sell

whoever sells the shovels also wants to sell the map

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NVIDIA prepares the launch of NemoClawits own open source platform for enterprise AI agents. The official announcement is expected for GTC 2026, the company’s annual conference, which starts on March 15 in San José. Why is it important. NVIDIA has built its dominance by being the neutral infrastructure provider: it sells shovels to anyone who wants to dig. NemoClaw changes that position. By entering the agent software layer, you begin to compete directly with Anthropic, Microsoft, Salesforce and the community itself open source which until now considered NVIDIA an ally, not a rival. The context. The obvious trigger has been OpenClawan open source AI agent that allows complex tasks to be executed locally without human intervention and that OpenAI acquired a few days ago. Its success showed that there is a huge demand for freelance agents, but it also exposed its risks: Meta even banned its use on business devices following an incident in which an agent accessed a computer without instructions and deleted emails en masse. Companies needed something more controlled and NVIDIA has seen the opportunity there. Between the lines. The platform will be hardware agnostic: it will run on chips from AMD, Intel and others, not just NVIDIA GPUs. It is an apparently generous movement that hides a clear expansionist logic. It’s the same move that Meta made with Llama: giving away the software to boost demand for the hardware that runs it. If NemoClaw ends up becoming the standard de facto For business players, NVIDIA will be able to maintain its influence on the ecosystem even if competition in chips intensifies. The big question. NVIDIA has reached out to Salesforce, Cisco, Google, Adobe and CrowdStrike to forge early partnerships, but none have confirmed any agreement. There are reasons for skepticism: Salesforce has Einstein, Google has Vertex AI Agent Builderand both have clear incentives not to give ground at the application layer. The fact that they contribute to NemoClaw’s open source does not prevent them from continuing to develop their own platforms in parallel. NVIDIA’s success will depend on whether NemoClaw brings something that no one else can, or if it is just another framework gathering dust on GitHub. Yes, but. Gartner estimates that more than four in ten agentic AI projects will have failed by 2027. The business agent market is promising, but still more promise than reality. Furthermore, NVIDIA is entering an area where its competitive advantage (raw silicon power) matters less than the ability to orchestrate complex workflows, manage agent memory, and ensure security in regulated environments. That’s something that chips don’t provide. In Xataka | If the question is how much OpenClaw is taking over, the answer is… in China they are lining up to install it Featured image | Xataka

In London more and more people lose money when they sell their house. The question is whether it is the canary in Europe’s mine

