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There have been three times that PS5 has increased in price. These reconditioned ones with a 24-month warranty are the best alternative to spend less

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We told you a few weeks ago: PlayStation 5 has increased in price (again). The cheapest version of the console now starts at 599.99 euros, a price that is high and even more so if we take into account that it came out at 399.99 euros back in 2020. In what scenario does that leave those of us who want to renew the console? Well, in a complicated one, but in which there are alternatives to renew console for less money. We have an example in Back Market: we can get a PS5 Digital from 480 euros. PlayStation 5 Slim Digital The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A PlayStation 5 at a good price and with a 24-month warranty PlayStation 5 arrived almost 6 years ago in two different versions: without reader for 399.99 euros and with reader for 499.99 euros. If it had happened like in other generations of consoles, the normal thing at this point is that we could buy a PS5 in stores at a much lower price. However, paradigm shift: Now the same console costs 200 euros more. In a year where we will have great releases like ‘Marvel’s Wolverine‘or the more than expected’Grand Theft Auto 6‘, There are many people looking for a PlayStation 5. It is true that offers come out from time to time, but with the new prices that these consoles have, it will be difficult to see a good deal. That’s where these Back Market consoles come in. This store has expertly refurbished devices at very tempting prices. That is the case of the PlayStation 5 Digital, available right now for 480 euros. What do you want with a reader? You also have it available for 515 euros. The best thing is that, in addition, they are devices that They have a 24-month warranty and 30 days free trial. Other refurbished consoles that may interest you We have focused on these two models, but Back Market also has a section dedicated only to consoles. As a summary, we leave you some below: Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Alexandre Schrammel on UnsplashPlayStation In Xataka | PlayStation 5 Pro vs PlayStation 5: these are all the differences between the two Sony consoles In Xataka | Two years ago I bought a PS5. I wish someone had told me I needed these plugins too.

It is so expensive that Spaniards can no longer spend the summer there.

