Win

China has a plan to win the AI ​​war against the US. And DeepSeek is its champion

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Liang Wenfeng is the most elusive person in the Chinese manufacturing industry. artificial intelligence (AI). The founder of DeepSeekwho also runs the hedge fund High-Flyer, recently held a four-hour video call with potential investors from Hangzhou, China, an unusual format in every sense: only two representatives per institution, and for most of the attendees it was the first time they had seen the founder. “We are a very normal group of people,” Wenfeng told them. And this apparent simplicity hides the company that, in just over a year, has rewritten the economic rules of generative AI. However, what began as a start-up reluctant to any outside investment has come full circle. DeepSeek recently closed a financing round of around $7 billion, with a valuation of $52 billion. The most revealing data, however, is provided by SCMP: This company is already negotiating a second round that is expected to raise that figure to $71 billion just weeks after closing the first. The power map of Chinese AI Reuters has confirmed that DeepSeek develops its own ASIC chip aimed at inference and not training. With it, it aims to reduce its dependence on Nvidia and Huawei, its two current suppliers. If the project succeeds, it would mark a huge strategic shift for a company that until now has built its entire reputation on software efficiency rather than hardware control. Be that as it may, this move would add additional pressure to Huawei, which competes for the same space within China. Huawei now integrates DeepSeek into its cloud services in sub-Saharan Africa In this scenario we are interested in focusing on the real magnitude of this phenomenon. According to FortuneChinese open source models (led by Qwen, MiniMax and DeepSeek) already represent a third of global use of large language models, compared to an almost non-existent presence at the end of 2024. Emerging companies in Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia adopt them due to their openness, transparency and a much lower operating cost than American alternatives. Huawei, in fact, already integrates DeepSeek into its cloud services in sub-Saharan Africa. As expected after such an escalation in valuation, several sources suggest that DeepSeek could present its IPO this year, following in the wake of other low-cost Chinese startups such as Zhipu AI and MiniMax, which are already listed on public markets. A successful placement would give DeepSeek the institutional capital necessary to scale its computing infrastructure and sustain its long-term price war against large American players. DeepSeek is no longer just the startup that sparked Nvidia’s biggest stock scare in a single day: it is the battering ram with which China tries impose its open and cheap AI model as a global standard. Image | Generated by Xataka with ChatGPT More information | Bloomberg In Xataka | While most oppose AI data centers, there is one group enthusiastic about them: merchandise thieves

Nobody would bet on Meta today in the superintelligence race, but he plays with more advantage than we think to win it

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A year ago, Zuckerberg was hiring AI talent like the world was ending, offering millionaire salaries and even buying entire companies to be able to sign Alexandr Wang. One year later, 8,000 people have been laid off, the work environment is unbreathable and We are still waiting for them to launch that great model with which to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic, all this while they spend money a lot. Despite everything, Meta has a real chance of closing positions and getting closer to the podium in the AI ​​race. The near future. In a complete report by Semianalysis They talk about how Meta is playing with better cards than it may seem. Muse Spark, its first language model, was somewhat disappointing, falling behind Chinese competitors such as Deepseek v4 Pro or Kimi K2.6. But the important thing is not where Meta is now, but where it can be in the near future thanks to the combination of three key elements: data, talent and computing. Record employees. It was a very controversial decision and, as expected, Meta employees were not amused. Without them being able to object, software was installed on the company computers that I recorded everything they didnot to spy on them, but to train their AI. This data is pure gold for training agents: Meta is accumulating thousands of examples of different people solving the same tasks, while data companies like Surge or Mercor have to partner with others to be able to record their workflows. Meta has the data at home. They say in Semianalysis that this decision is as if they had created a “top-tier startup for RL environments” within the company, with one of the founders of Scale AI leading the transformation. In addition, after the restructuring they have put at least 3,000 engineers on reinforcement learning environment tasks. All this data is key to being able to create programming agents like Claude Code or Codex from OpenAI. Data centers. It is one of the main sources of spending for Meta, which is building several gigantic data centers whose capacities are more than 1 gigawatt. Maybe Meta cannot compete in infrastructure with hyperscalers like GoogleMicrosoft and Amazon, but things change if we confront it with frontier AI laboratories. Here, Meta has a clear advantage and, according to Semianalysis’ projections, Meta will have more computing power than Anthropic and OpenAI combined before the end of the year. The talent. Last summer, Meta began signing talent with a checkbook. They hired at least 14 high-level researchers who came directly from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, paid $14 billion to keep Alexandr Wang and Scale AI. Bringing together the best does not ensure that the team will work and, in fact, for months now there have been rumors of internal tensions. Of course, if they make it work, they have the talent. keep focus. Meta may be in the rearview mirror of OpenAI and Anthropic sooner rather than later, but it is one thing to have the resources and quite another to achieve it. Meta is in a delicate moment internally, with many employees very dissatisfied with the company’s strategy. If they do not navigate these waves well, they risk becoming unfocused and lost along the way. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | Meta has a long history of privacy scandals. We can add one more to the list