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Located north of the Thames, Tower Hamlets is one of the districts most emblematic from London. In fact, it covers a large part of the East End, the historic center of the capital. For years (like most of the city) it also represented something else: a juicy market for those who wanted to invest in housing and achieve high returns. Not anymore. In 2025 about 30% Of the owners who got rid of their homes in that neighborhood (mostly apartments) had to do so for less money than they paid at the time. And it’s not just something that happens in Tower Hamlets. What has happened? That in London housing is no longer an infallible business. This is suggested at least by the latest study published by Hamptons, which reveals that in 2025 Londoners were the Britons most likely to lose money from the sale of their properties. Even more than its neighbors in the northeast of the United Kingdom, who have spent years leading the ranking. “Rising London house prices are no longer the safe bet they once seemed,” concludes the report, which is supported by the Property Registry. What do the figures say? that last year 14.8% of people Those who sold their home in London did so for less money than they originally paid. It may seem like a modest percentage, but it is striking for several reasons. To begin with because it is the largest in the entire United Kingdom. The national average is 8.7% and there are British regions where this indicator is much lower, such as Wales (6.2%), East Midlands (6.7%) or West Midlands (6.9%). London has effectively ousted Nort Easth, which had dominated the sales ranking with losses for the last decade. Is Tower Hamlets a unique case? No. Tower Hamlets is the London district where the trend is best appreciated, but is not the only one in which a significant proportion of homeowners (28.2%) have lost money by getting rid of their homes. In the City, 26.2% of sellers closed transactions in “red numbers”, in Kensington & Chelsea 22.4%, in Westminster 22.1% and in Hammersmith & Fulham 20.8%. Curiously, in the cheapest district of London, Barking & Dagenham, only that indicator is much lower: 5.3%. “In some cases, even homeowners who bought a decade ago risk getting back less than they paid, something almost unthinkable in 2015. And for many the sums are small,” the study insists. “In the coming years it is likely that more sellers will have missed out on the price boom that London experienced between 2012 and 2016, as they bought at the peak of the market.” Is there more data? Yes. The Hamptons report raises some interesting ideas. For example, most of the sales with losses (close to 90%) were carried out by apartments. If we talk about houses, the photo is somewhat different. Hamptons technicians recognize that in 2025 the average seller in London pocketed 172,500 pounds more than what they originally paid when purchasing their home, but they insist on the increase in sales at a loss: if in 2019 they represented 5.9%, in 2025 “red” operations already represented 14.8%. Is it the only report? No. Over recent months, more analyzes have been published showing that the London property market is not going through its best moment. There is talk of a price drop of 5.1% at the end of 2025 (which takes the market even further away from the 2022 data) and even from a sluggish prime housing market that will not rise until at least 2028. “In London, the growth of house prices is no longer a safe bet,” he explains to Financial Times Aneisha Beveridge, Hamptons manager. There is studies which show that prices are declining in half of London’s neighborhoods, leaving a “two-speed” market: that of the most expensive (and volatile) areas and the cheapest, which has demonstrated greater resilience. In December Bloomberg warned that homes worth more than two million run the risk of depreciating, losing almost 5% of their value in one year. What is the reason? The big question. When explaining the London trend the analysts they point out several factors. One of the main ones is the regulatory change, marked by the end of discounts to the purchase of housing and a greater penalty for the purchase of second homes and houses as investments. The authorities have also focused on the prime segment, rethinking the status nom-dom for large foreign fortunes and raising local taxes for the most expensive properties. Added to the above is the influence of Brexit, the exorbitant prices that London reached in 2022 or how difficult it is for families to access the market, partly because the cost of rent neutralizes the ability to save. The question that some are already made is whether London is an isolated case or should be understood as a canary in the mine for other European capitals. Image | Benjamin Davies (Unsplash) In Xataka | Housing is getting so expensive that in the United Kingdom there are already people opting for plan B: living on boats

Two decades ago, dogs flooded Spain with souped-up motorcycles. Today, they sell them for a fortune

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If you know what a Yamaha Joga Aerox or one Piaggio ZipI’m very sorry: you are already old. Between the 90s and 2000s, young Spaniards could obtain their moped license from the age of 14, and the 49cc scooter became an object of worship… and souped-up. With the tightening of European regulations, this type of motorcycle has practically stopped being sold. But there are those who are making a killing on second-hand platforms. The fall of the 49cc. The moped market has completely changed. At the end of the 2000s, nearly 200,000 units were sold per year. Two decades later, sales fell more than 90%. Currently, mopeds represent a minimal part of the market: in Spain there are barely more than 20,000 registrations per year, while 125 cc motorcycles dominate sales thanks to the fact that they can be driven with a car license. The fall of the 49cc coincided with key factors such as: The 49cc fever. The thunderous and (for many) unpleasant hum of this type of motorcycle was no coincidence. Preparations were the order of the day: exhaust, cylinder, variator… Mopeds with a tiny engine surpassed many of the current 125cc scooters in performance. In fact, the homologation regulations on paper prevented these mopeds from exceeding 45km/h. The reality? Even the slowest one could double this figure straight out of the factory. It was enough to remove some stops in a matter of minutes, and if we dared to carry out a simple preparation, it was easy to make them touch (or exceed) 100km/h. The pasta. A classic like the Yamaha Jog cost just over 2,000 euros in 2005. 20 years later, it is easy to find units in good condition on Wallapop from 1,200 euros to more than 2,500. Of course, prepared to the brim. In fact, it is practically impossible to find a moped of this style that is not souped up. A safer time. Between the 90s and 2000s, it was common to see minors driving this type of motorcycle. The accident rate per kilometer was very high, and the risk multiplied compared to adults on motorcycles with larger displacements. Today the panorama is very different. The 50 cc has been relegated to a niche, the 125 cc dominates the urban market and electric scooters are beginning to gain ground. But for an entire generation, the metallic sound of a Jog or an Aerox remains the soundtrack of adolescence. In Xataka | I was about to buy the best-selling Chinese motorcycle in Spain. Until I read the fine print