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With summer almost (almost) around the corner, we Spaniards begin to think about where to spend our holidays. That has little new. What is curious is what the INE reveals about our behavior when planning these trips: we think less and less about national destinations, without leaving the country, and we look more abroad. The question is… Why? The low cost they make it easier for usTrue, just as true is that the tourism market is no stranger to generational change and changes in trends. There is however another key factor: the cost of spending the summer in Spain. It has risen so much and so fast that sometimes it makes more sense to travel to the Caribbean either Indonesia. Where do we Spaniards travel to? The question arises, but fortunately we have a valuable tool to answer it: the INE. Recently its technicians published a report on “resident tourism” that leaves a couple of curious conclusions. When we travel, we Spaniards do it above all through our own country. In fact, ‘domestic’ (national) trips meant in 2025 87% of the totalfar from the 13% destined abroad. That’s logical. The surprise comes when we go down to the detail, to the trend. What does the data say? The INE estimates that in 2025, residents in Spain will carry out 175.7 million trips4.7% less than in 2024. However, the ‘puncture’ did not affect all trips equally. The drop was concentrated in those that had a domestic destination, whose flow contracted by 6.1%. Those made abroad experienced the opposite trend, with a growth of 5.2%. The trend was even more pronounced during the last quarter of the year: between October and December the flow of trips to destinations within the country itself fell 7.1%. Those made abroad rose 7.2%. Year Spanish trips without leaving the country Spanish trips abroad 2020 96.45 million 5.07 million 2021 135.69 million 7.20 million 2022 155.25 million 16.13 million 2023 166.60 million 19.29 million 2024 162.81 million 21.62 million 2025 152.94 million (-6.1% year-on-year) 22.75 million (+5.2% year-on-year) Is it the only indicator? Perhaps Spanish tourists think less about Spain when planning trips, but in return foreigners do so much more. In 2025 they visited our country almost 97 million of international tourists, a historical figure that maintains the growing trend registered since the health crisis. They increased over all visitors from the United Kingdom (19.1%), France (12.8%) and Germany (12%). As for the most popular destinations, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Andalusia and the Valencian Community stand out above all. This flow was in turn reflected in the money billed by the sector. Last year, direct spending exceeded 175 billion euros, 5.2% more than in 2024, although the trend is again very different depending on whether we are talking about national or foreign tourists. While spending associated with foreign tourism grew at a rate of 7% the national one stagnated, declining a slight 0.3%. Is it something new? Yes. And no. The data itself is new and updates the ‘general picture’, but the trend comes from behind. If the hotels in Spain have already managed to increase their flow of overnight stays about 5% In 2024 it was not due to the greater dynamism of domestic tourism, but rather due to the avalanche of foreign clients, whose demand skyrocketed by 7.5%. The same thing happened (although more cushioned) in 2025: the Spanish hired 0.2% less of hotel rooms while travelers from other countries demanded 1.6% more. They are not the only clues that tell us about a new reality: as tourist destinations in Spain become more expensive, driven in part by travelers from countries with greater purchasing power (in the case of the United Kingdom, France or Germany), more and more Spaniards choose to go abroad. It is not at all surprising if we take into account that sometimes spending a week in a country of the Southeast Asia or the Caribbean It costs them the same as doing it in the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands. Are the prices that close? That’s how it is. At least if we go to the most extreme cases. In 2025 Mabrian made a study which demonstrates it with a specific case. After searching different options, their technicians concluded that the average price of the plane ticket to visit the Balearic Islands amounted to 142.77 euros. Added to this was an average price per accommodation of 285.72. In the case of Bali the ticket rose to 238.97 euros, but in exchange the cost of the hotel remained at 99.26. The agency made similar comparisons with Sicily, Algarve and Atalya. The conclusion was always the same: flights abroad were more expensive, but the difference with the Balearic Islands was compensated by including accommodation. Other similar analysis from Destinia, also published last year, showed that the 2,726 euros paid per couple in Menorca or 2,694 in Mojácar barely differed from the 2,883 in Punta Cana or 3,094 in the Riviera Maya. Is there price data? Yes. And from different sources. One is the INE, which calculates that in 2025 the hotel price index increased on average by 5.1%which raised the average daily billing of the accommodations per occupied room to 127.7 euros. The other indicator is offered by the firm Cushman & Wakefield. According to your calculationsin 2025 the average price per night in a hotel in Spain rose to 166.1, 4.8% more than in 2024 and (above all) “a new all-time high.” In the Balearic Islands, Marbella and Benidorm the increase was around 10%. It’s not just that hotels are becoming more expensive in Spain, it’s that they are doing so faster than those in the rest of Europe. “Spain’s 4.8% growth is well above that of Europe as a whole (1.2%) and is also higher than that of southern Europe (3.5%). In terms of revenue per available room, Spain continues to be one of the leading destinations, with an increase of 5.5%, surpassing European growth … Read more

All your plans now include a gift card to spend on Amazon

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When choosing a VPNThere are so many that it is difficult to choose one. Sure, let’s go directly to one of the best available It is always the best option, but even then, it is not easy. For this reason, a promo like this one that Surfshark has active right now attracts so much attention: we can get their VPN from 1.99 euros a month and take us, in passing, an Amazon gift card. We tell you more about it. Surfshark Starter Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links VPN and Amazon gift card at a very good price Accessing this promo is very simple. To do this, all we have to do is use the code ‘amazones’ when we select the plan that best suits us, since it is available for the three that Surfshark has. Two things to keep in mind: it is only available if we choose a two-year plan and the gift card will arrive when we have the subscription active for 31 days. How much is the Amazon gift card? The amount of this will depend on the plan we choose. The most basic plan, called Starter (which includes VPN and the Alternative ID tool), comes with a 10-euro gift card so we can spend on whatever we want. The other two increase the amount: Surfshark One will give us a 20 euro gift card, while Surfshark One+ he will give us a 30 euro cardyes. Now, let’s do the numbers. If we opt for the cheapest plan (remember, it costs 1.99 euros per month), we would be paying a total of 47.76 euros to have 24 months of VPN. The price is quite attractive, but two things must be added: comes with three extra months (so it will be 27 months in total) and we will have the 10 euro gift card. These would be the prices, in summary, that we would pay with the other plans: Surfshark One: 27 months for a total of 59.76 euros and an Amazon gift card of 20 euros. Surfshark One+: 27 months for a total of 100.56 euros and an Amazon gift card of 30 euros. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | surfshark In Xataka | Why it is dangerous to connect to public Wi-Fi and what you should do to protect yourself In Xataka | Antivirus in Windows 11: what they are, differences between free and paid and the best for your PC

I have calculated how much I will spend on gasoline this Easter. I’m already looking for an electric car