AI is generating a labor market at two speeds: those who win and those who are left behind

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We have been hearing for years that AI is going to reconfigure the labor market and we have more and more data on how that change is going. PwC has just made public its new barometer global analysis of AI in the labor market in which, after analyzing more than 1 billion job offers in 27 countries, they reach several very interesting conclusions. Two speeds. One of the findings of the study is that AI is helping to create two categories in the labor market. On the one hand there are the so-called “professionalized roles” which are professions that can use AI as support, but require that the human be the one who does the fine work, such as specialist doctors, architects or recruiters. On the other hand, there are “democratized roles” that are positions that AI has facilitated, that is, that a non-expert can do it or that AI can directly do much of the work. This is the case of customer service, first-level technical support or administrative positions. According to the report, professionalized positions are growing much faster than democratized ones, with twice as many positions offered and 42% more salary growth. In Xataka OpenAI assures that AI has not had that much impact on employment. Anthropic believes just the opposite and therein lies the problem Productivity boom. There is a growing gap between companies that know how to make the most of AI and those that don’t. Between 2018 and 2025, productivity growth among companies in sectors less exposed to AI has increased by 24%, while those most exposed reach 34%. Within this group, they have detected that companies that use AI most intensively have managed to boost their productivity by up to 163%, five times more than the average for the rest. In addition to being more productive, these companies are also increasing their workforce, up to 52% compared to 36% for less pro-AI companies. Knowing about AI pays better. The barometer has detected that the pull of AI also affects salaries. The pay gap between those with specific AI skills and those without has increased to 62%, up from 57% last year. In addition, jobs in specific areas such as machine learning or prompt engineering are growing eight times faster than the general labor market (69% compared to 9%). The number of offers for jobs related to AI is already double what was seen in 2024, especially in sectors such as technology, media, telecommunications and professional services. {“videoId”:”x806n3d”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”TECHNOLOGY and THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE – Insert Coin with Manuel Hidalgo”, “tag”:”employment”, “duration”:”1806″} Junior who look senior. Another finding of the study is that entry-level or junior positions now have higher requirements. The offers analyzed tend to require typically senior skills such as judgment, leadership and creativity. Specifically, PwC says that the jobs most exposed to AI are seven times more likely to require these skills in entry-level roles, and that vacancies for these junior-senior positions have grown by 35% since 2019, while the rest of the junior roles have decreased by 10%. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | Spain has just put numbers to the impact of AI on the labor market: 2.3 million jobs will change forever (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news AI is generating a labor market at two speeds: those who win and those who are left behind was originally published in Xataka by Amparo Babiloni .

Meta spent at least $14 billion to win the AI ​​race. It’s been a year and it’s still exactly where it was.

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In Silicon Valley, and in technology in general, being huge does not guarantee being prepared to win every race. You can have money, talent, data centers, billions of users and machinery capable of integrating anything new into products we use every day. Still, when the board changes, so does the question. Meta has been trying for years to demonstrate that it can not only distribute artificial intelligence at scale, but rather compete at the center of the conversation. The problem is, when we think about chatbots, it still doesn’t seem to be the first name that comes to mind. 14.3 billion dollars. Ea is the figure that Reuters put on the table for a very specific operation. On June 13, 2025, the agency reported that Meta would take a 49% stake in Scale AI for that amount, in a deal that valued the startup at about $29 billion. Scale itself spoke of a significant new investment from Metaalthough he did not publish the exact amount of the investment. We are not talking, therefore, about everything that the company has allocated to AI, but rather about an identifiable bet within a much broader bill. What Meta saw in Scale AI. It was surely not one of those companies that we had on our radar when we were talking about artificial intelligence. It did not have the public shine of ChatGPT nor the showcase of Geminibut it did occupy an important place in the machinery that makes it possible to train and evaluate models. His work revolves around data that allows training, evaluating and improving AI systems, including labeled or curated data for training. The name behind the operation. Meta was not only betting on Scale AI, it was also incorporating Alexandr Wang into its new stage in artificial intelligence. The agency noted that the main driver of the move was to secure Scale’s founder to lead Meta’s superintelligence efforts. Scale itself confirmed that Wang would join Meta to work on its AI projects. So the investment should not be read solely as an entry into the capital of a data company, but as a way to accelerate leadership and talent. Context. The investment came at a time when Meta needed to strengthen its position in the advanced AI race. It occurred in a context marked by the poor reception of Call 4its latest large family of open models, and due to competitive pressure against companies like Google, OpenAI and DeepSeek. It was not just a matter of having more resources or adding a new piece to the organizational chart. What was at stake was to regain momentum in a field where other names were marking a good part of the technical, business and public conversation. The visible part. The most recognizable result of this new stage is Muse Sparkpresented by Meta as the first model of a new family created by Meta Superintelligence Labs. The company assures that it already powers Meta AI in its app and on the web, and that it is being deployed in WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and its AI glasses. Here, precisely, there is an important point: Meta does not need to convince the user to install another application from scratch: it already has the channels. But converting presence within their own platforms into public relevance within generative AI is another battle. The limit. Just because the model is within WhatsApp or Instagram does not mean that people use it for many tasks. Muse Spark does not seem to be occupying the place that the GPT or Gemini models do, to name a few examples. Despite this, according to ReutersMuse Spark has performed well in languages ​​and visual compression, although it has lagged behind in coding and abstract reasoning. Meta has managed to be present, but has not yet demonstrated that this presence is enough to change habits. Strategic turn. Muse Spark does not follow the path that had given Llama so much visibility: The Wall Street Journal described it as a closed model. The company itself speaks of an API in private preview for selected partners, not open and general access for any developer. That is to say, Meta has put a new model into circulation, but it has done so in a more controlled way, more integrated into its products and less open than the strategy with which it had tried to differentiate itself in AI. The crack. Meta can integrate AI into gigantic products, but the generative AI race is also played in another field: that of the names that the user recognizes when they need a chatbot. And there Zuckerberg’s company does not seem to occupy the same place as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Grok. The economic doubt has not disappeared either. And, a no small detail, advertising continues to be the engine of Meta’s income. Images | Mark Zuckerberg In Xataka | There is a company proving that AI can be the perfect interviewer for companies. His name is Orbio and he is from Madrid