The owner of Volvo and partner of Renault will also sell Chinese electric cars in our country

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It is possible that if you are not very up to date with the automobile market, the word Geely may not be very familiar to you. Yes, it is more likely that Lotus will tell you something else. And you surely know Smart and Volvo. Any of them, any of those companies that were once European, are owned by Geely, one of the largest Chinese automotive groups in the country. Now, the company lands in Spain with its own brand. Yes, Geely in addition to owning a portfolio with up to 16 brands Under his direction, he also has his own car company. So that we understand it quickly and easily, just as the Volkswagen Group has the Volkswagen brand or as Renault owns Dacia but, of course, sells cars under the Renault brand. Geely, therefore, will arrive in our country with two electrified models. Its presence, as is evident from the first and mentioned brands, is already palpable in Spain but now it will have its own vehicles on the street, with its distribution network separate from any other company and with two SUVs that point to the present and future of the brand. Geely arrives in Spain To have a general photograph of Geely and know what is behind this new brand, the first thing you should know is that in 2024 they became the first Chinese manufacturer to establish itself as one of the 10 most important automotive companies in the world. Shortly after, the brand has been surpassed by the enormous muscle of BYD but In 2025 it managed to put 3.02 million on the market of cars counting only the companies born under its umbrella (without adding Volvo or Smart). With the latter he reached the 4.12 million units sold and was positioned as the ninth largest automotive group in the world, exceeding 2024 sales by 800,000 units. For its arrival in Spain, the company has announced two vehicles. Geely E5 He Geely E5 It is an electric SUV with 160 kW (218 HP) and a maximum range of 475 kilometers according to the WLTP cycle. It will be available with two battery sizes (60.22 kWh and 68.79 kWh) developed in-house. In the press release, Geely does not confirm the total peak power and only mentions that it will go from 30 to 80% autonomy in 20 minutes. Geely Starray EM-i On the other hand, the Geely Starray EM-i It is a plug-in hybrid with a combined power of 262 HP where the greatest weight of its dynamics falls on the electric motor that reaches 160 kW (218 HP). It also has two battery options (18.4 kWh and 29.8 kWh) that increase the total range of the set up to 943 kilometers in the mixed cycle. At the moment, Geely does not specify its autonomy in fully electric mode. It is to be hoped that, little by little, we will learn more details about these two new models, especially in their commitment to software and digital functions focused on the user. We do know that this latest plug-in hybridization system has been developed in the heart of Horse, the joint venture that Geely maintains with Renault to continue looking for solutions focused on combustion engines. Regarding its distribution, Geely says that it is developing a network of nationwide dealers “supported by partners with extensive experience and deep knowledge of the local market.” It is to be expected, therefore, that at least in the first months and years its distribution will be supported by the large groups that have been supporting brands such as BYD or the Chery Group. And the Chinese companies are making a strong investment in dealerships to give customer confidence. At the moment, the Chinese company has not set a specific date for us to see these cars on the street but it does set a deadline of “the first half of 2026”, so in the next four months we should have all the details. It must be taken into account that Geely is making clear efforts to expand its market with its own brands. We recently learned that is interested in entering the United Statesdespite the fact that the geopolitical context is complicated. It has also been rumored that it could occupy part of the Ford plant in Almussafes. Movement is key in an ultra-competitive Chinese market that is slowing down and Spain has shown interest in the firms arriving from this country, especially among entry-level vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Photo | Geely In Xataka | MG, BYD, Lynk&Co, Omoda: who’s who of Chinese car manufacturers in Spain