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Tomorrow, March 28, will mark one month since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in an offensive that appears to be stalling. Four weeks since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed, since the price of oil skyrocketed and gasoline prices skyrocketed. Four weeks paying more for our deposits. Four weeks looking at electric cars with different eyes. Tied to fuel. The price of gasoline and diesel has fallen significantly since the Government applied the discount on VAT on hydrocarbons. The market, which was beginning to reach two euros/liter, has relaxed in the case of gasoline (1,562 euros/liter on average), according to dieselgasolina.combut it is still very high in the case of diesel, which remains at 1,773 euros/liter. This gap between diesel and gasoline is making let’s live an unprecedented situation. Already with the war in Ukraine we saw the price of diesel skyrocket. Now, with Russia already out of the market (at least the legal one) and with a new tension in the supply chain, Europe is witnessing an increase in diesel prices for having gotten rid of its refineries over the years. A considerable saving. Taking prices in Spain as a reference, the savings in the cost of using an electric car were already high in recent years. But this has skyrocketed in the last month. Spain continues to be dependent on diesel for an aging fleet where diesel is used by 57.1% of the total volume of cars, according to Anfac. although new cars sold with this technology are very few. And in Europe the x-ray is very similar. This has made many look at the electric car with different eyes. How we tell you our calculator and the professionals themselves explainthe more kilometers traveled with an electric car, the cheaper its cost of use. Or, simply, the greater the gap that exists with gasoline. Let’s give an example, with diesel at 1.773 euros/liter, traveling 100 kilometers with a car that consumes five liters of fuel costs 8.86 euros. In the case of gasoline, if the car consumes seven liters on average, the cost to travel 100 kilometers is 10.93 euros refueling at 1.562 euros/liter. With an electric car that consumes 20 kWh/100 km on the road, the cost is the following: Domestic rate (10 cents/kWh): 2 euros/100 km Direct current recharging up to 50 kW (20 cents/kWh): 4 euros/100 km Direct current recharging up to 150 kW (30-45 cents/kWh): 6-9/100 km Direct current recharging above 150 kW (60 cents/kWh): 12 euros/100 km Winner? Yes, especially the slower we reload. And the comparisons between a combustion car and an electric one are somewhat complicated since the consumption of the car on the road (quite variable between electric cars) and the price of the chargers come into play. Below we will leave a practical example but first we will make some details clear: The consumption of an electric car on the road has important differences. A Tesla Model 3, perhaps the most efficient car at the moment, consumes about 16 kWh/100 km at sustained rates of 120 km/h. A “gastón” car can go at 24 kWh/100 km. That, with high rates, means recharges of up to four euros more per 100 kilometers The real savings of an electric car are in slow recharges, especially domestic ones. Here, rates vary greatly. There are flat rates of 15 cents/kWh but those who have license plates and a favorable environment can charge at 0 cents/kWh for a good part of the year. In our case, we are going to assume 10 cents/kWh. On a trip like Easter, it is very likely that we will stop to sightsee in a city or to eat. At these stops, slow or direct current charging can be done but at low power, below 50 kW. Just as service stations have loyalty cards and programs, electric car users can also take advantage of subscription rates to save money. We will leave them aside because the possibilities in both cases are very wide. Our example. To understand whether or not we save money, let’s assume that this Easter we add a trip of 2,000 kilometers. In it, we will leave with a full battery, as a typical electric car user would. Our electric car has a range of 400 kilometers. The round trip will take us 1,200 kilometers and we will do another 800 kilometers moving from one place to another, getting to know new places. Let’s assume that the car’s consumption is 20 kWh/100 kilometers and that the battery has a size of 80 kWh. Thus, we are going to assume the following recharges: We leave home with 100% (80 kWh and 400 km) and we stop when we have 10% battery left (8 kWh and 40 km) We fill the battery with a high-power charger up to 80% (we have recharged 56 kWh and have 320 km available) and we arrive at the destination with 80 km left in the battery (20%) At the destination we charge the battery to 100% to move with a 50 kWh charger. We have a second recharge at destination. We are going to do 800 kilometers of tourism, that is two full batteries which is equivalent to the first full recharge already mentioned and a second to have another 400 kilometers ready. On our return we will repeat the move: we will charge in our holiday area (third recharge at destination) with a 50 kW charger up to 100%, we will repeat the fast charging on the road at more than 150 kW and we will fill the battery at home to 100% to check the real cost. Here we will arrive with 20% battery. The expense. Taking all this data, we have the following results: First recharge on the way up to 80% (56 kWh at 0.60 euros/kWh): 33.60 euros First recharge at destination up to 100% (72 kWh at 0.20 euros/kWh): 14.40 euros Second recharge at destination up to 100% (80 kWh at 0.20 euros/kWh): … Read more

The good news is that the Ebro reservoirs are at a historic 85% water level. The bad thing is that we are going to spend it in a short time.