Europe’s secret weapon to win the electric battery war is not in the mines: it is in the garbage

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The race for European energy sovereignty is being fought far from the large open pit mines. The new battlefield is located in a much more unexpected place: the garbage heap. The companies Vianode and Cylib they have forged an alliance to convert old batteries from scrapyards into high-performance components for new vehicles, the continent’s latest attempt to achieve supply chain independence. However, this scientific advance collides head-on with a real political earthquake. As anticipated at the time Reutersthe European Commission is evaluating whether to reverse or delay its star measure for five or more years: the ban on selling combustion cars from 2035. While technology shows that stopping dependence on foreign powers is possible, economic fear makes Brussels hesitate. The “unsung hero” at the bottom of the landfill. To understand the magnitude of the project, you have to look at a specific material. How do you define it? Aqua Metals, This is the “unsung hero” of lithium-ion batteries: graphite. This material is essential to create the anode (the negative pole of the battery) that allows energy to be stored and released efficiently. Although it is light compared to metals such as cobalt, graphite represents between 10% and 20% of the total weight of a cell. The underlying problem is geopolitical. Global demand for this mineral has skyrocketed, but Europe depends almost entirely on imports of virgin material controlled by external markets. The situation became critical when China, the world’s largest producer, announced severe restrictions for export. The answer to this vulnerability lies in what the industry knows as “black mass,” the dark dust that results from crushing discarded batteries. In this mixture, graphite can account for up to 50% of the content. Recycling has ceased to be a simple green initiative and has become a matter of industrial survival. Urban water-based mining. How exactly is that scrap metal transformed into cutting-edge components? The German company Cylib has developed its own technology based on water, named OLiC. This system is capable of recovering 90% of critical metals (lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and manganese) from spent batteries, reducing carbon emissions by 80% compared to traditional mining extraction. This development is not an improvised promise. By mid-2025, Cylib has already marked a milestone together with the Syensqo firm by producing high purity lithium hydroxide directly from this black mass using a proprietary selective solvent (CYANEX 936P). This achievement allowed different battery chemistries to be processed in a single operational line, preparing to more than comply with EU regulation, which will require recovering 80% of lithium by 2031. With the new alliance signed, the graphite recovered by Cylib will be delivered to the Norwegian firm Vianode, which will integrate it into the formulation of its advanced synthetic anodes. Its goal for 2030 is radical: emitting just 1.0 kg of CO2 for every kilo of graphite produced. As Dr. Lilian Schwich, co-founder of Cylib, summarized: “Circular does not mean making concessions. It means a competitive advantage for Europe.” The fracture of the industry in the mirror of 2035. Although recyclers demonstrate that material autonomy is technically viable, pressure from traditional manufacturers has fractured the automotive sector. Giants like Volkswagen or Stellantis They argue that the current goals They are not viable because consumers are reluctant to pay the extra cost of the electric vehicle and the charging infrastructure remains poor. Ford CEO Jim Farley himself publicly admitted that EU demands “are not a sustainable reality in Europe today,” pushing to save combustion engines through the use of synthetic biofuels. But this position is not unanimous. Purely electrical firms see this possible political delay as a strategic error that will give the market to China. Michael Lohscheller, CEO of the electric brand Polestar, was blunt in the face of regulatory uncertainty: “The technology is ready, the charging infrastructure is ready and consumers are ready. So what are we waiting for?” The great European paradox. Europe holds the key to its energy future in its own scrapyards. This year’s pilot plants and commercial agreements demonstrate that the circular ecosystem is a mature reality. The great paradox that remains in the air is evident: What will be the point of building the most advanced battery recycling technology on the planet if, out of fear of competition from foreign markets, Brussels decides to artificially extend the life of the exhaust pipe? European automotive independence may have been born in the trash, but it risks dying in the offices. Image | Pexels Xataka | Keeping combustion engines alive in 2035 leaves us with clear winners. Some called BMW, Porsche and Ferrari