sell more phones than Samsung in Europe

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Yesterday was Samsung’s big day. One in which he presented his new Samsung Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 Ultra. The company focused the event on news and collaborations with large AI companies, as well as high-end hardware. Although the big conversation was on its mobile phones, Samsung had already won since the beginning of the week. There is no way that anyone sells more phones than the Korean company in Europe. Unstoppable. The iPhone is one of the best-selling mobile phones in the world, but even that is not enough for Apple to smile in global photography. Samsung once again put its Galaxy A in first place on the podium, specifically the A56 5G. A mobile that has sold more units than all recent iPhones. The cast. Samsung ranked number one in European sales according to Omdia data, with 46.6 million units sold. The manufacturer’s market share rises from 34 to 35%, helped by the aggressive pricing strategy with the Samsung Galaxy A16 and the demand for the Galaxy A56. Apple grows. Apple, which shipped 36.9 million iPhones in Europe, is growing 6% year-on-year, with a record market share in Europe of 27%. The family iPhone 16 had a sustained demand, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max It has had an enviable reception from premium mobile buyers. The rest. Xiaomi maintained third place with 21.8 million shipments, slightly decreasing its annual sales volume. For its part, Motorola decreased its share by 5%, followed by Honor, which maintains fifth European position. But globally… The Samsung – Apple pulse has been getting worse quarter by quarter. Q4 2025 closed with Apple leading a 25% global share, compared to Samsung’s 18%. However, in the first quarters of the year, Samsung usually accelerates and takes first place at the start of the year. 2026. This will be a year of complete shakeup in the tech industry. The changes in strategy carried out by Samsung and Apple will be decisive for the chair dance to continue. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Trump’s pressure achieves a first move from Apple: part of the Mac mini will be manufactured in the US

Russia set up a secret network to sell 90 billion in oil. It has fallen due to using the same mail server

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In the geopolitical chess of international sanctions, where Western governments design complex legislation to suffocate Vladimir Putin’s war machine, sometimes checkmate comes not from a brilliant diplomatic maneuver, but from corporate stinginess. An entire global smuggling network, designed to the millimeter to be invisible to the eyes of Washington and Brussels, has fallen like a house of cards for not wanting to pay separate email bills. A simple saving in computer infrastructure has exposed a monumental flow of black money. a colossal IT blunder (a huge computer error) has brought to light a smuggling network that has moved at least $90 billion worth of Russian oil. As revealed by extensive research of the Finance Timesthis plot is mainly responsible for financing the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine. The British media has identified a network of 48 companies which, on paper, operated completely independently from different physical addresses. However, in practice, they acted in unison to disguise the origin of the crude oil, especially that of Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company. The need to hide these exports became life or death for the Kremlin in October 2025, when the United States imposed direct sanctions to Rosneft and Lukoil. From that moment on, a previously unknown company called Redwood Global Supply was suddenly crowned as the largest exporter of Russian crude oil in the world. This firm, along with the rest of the network, is linked to a group of businessmen of Azerbaijani origin with privileged access to the leadership of Rosneft, led by figures such as Tahir Garayev and Etibar Eyyub. The independent Russian media The Moscow Times has been echoed of this discovery, highlighting a devastating fact: in November 2024, more than 80% of Rosneft’s maritime exports They moved through this network. Sergey Vakulenko, former head of strategy at Gazprom Neft and current researcher at the Carnegie Center, explained to this medium that using fifty shell companies is “an old trick from the 90s” to evade taxes, but he confesses his surprise at the fact that a single network has become so immensely crucial for a giant like Rosneft. The triumph of shadow intermediaries The existence of this network means, quite simply, that the Western sanctions system is full of holes and that Russia has managed to industrialize evasion. According to the investigationthe success of this $90 billion network was based on strict separation of roles to erase the money trail. The network used a group of shell companies exclusively to buy crude oil shipments in Russia, and another group of companies, totally different on paper, to sell them in key markets such as India or China. In this way, the initial buyer and the final seller almost never coincided in customs documents. Furthermore, in most cases, the crude oil was labeled under generic names such as “export mix”, which destroyed any possibility of tracing its origin or checking whether the price cap imposed by the G7 was being respected. As we already explained at the time in Xatakathis modus operandi It is not new and it relies on an architecture of evasion that has been brewing for years in places like the United Arab Emirates. Something very similar happened with the case of Christopher Eppinger, a young trader German that perfectly illustrates how this underworld works. As we detailed in our report, while Europe boasted of energy sovereignty, an army of new intermediaries moved to Dubai—a jurisdiction that does not apply sanctions to Moscow—to make gold. The network now discovered by the British media uses exactly the same tools that we already analyzed: the express creation of opaque companies, the use of the “ghost fleet” (aging ships that turn off their transponders when approaching to load Russian crude oil) and transfers of oil on the high seas to mix it and falsify its origin. The only difference is that the Rosneft network uncovered by the FT was operating on an unprecedented industrial scale… Until they made a rookie mistake on the internet. The rookie mistake This entire sophisticated international network collapsed due to an absurd detail that borders on comedy. He Finance Times discovered that these 48 multi-billion dollar companies shared a single private server for their emails: mx.phoenixtrading.ltd By pulling this digital thread, the journalists of the FT they managed to identify 442 web domains who shared administrative functions of back office on that same server. The next step was pure data mining: they compared the names of those domains with the customs records of Russia and India. Thus, they discovered that the domain foxton-fzco.com It corresponded to Foxton FZCO (based in Dubai), buyer of $5.6 billion in oil; and? advanalliance.ltd It was Advan Alliance, which sold 1.5 billion to India. The desire to create and destroy companies quickly to mislead sanctioners—according to The Moscow Timesthe average lifespan of these signatures is only six months—led the network to centralize your IT infrastructure to reduce costs. A saving that has cost them their anonymity. The show must go on In the short term, the strategy of those involved is denial and adaptation. How to collect Finance Timesboth Tahir Garayev and Etibar Eyyub have categorically denied their involvement in sanctions evasion, calling the accusations “baseless” (curiously, Eyyub sent his denial from an email address hosted on the compromised server). The original company that founded the network, Coral Energy (now 2Rivers), has also disengaged from operations. However, behind the scenes, the machinery is already looking for new avenues. A senior Russian energy executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up the situation in the investigation starkly: “It creates additional costs and inconveniences. But at the end of the day, the show must go on.” The United Kingdom has already reacted to the investigation of the British media, sanctioning nearly 300 entities linked to this “dark web”, blocking Russian ships and banks. The fall of this immense $90 billion network shows that, in the 21st century, bank secrecy and flags of convenience are useless if the system administrator decides … Read more