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There are 6,640 hm3 of water in the Ebro basin. The reservoirs are at 85.1% of its total capacity at what is its highest level (for this date) of the decade. And yet, the fact that there is a lot of water is not news. All of Spain is the same (83.3%). The news is that we are going to spend it. A structural problem called ‘Mediterranean’. Every year, the pressure of the Mediterranean summer and the irrigation campaign empty the reservoirs very quickly. AND, as history has shown usthere is never too much water: “each dry period has served to implement emergency measures for agriculture that were not eliminated when the rains returned, they were used to expand irrigation, aggravating the problem in the following drought”, said Ana Tudela and Antonio Delgado. And that, precisely that, is what we are about to see. The complete image. Seeing the figures for the reservoirs can lead us to forget that, just three years ago, 85% of the basin’s surface was in “prolonged drought“and 45% of them declared themselves in shortage emergency. Mequinenza, the largest swamp, reached historic lows. It was a catastrophe not only in water terms, but also in energy terms. Now, however, all that is in the past. And Say’s Law lurks in the dark. What the old French economist Jean-Baptiste Say argued at the end of the 19th century is that “every supply creates its own demand“and, translated into this situation, this means that the fact that there is more water generates all the incentives in the world for there to be more irrigation. As soon as we do it, this becomes clear. After all, not all of the basin’s storage capacity is enough for a full year of agricultural demand. Without the annual rainfall and the melting of snow, we could already consider all its reserves exhausted. March is the key month. The irrigation campaign runs from April to September and that means that March is the key month for planning the year. It is true that the thaw has not yet begun (which this year is going to be very intense), but it helps us estimate what quantities of water are really available. All irrigated agriculture in the valley depends on the water we are able to store during the spring. The question from now on becomes: how do we conserve as much water as possible before we once again enter a situation of risk? And the problem is that we don’t have answers. Especially in a regulatory context in which are not foreseen widespread restrictions on irrigation. Economic, social and institutional incentives tell us that we are not yet prepared, as a country, to address the really important question: we do not have a water problem, we have a consumption problem. There is still room for improvement in management, yes. But that won’t solve the problem: it only postpones it. And that 85% of reservoir water has given us unbeatable weather, we just have to hope that we can take advantage of it. Image | Manuel Torres Garcia In Xataka | The great battle of the Ebro is not between Murcia and Aragón, it is between the headwaters of the rivers, the large cities and the delta

NVIDIA is going to spend $4 billion on photonics companies. He is preparing for what is coming

