop on car trips to the US. In air traffic the descent was somewhat lower, but also stood at 13%. Those percentages and those of Ita coincide with another phenomenon that has been found for months, especially in Europe and Canada: The boycott of USA products in favor of domestic goods and services or other countries. In fact there … Read more

Put solar panels in space has never been profitable, but there is something that motivates the current interest: its military use

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The old idea of ​​collecting energy from the sun from space to transmit it uninterrupted to Earth has always collided with the huge costs and technological barriers that have prevented their deployment. Until now. A global interest. Governments and companies around the world seem to have a renewed interest in space solar energy. The drastic drop in launch costs, thanks to the emergence of reusable rockets such as Spacex, could have cleared the main economic obstacle from the equation. The necessary technology has also matured in parallel: solar panels are lighter and more efficient, and wireless energy transmission (microwave or laser) is more advanced. The same with robotics, which will be necessary to assemble the stations in orbit. The military factor. As with any renewable project, the energy transition and emission commitments are the engine of this new effort. But behind the recent interests of the Chinese government or the pentagon there is something else: the military potential of space solar energy. “The military utility of transmitting energy to land, aerial or maritime units is obvious,” He said to Spacenews Darpa’s tactical technology project manager Paul Jaffe. Transporting fuel to remote places with tank airplanes can be a usual practice, but “it is not a practical way to bring energy where we need it for defense purposes.” In addition to DARPA, who has conversations with space solar energy startups and invests in the development of long -distance wireless energy transmission, the United States Air Force and Navy are also in garlic. Pentagon projects. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFR) actively develops space solar technology through its “Space Solar Incremental Demonstrations and Research” program. Its flagship mission “Arachne” will prove in orbit a sandwich panel that converts sunlight into radiofrequency energy to transmit it to a terrestrial receptor. Led by Northrop Grumman, it is scheduled for this year with the explicit objective of providing energy to the forces and reducing the dependence of fuel convoys, which are more vulnerable. For its part, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) integrated a module called PRAM into the X-37B secret space plane to prove the conversion of solar energy to microwave. Now the project is part of the space force. What can we expect. Military interest is an important catalyst, and possibly one of the motivations behind the gigantic project of the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CASC), which will display its first satellites in low orbit by 2028 and in geostationary orbit for 2030. But in the coming years we will also see all kinds of commercial and space agencies, including the European Space Agency with its Solaris initiative, which focuses on viability studies. Despite these progress, the challenges are still considerable. The two major doubts are profitability, in the case of commercial efforts, which will compete with the renewable energies deployed on land, increasingly profitable despite their intermittency. And security, which depends on the fact that you are issued at distances of hundreds or tens of thousands of kilometers are very precise. Maybe let’s see some “fried” birds along the way.

It already exceeds 8,000 million in income and manages to be profitable

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Amazon managed Your corporate blog. That is 13% more than the previous year, marking a new record since its arrival in the country in 2010. But the most notable is the turn in its profitability. The Spanish subsidiaries 36 million losses in 2023 were passed to 1.5 million benefits. Its main logistics division, Amazon Spain Fulfillment, multiplied by ten its benefit to 19.2 million, while Amazon Road Transport quintupled it to 10.45 million. This growth is mainly driven by its holy Trinity: Online store. Cloud services. Digital advertising. Why is it important. The technological giant has established itself as one of the ten largest employers in Spain with 28,000 permanent workers, being the company that has created the most stable employment in the last five years. Its total fiscal contribution exceeded 1.3 billion euros, distributed among more than 400 million in direct taxes (mainly social security and companies tax) and more than 900 million in indirect taxes (VAT and withholdings). The panoramic. The company has invested 4,500 million in Spain during 2024, 32% more than the previous year, with special focus on logistics infrastructure and data centers. Amazon has 40 logistics facilities throughout the country and has announced an investment of 15.7 billion to expand its Cloud region in Aragon. Its template reached 28,000 employees, adding 3,000 positions for 2024. Yes, but. Although Amazon speaks of a fiscal contribution of 1,300 million, its taxation for benefits in Spain is still completely broken down. The company emphasizes that it paid more than 400 million in direct taxes, but this figure mainly includes contributions to social security and other taxes, without specifying how strictly corresponds to the Corporation Tax. In detail. The greatest growth occurred in its technological areas: the Data Services subsidiary increased income by 60%, and the audiovisual division, 55.7%. Amazon Data Services, which manages data centers, received an injection of 500 million to expand its infrastructure in Aragon. Amazon Digital Spain, responsible for Prime videohe invoiced 312 million, almost doubleing his benefit. Amazon Online Spain, dedicated to advertising, multiplied its benefit for ten to 6.3 million. And now what. Amazon still does not reveal the specific income of your online store and AWS In Spain, when operating these areas through luxembourg branches. It is estimated that these operations generate about 4,650 million euros in Spain, approximately 58% of the total business, but its results do not break down with the same transparency as the subsidiaries constituted in the country. Outstanding image | Adrian Sulyok (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | I have downloaded all my Amazon data and I have learned a lesson: it is too easy to buy online

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