In Madrid they sell an apartment for 20.9 million euros. The question is not whether it is the most expensive in history, but what that means

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He has earned the unofficial title “most expensive apartment in Madrid” and, although it is difficult to confirm it because in the luxury sector there are operations that never reach transcendence, it certainly has the potential to be so. To start with its price. The apartment that Property Partners announces in Jerónimos, in the heart of the capital, it costs a whopping 20.9 million euros. Beyond that figure, the home’s size (1,008 m2), display of luxuries and extras is striking. For example, it has no decoration. It has “works of art.” Not a typical main room, but a “social area” that covers about 200 m2. In any other advertisement that vocabulary might sound like an exaggeration. Not here. The most expensive apartment in all of Madrid? So suggests it Property Partners, which claims to have in its portfolio what is “considered” the “most expensive property in Madrid.” The same unofficial title has been recognized in recent days several economic means, premises and generalistsincluding Tele Madrid that refers to the luxurious apartment as “the most expensive in the history” of the city. In reality, it is very difficult to confirm whether this is the case or not because discretion prevails in the luxury market. Many operations are closed with hardly any publicity, almost with their backs to the market. Others don’t. Last year, without going any further, John Taylor, a French real estate company specializing in luxury, brokered the sale of a home that was valued at 20 million. The property in question was located near Retiro Park and measured about 1,100 m2. The 20.9 million flat announced by Property has been announced for several months, although the agency assures that “there are offer processes” underway and interested people who have already made several visits. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What is the housing like? Enormous. And that’s an understatement. According to the token Published by the real estate agency itself, the apartment has a constructed area of ​​1,008 m2, although it identifies 812 m2 as “housing area”. Seven bedrooms (five en suite), six bathrooms and three toilets are distributed throughout this vast space, as well as amenities such as a gym, wine cellar and large living rooms. A reporter from EPE was able to visit the apartment and says that one of the first things that catches your attention is a 200 m2 room named “social area”. Do we know more? Yes. And it points in the same direction: that of exclusive luxury. The house, located in Los Jerónimos, has five parking spaces and two storage rooms, terraces with views of the Botanical Garden and furniture in line with the profile of its market. Tele Madrid assures Its renovation alone cost two million, to which is added another for the furniture. As a finishing touch, it incorporates works of art. That the apartment (the agency dates it back to the 70s) is so spacious in the heart of the center is explained by its past: in reality it is made up of three independent homes that a former owner bought and mergedoccupying an entire floor. Why is it interesting? Because beyond how striking the price or the characteristics of the apartment are, the advertisement connects with a larger trend: the increase in price of the home. That the price per square meter has been rising for years (in Madrid and the rest of Spain) is nothing new. Idealistic sample that in the last year the m2 has skyrocketed by 14.8% in the capital, reaching a maximum of almost €5,900/m2, although there are certain areas where this value is much higher. In Retiro there are more than 7,800 and in Salamanca they are close to 10,000. The announcement of the Los Jerónimos apartment reminds us, however, that the price increase is not exclusive to the conventional residential market. It also affects luxury. At the end of 2025 Diza Market published a report which shows that the cost of prime housing in the region rose by 95% in a matter of a decade, between 2014 and 2025. The analysis focused, however, on the luxury sector in which houses worth several million are moved, without reaching stratospheric figures. Are there more indicators? Yes. Savills has published another report in which it points out that the price of prime housing in the capital “triples the rate of global growth expected for 2026.” “If we focus the analysis on the first consolidated, the average prices in Madrid are around €16,000-17,000/m2, reaching peaks of between €25,000 and €30,000/m2”, details Santiago de Miguel, director. “The forecast is that the market will continue slightly bullish, but with sustained demand. The international buyer continues to have his sights set on Madrid.” “The Madrid market super luxury has reached a degree of maturity that allows operations of this caliber,” agrees an interview with Five Days Felipe Reuse, from Property Partner. Data from the Notarial Statistical Portal show In fact, the dynamism of the market in the heart of Madrid, with the m2 above 11,000 m2, and where foreign buyers have a relevant weight, representing a third of the total. There are those who already points out that the demand is going outside the city, towards La Moraleja or La Finca. Image | Chris Curry (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a Europe that is suffocating to pay for housing and another that lives in peace. And this map shows the differences