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NVIDIA does not provide stitches without thread. At the end of August 2025, the company led by Jensen Huang announced that in 2026 their platforms artificial intelligence next generation (AI) will use photonic interconnections to achieve higher transfer speeds between GPU clusters. This announcement came during the conference specializing in semiconductor engineering and high-performance computing ‘Hot Chips’, which was held in Palo Alto (California), and was just the prelude to what was to come. And this same week NVIDIA has revealed that is going to invest 2,000 million dollars in Lumentum, and the same amount in Coherent. These two companies have something very important in common: they are specialized in developing photonic technologies. Shortly after NVIDIA confirmed its interest in them, the shares of these two companies rose 5 and 9% respectively. And the company led by Jensen Huang has committed to purchasing products from Lumentum and Coherent for several billion dollars, and also to use their advanced laser solutions and optical networking technologies. Photonics is the support that cutting-edge semiconductors need Most IC designers and manufacturers are working on the development of silicon photonics. Douglas Yu, a TSMC executive with responsibility for systems integration, explained in September 2023 very clearly what disruptive capacity this technology has: “If we manage to implement a good integration system for silicon photonics, we will unleash a new paradigm. We will probably place ourselves at the beginning of a new era.” Silicon photonics is a discipline that in the field in question seeks to develop the technology of this chemical element to optimize the transformation of electrical signals into light pulses. The most obvious field of application of this innovation is implementing high performance links which, on paper, can be used both to resolve communications between several chips and to optimize the transfer of information between several machines. In AI clusters, thousands of GPUs must work in unison, so it is essential to connect them using high-performance links The advanced packaging technologies used by leading semiconductor manufacturers, such as TSMC, Intel or Samsung, can greatly benefit from a very high-performance inter-chip communication mechanism. And large data centers where it is necessary to connect a large number of machines, too. However, there is one discipline in particular that has an overwhelming future projection and that would benefit greatly from building on the advantages offered by silicon photonics: AI. This is precisely NVIDIA’s bet. In AI clusters, thousands of GPUs must work in unison, so it is essential to connect them using high-performance links. It is possible to solve this challenge using traditional copper cables or optical modules, but both of these solutions introduce into the infrastructure very important inefficiencies. The most problematic are energy loss and bottlenecks. Data transfer can consume up to 30 watts per port, which increases energy dissipation as heat and increases the likelihood of failure. Additionally, latency limits the scalability of clusters as the number of GPUs in data centers increases. To resolve these inefficiencies, NVIDIA will integrate the optical components required for photonic interconnections into the same switching chip package. This technology is known as CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) and manages to reduce power consumption to only 9 watts per port. Additionally, it minimizes signal loss and improves data integrity. Looks really good. NVIDIA has confirmed that it will integrate CPO technology into its Quantum-X InfiniBand and Spectrum-X Ethernet interconnect platforms during 2026. However, there is something important that is worth not overlooking: CPO is not going to be an extra. When it arrives, it will be established as a structural requirement of the next generation of AI data centers in a clear attempt to increase the competitiveness of NVIDIA’s AI hardware platforms. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters In Xataka | Intel and TSMC lead the photonic chip revolution. Their problem is that China has just gotten fully involved in this war

Google wants you to spend more time in its app store. So he’s going to turn it into TikTok

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At the end of 2023, Google warned: at some point the discovery of applications through short videos in the Play Store would be enhanced. A pilot test began in the United States under the name “Play Report”, giving maximum prominence to certain selected applications through short videos in vertical format. What began as a pilot test appears to have worked successfully. The company just announced a package of news that will come to Android and, among them, is this type of videos. The fact that. Google is going to introduce Google Play Shorts. Their name does not deceive: they are short format videos in which we will be shown the content and operation of the applications. As soon as we open the application, we will see them playing, so the first question we ask ourselves is whether it will be possible to eliminate its autoplay to save data. Because. Google is not hiding, it wants us to be able to check how an application works without having to leave the Play Store. Until now, if we wanted to consult about any app we used to close the store, look for information in another source, and return to download it. The objective of the Play Shorts is that we have enough hook with the video, and we go on to download the application directly. As. The videos will be integrated into the apps section itself, they will not have an independent section. Or, in other words, a priori they seem inevitable. We will open the Play Store and at the beginning we will have these Play Shorts. They will be integrated into the app files themselves but, to boost downloads, there will be an installation button in the video itself. When. “Soon.” The key here is that the function has come out of pilot testing and will soon arrive on Android. Over the next few weeks, and through a server update, these new ads will progressively appear. TikTokizing Play Store. While the European Union puts infinite scroll in the spotlightGoogle has just added it to its most used application. Once we enter Play Shorts, we can slide down to see more and more applications, a format identical to that of TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Image | Google In Xataka | The science of “doomscrolling”: how technology hacked psychology so we can’t let go of our phones

The US spent $600 billion building its highway network. It’s less than what big tech companies are going to spend on AI this year