Their companies know how to sell them better than anyone else.

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Six G1 humanoid robots from Unitree They appeared last week performing perfectly synchronized somersaults on a concert stage, acting as dancers for pop singer Wang Leehom. They were dressed in shiny silver tops and black leather pants, and completed a choreography that included arm movements, kicks and spins before winning over the audience with their acrobatics. The video has ended up going completely viral on social networks, so much so that even Elon Musk he rated it of “impressive” in Humanoid robots created to go viral. Chinese companies specializing in robotics have been turning each demonstration of their humanoid robots into a viral phenomenon for months. Last August they were the first robot Olympics in Beijingwhere the Unitree H1 model broke speed records by completing 1,500 meters in 6 minutes and 34 seconds, reaching 4.78 m/s and surpassing the Boston Dynamics Atlas. Previously, H1 humanoids also appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched TV show. Now we see them hogging the stage (We we also know about thatreferring to the last Xataka Awards gala). They know how to sell themselves. The most common thing is to see this type of robots in technical conferences or corporate videos, but in recent years they have also starred in electrifying videos showing their capabilities and, in the process, gaining millions of views. Chinese firms have chosen to turn robotics into mass entertainment, perhaps a strategy to bring them closer to the public and so that they are not strangers when it is time to buy them in the future. The performance At Wang Leehom’s concert it was part of his “Best Place Tour” before 18,000 spectators, a perfect showcase to demonstrate the capacity of these robots and their versatility in all types of scenarios. Figures. Beijing has made humanoid robotics a national priority. Your five-year plan for the industry set in 2021 an annual growth of more than 20%, supported by a state fund of 140 billion dollars for technology startups. This year they aimed to produce more than 10,000 humanoid robots. China also leads in patents: according to Morgan Stanley, submitted 7,705 applications related to humanoid robots in the last five years, compared to 1,561 in the United States and 1,102 in Japan. Cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing are where investment and development is concentrated. Unitree as national flag bearer. The company behind the robots at the Chengdu concert has established itself as a benchmark in the sector in China. Launched in 2024, the G1 measures 1.27 meters, weighs 35 kilos and has between 23 and 43 joints, and can reach a speed of 2 m/s. In August won the gold medal in the 100 meter hurdles at the first World Humanoid Robot Games by completing the race in 33.71 seconds. Its R1 model was recognized by Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2025. From spectacle to real application there is a distance. “I don’t think anyone has found an application for humanoids that requires several thousand robots per installation,” pointed out in September Melonee Wise, former product manager at Agility Robotics, to IEEE. Technical problems persist: limited energy autonomy, industrial reliability still far from the required 99.99% and practically non-existent commercial applications. Although the predictions from Bank of America Global Research that mentioned that about 18,000 units would be sold in 2025 or that the market will reach $5 trillion by 2050, there are hardly any real commercial deployments beyond highly controlled pilot tests. The power of marketing. Wang Leehom’s website boasted that “the show marked a rare example of robotic dancers in concert, fusing advanced technology with powerful live music.” Many fans praised the performance as one of the most creative moments of the tour, and there was no shortage of comments like those of this userwhich highlighted that “China’s robots are at another level.” And now what. China is investing massively in creating a market that does not yet exist, trusting that artificial intelligence will solve the problems of autonomy, reliability and practical usefulness. And it applies a strategy that has served it well in other sectors: that of finding practical, large-scale applications that justify the investment and having a presence in the market before it even exists. We’ll see where we go. Cover image | CNC GROUP In Xataka | I have asked for water from the first humanoid robot working in Beijing. It’s a weird vending machine.