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The irruption of ChatGPT in the technological panorama in 2022 marked the starting signal in the AI ​​race; a race in which, year after year, large technology companies continue to increase their spending without stopping. 2026 has just begun and, far from letting it go, the big tech They have put their foot even further on the accelerator. All but one. walk or bust. We already know the planned capex for 2026 of the main technology companies, that is, what they plan to invest in capital expenditures. amazon: 200,000 million Alphabet: 175-185 billion Goal: 115-135 billion Microsoft: 140,000 million Apple: 13,000 million If we add it up taking the highest figures they have given, it is 673,000 million dollars, if we take the lowest figures it would be 643,000 million. In any case it is outrageous. In 2025 the figures were already dizzying and we are talking about an increase of around 60%. There has come a point where we have to stop and ask ourselves: How many zeros does that have? (yes twelve). Context of this madness. Here are a few comparisons to put this figure in context. It is superior to Sweden GDP in 2025 (662,000 million), that of Israel (610,000 million) and that of Singapore (574,000 million). As pointed out this user in Xexceeds what it cost to build the entire US interstate highway system (about 634,000 million) and is a quarter of the entire global military spending in a whole year. It’s like spending $1.2 million per minute for an entire year. It doesn’t make any sense. The market response. The fear of a bubble was noted after the announcements of the different companies, causing sharp falls in the stock market despite the fact that all of them have made profits (some breaking records). amazon fell 12% after announcing a capex of 200,000 millionmuch higher than forecasts Alphabet (Google) achieved record revenues, but it was not enough to convince the markets and its shares fell 10% in the following days Goal also announced record revenue and they had a 10% increase. However, days later things changed and they fell 8%. Microsoft fit the strongest blow, with a drop of 18%. Additionally, they revealed that 45% of their cloud business contracts are for OpenAI and the market does not reward dependency. Apple was the winner, with an increase of more than 7% since they announced results. The declines have been corrected in recent days and all companies have seen their value stabilize, but the message was clear: investors fear that this level of capex is far ahead of the ability of AI to generate profits in the short term. Where are they going to get the money from? It’s the big question. As stated in Financial Timescompanies must choose between reducing shareholder returns, using their cash reserves, or borrowing more money. In the case of Amazon, estimates point to a cash flow of 180 billion, Alphabet 195 billion and Meta 130 billion. The threat of free cash flow falling into negative territory is there, so we can expect them to issue more debt and stop share buybacks. Think different. Then we have Apple, which announced revenues of 144 billion in the last quarter, boosted by sales of the iPhone 17 during the Christmas campaign. Its capex is a fraction of what other companies have spent because Apple doesn’t build data centers, it outsources them. He agreement with Google to use Gemini can be interpreted as They have lost the AI ​​racebut in the context of a possible bubble it is a masterstroke: Google is the one who assumes the brutal spending on infrastructure and who is exposed to the bubble, while they benefit from their technology and see how the market rewards them for spending less. In Xataka | What have Apple and Google agreed on for the new Siri? Nobody knows because Google doesn’t even want to mention it. Image | Photo of Adam Nir in Unsplashedited

We believed Amazon was already spending too much on AI. Your answer to Wall Street: spend even more

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The honeymoon between AI and Wall Street is over. Amazon knows this very well, having just received that dreaded “we have to talk” message from investors with a drop of more than 10% in its shares yesterday. It seemed that the stock markets rewarded the fact that companies They invested absurd amounts of money in AI. It is just what Amazon announced yesterday, but that strategy has had a totally negative response in the markets. what has happened. Amazon presented yesterday financial results for the last quarter of 2025. Revenue grew by 14% and net profit by 6%, modest figures that were not very popular. But above all, I did not like that Amazon announced that it estimated a capex (capital expenditure) of $200 billion in 2026 in AI. Amazing. Wall Street used to reward, now it punishes. In 2025, that capex was $131 billion, and Amazon is determined to continue betting everything on AI. Before, investors rewarded that audacity. Now they are punishing her: the shares plummeted 11% “after hours“, and it will be today when those actions start with that reflected fall. We want return on investment. That market reaction is not an isolated event. Amazon’s fall comes just hours after Microsoft or Google suffered similar falls. The market before valued the potential of AIbut now he demands return on investment more than ever and has become impatient. Big Tech had operated with a blank check, but when revenue forecasts fall short of estimates, optimism evaporates. Income grows, yes, but not that much. The real problem is the imbalance between capex and revenue growth. AWS grew a spectacular 24% in revenue, but spending is growing at an even greater rate. Google, Amazon and Microsoft are trapped in a kind of infrastructure “arms race”: the first one to stop spending loses, and that is a big problem. He who does not risk, does not gain. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explained that “this is an extraordinarily rare opportunity to forever change the size of AWS and Amazon as a whole. (…) We are going to invest aggressively to be the leaders.” It is a speech identical to that Mark Zuckerberg said a few months ago when he said he was willing to lose hundreds of billions on AI: not investing them would be worse for Meta. But Amazon is much more than AI. There is another disturbing element in this huge bet by Amazon. The reality is that the company has many expensive fronts. From the Kuiper satellite network to compete with Starlink to the robotization of its Whole Foods logistics and other areas. When adding AI to the equation, the math doesn’t seem to work out. Optimism ends. Historically, large technology companies have taken advantage of the optimism of the market and investors to justify spending forecasts completely unrelated to their income. In 2026, with the macroeconomic situation of “we no longer like risk” —tell it to bitcoin— and the pressure for profitability, “free optimism” has disappeared. If you are going to spend like crazy, you have to raise like crazy too. Amazon is doing well, AI is not. This total commitment to AI is preventing us from seeing that the rest of Amazon’s businesses are doing very well. Online sales grew by 10% and advertising grew by a notable 23%. E-commerce, the cornerstone on which Amazon was built and operates, is funding the AI ​​party, but it is turning into a bottomless pit. Like Qatar’s GDP. According to the world bankQatar’s GDP in 2024 was $219 billion. That Amazon invests almost the same in AI data centers alone is dizzying. It is the same thing that we said yesterday about Google, which also projected a capex of 135 billion dollars by 2026. The figures are no longer dizzying: they are crazy. Beware, obsolescence. And all that investment can end up wasted, especially because there is an implicit risk in the data centers that are built: in three or five years they could become obsolete if the architecture of AI chips changes radically. It is bread for today, and hunger for tomorrow… without counting the energy factor or the water consumption. Xataka | While Silicon Valley seeks electricity, China subsidizes it: this is how it wants to win the AI ​​war