We believed that everything happened because of the new fighters. The F-16 has been in the air for 50 years and continues to sell like hotcakes

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For years we have heard that the future of air combat is called F-35a program associated with stealth, advanced sensors and a very specific idea of ​​Western technological superiority. It’s the plane that makes headlinesbudgets and strategic debates. But while that conversation progresses, there is a much quieter reality that dislodges the story: a fighter designed in the seventies not only is it still in service, but construction continues in South Carolinaand continues to find buyers in 2025. The interesting thing about the F-16 is not only that it continues to fly, but to understand why so many countries continue to bet on it when there are newer alternatives. To answer that question you have to go back to its origin, follow its evolution and look at the present with data, contracts and calendars. It is also advisable to separate promises from real capabilities, because not all air forces buy the “best”, they buy what they can operate on a sustained basis. The secret of a fighter that does not retire The F-16 was born from an internal discussion in the United States about the drift towards increasingly larger, more complex and more expensive fighters. In the early 1970s, the United States Air Force promoted the Lightweight Fighter program to see if a lighter plane could gain maneuverability and be more affordable without sacrificing efficiency. The YF-16 prototype first flew in 1974 and, in January 1975, was selected in the Air Combat Fighter (ACF) competitiona decisive step towards production. The idea was simple: operational performance before unlimited ambition. That philosophy translated into very specific design decisions. The F-16 opted for a compact cell with controls fly-by-wire that allowed finer control and relaxed stability difficult to achieve with traditional systems. The cabin was also part of the approach, with a high visibility dome, a stick side and a reclined pilot position to better withstand G forces. Over time, this approach focused on air-to-air combat expanded. The F-16 incorporated improvements in avionics, sensors and payload capacity that they pushed it towards a multi-role capabilitywith room for ground attack and increasingly demanding missions. In parallel, its international expansion was supported by cooperation, standardization and support programs between allies, which created a broad community of operators. That network remains one of the reasons the plane stays alive. Almost continuous modernization is the bridge between the original design and the F-16 currently rolling off the production lines. In its most recent standards, such as the F-16V and the new Block 70/72updated mission displays and computing, data link systems such as MIDS-JTRS, and a AESA APG-83 radar as a central part of the equipment. These newly manufactured devices are offered with a declared structural life of 12,000 hours. Almost continuous modernization is the bridge between the original design and the F-16 currently rolling off the production lines. Here the question stops being just technical and becomes operational. The F-16 continues to fit because it offers a relationship between capabilities, cost and availability that is difficult to match in many defense plans. It is a well-known aircraft, with acceptable maintenancescalable training and a mature logistics chain, something especially valuable in periods of tension and urgency. In addition, it facilitates interoperability with allies and the integration of Western weaponry in a predictable framework. Recent contracts illustrate that pattern with names and numbers, and are often channeled through government agreements and programs like the Foreign Military Sales of the United States. Slovakia has been receiving new F-16 Block 70 from 2024. Bulgaria has also opted for this modernized aircraft. Taiwan maintains an order for 66 F-16Vs approved in 2019with deliveries and testing affected by publicly acknowledged delays.Bahrain ordered 16 Block 70 and Jordan signed an offer letter and acceptance for eight units. The case of Ukraine introduces a different dimension. Here the F-16 does not arrive as part of a planned modernization, but as rexposed to an ongoing war and the need to reinforce air defense. The transfers have been materialized by the Netherlands and Denmarkand deliveries have been confirmed in phases with a limited level of detail for operational reasons. Beyond the exact figures, the jump is relevant because it introduces a platform compatible with Western doctrines, support and weapons in a real combat environment. Argentina is a different example, but just as revealing. In this case, the F-16 arrives to fill a long gap in air defense capabilities and recover supersonic flight after years without an equivalent fleet. The operation is supported by the transfer of 24 used aircraft from Denmark, with deliveries in sections, and the first batch of six devices arrived in December 2025. For Buenos Aires, the value is not just the plane, but also the training and support package that accompanies it. If we look at the current Western catalogue, the temptation is to think that the future has already been resolved. The F-35 has become the great bet of several allies and, in parallel, Eurofighter and Rafale have continued to grow with new variants, radars and weapons. The problem is that an air force is not measured only by the most advanced aircraft it can buy, but by how many it can sustain, train and deploy on a continuous basis. That’s where the balanced fleet model gains weight and the F-16 falls into place again. And if we look one step further, the conversation is already in the sixth generation. The United States works in NGADEurope pushes FCAS and the United Kingdom has allied with Italy and Japan in GCAPa proposal that aims to redefine sensors, connectivity and cooperation with unmanned systems. But they are programs with long calendars and a very high investment, in addition to the uncertainty inherent in any technological leap. In that gap, the F-16 maintains a clear space, because it offers real and available capacity while the future finishes arriving. Images | United States Air Force (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,) | Volodymyr Zelenskyy | Ministry of Defense of Argentina In Xataka | The Comac C919 … Read more

Jensen Huang managed to convince Trump to sell his H200 chips in China. Now China doesn’t want to buy them

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When something gets into Jensen Huang’s head, he goes after it and often succeeds. This is what happened in July of this year when managed to convince Trump to let him sell his H20 chip in China. History has just repeated itself and has managed to the president lifts the veto on H200 chips (although keeping a part). The problem is China, which does not see it very clearly. what has happened. China is preparing restrictions aimed at limiting access to NVIDIA’s H200 chips, according to Financial Times. If these restrictions end up being implemented, it will mean that the chips will not be available to any company that wants to buy them; They will first go through a pre-approval process, which includes explaining why chips from domestic companies do not meet their needs. In addition, there is another fact that adds up: for the first time, China has put national chips from companies like Huawei and Cambricon in its official procurement list. This list is a kind of purchasing guide for public institutions and large state groups that move billions a year in contracts. Why is it important. It is further proof that the Chinese government’s priority is not to depend on American technology for the development of its AI. Their bet is to favor the use of national chips even though they are not technologically at the level of NVIDIA chips. It’s not the same. China has already responded with distrust when NVIDIA obtained permission to sell H20 chips months ago and it seems that now they want to follow the same path, but there is a big difference: the H20 chips were the most basic, the H200 GPUs are much more advanced and represent a greater technological advantage, especially in more demanding tasks such as training large language models. What Chinese companies say. According to South China Morning PostAI companies in China such as ByteDance, Alibaba or Tencent continue to prefer to use H200s because they are much more powerful than the national alternatives offered by Huawei or Cambricon. Additionally, much of these companies’ code is based on NVIDIA’s Hopper microarchitecture, allowing them to use the chips without having to rewrite the code. On the other hand, developers who do not need maximum performance are wary of using American chips given the instability of the situation. The energy. NVIDIA’s CEO has been around for a while pressing for the US to lift these restrictions. Their pitch is that if China does not have access to NVIDIA chips, then they will improve their domestic chips and win the AI ​​race, but there is more. He has also warned that China has a huge energy advantagelargely thanks to government subsidies. He has already managed to convince Trump to sell chips and now the most difficult thing remains. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | China is very clear about what it must do to win the chip war against the US: resort to its technological geniuses

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