Google has smelled blood with AI, so it has decided to spend more in 2026 than the GDP of 158 countries in the world

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New year, new budgets. Big tech companies are beginning to detail their roadmap for 2026 and the trend is clear: spend even more on AI. a few days ago, Goal announced that the planned capex (capital expenditure) rose to 135,000 million dollars and Microsoft too pointed to a similar figure. Alphabet (Google) just told everyone to “hold my hands.” May the rhythm not stop. The bomb was announced during the last results conference. Alphabet plans to spend between $175 and $185 billion, doubling 2025 capex, which was $91.4 billion, and almost quadrupling 2024 spending (52.5 billion). To put it in context, it is more than the GDP of Morocco, Kuwait, Bulgaria and up to 158 countries. At the same time, the company announced record results, surpassing 400 billion in revenue for the first time. The net profit stood at 132,000 million. Vertigo. That’s what investors seem to have felt. They count in Financial Times that, in the hours following the news, Alphabet shares fell 7% after the capex announcement, but then the fall was reduced to -1.5%. Microsoft experienced a similar response after its earnings call a few days ago, it is the response of investors to these exorbitant figures. However, as long as the results are good, it seems that the scare will not last long. Everything’s fine. They count in Fortune that Pichai assured that this year’s capital expenditure is “a look at the future” and justified his strategy by highlighting that the demand for his cloud services and DeepMind (Gemini) is extraordinary, so the investment must also be. He also announced that AI searches now surpass traditional searches and that Google Search’s business has grown 17% compared to last year. Additionally, the order book for its cloud has increased by 55% during the last quarter. It still won’t be enough. The CEO of Alphabet admitted that, despite the record results, there are insurmountable bottlenecks such as computing capacity, problems in the chip supply chain and energy limitations. These restrictions make it take a long time to get a data center up and running, or in other words, it was preparing investors not to expect an immediate return. Gemini, full out. The Google chatbot is in its sweet moment. The viral success of Nano Banana, Gemini 3 sweeping its competition in benchmarks and Apple choosing him as the new brain for the new Siri They have given a boost in popularity to Gemini, which already has more than 750 million users. OpenAI is still ahead with ChatGPT, but Google is closing the gap and Altman’s people have reacted going into panic mode. He moat of Gemini. Benchmarks are fine, but there is something much more important. During the conference, Pichai announced that they had reduced Gemini’s service costs by 78% “through model optimizations, efficiency and utilization improvements.” It is no longer that its AI is surpassing its competition, it is that it is cheaper and there OpenAI does have a problem. With its advertising businesses, the cloud and more revenue, Google has plenty of room to skyrocket its capex. In Xataka | OpenAI’s entire financial strategy depended on achieving a monopoly with ChatGPT: the opposite is happening Image | Wikipedia

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