China is very clear about how to win the technology race over the rest of the world: with tons of public money

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China has insisted on be the first world power. This declaration of intentions can be as empty as every January 1st when I say that this year I will begin to wake up at six in the morning to go out for a run, or the opposite can happen: they put all the means at their disposal to achieve it. In the case of the Asian giant, what is happening is the second. The Five-Year Plan is the roadmap that the Government sets every five years and that indicates the direction they should follow both public institutions and private companies to achieve the country’s objective. And with a defined objective, there is only one pending issue: the question of financing. And, in the case of China, that translates into a government impulse that other countries do not have. A competition at two speeds OECD stands for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It is made up of 38 States, including North Americans, some South Americans, many Europeans, Australia and Japan.

A Ukrainian stork has managed to outwit a Russian drone in flight. The video is the best clue about who will win the war

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Exactly a decade ago, the Dutch police presented a plan that seemed straight out of a medieval movie: training eagles to shoot down drones in full flight. That project lasted less than a year, because the birds They were too unpredictable and the propellers too dangerous even for them, but 10 years later it seems that they were not so wrong. The stork that left a Russian drone behind. In the middle of a war where Ukraine and Russia compete to automate battlefield, a seemingly trivial video has become an unexpectedly powerful metaphor. what we see: A Russian interceptor drone chases a Ukrainian white stork in mid-flight until the bird suddenly makes a sharp turn, leaving the device chasing shadows. The scene lasts just a few secondsbut it summarizes something much deeper: modern warfare is obsessed with creating machines that imitate capabilities that nature perfected millions of years ago, although we are still far from achieving it. The image is especially symbolic because the white stork is one of the national animals of Ukraine and because the video inadvertently exposes the enormous limitations that many drones continue to have when faced with an enemy as seemingly simple as a bird. The great military obsession. For years, military engineers they try to replicate the capabilities of birds flight. Modern drones can travel hundreds of kilometers, transmit video in real time or attack targets with enormous precision, but they remain much less agile than animals capable of instantly changing the shape of their wings, taking advantage of thermal currents or performing extreme maneuvers without losing stability. The video stork It does exactly that: detect danger, alter its trajectory and escape from a device specifically designed to intercept moving targets. The difference reveals a key problem with today’s autonomous war. Drones still rely heavily on relatively predictable trajectoriesimperfect sensors and reaction capacities much lower than those of biological organisms evolved to survive in the air. Drone warfare as an ecosystem. The conflict in Ukraine has accelerated the evolution of drones to unprecedented levels. Let us remember that at the beginning of the war they were relatively simple reconnaissance tools… and now there are coordinated swarmsinterceptors aerial FPVplatforms long range suicide bombers and autonomous systems capable of searching for targets by themselves. In parallel, the sky begins to fill with absurd situations and almost surreal where birds and machines share the same airspace. In the early years there were trained eagles to shoot down police drones. Today, just the opposite is happening: drones that chase birds because their radar signatures are too similar to those of enemy devices. Some species, such as storks or pelicans, are comparable in size to certain military drones and create enough confusion to cause real errors in combat. Nature is several steps ahead. The episode also leaves an uncomfortable conclusion for the military industry: the capabilities that militaries desperately seek already exist in nature. Birds master something that drones still cannot combine well: agility, energy autonomy, collective coordination and instant adaptation to the environment. An albatross, for example, can travel entire oceans taking advantage of wind currents Without spending much energy, Harris hawks or eagles coordinate extremely complex cooperative attacks. no centralized communicationand storks use thermals to gain altitude practically free. Meanwhile, defense engineers still experience with deformable wings, biomimetic systems and algorithms that allow drones to react with the same fluidity. The result is paradoxical: the more autonomous military technologies advance, the more evident it is that they continue to try to achieve abilities that a bird naturally possesses. A video that says much more. The Ukraine War will probably be remembered as the drone laboratory most important in modern history. Both sides are learning in real time how to automate attacks, saturate defenses and dominate airspace at low cost. But he stork video points towards something even more important: the winner will not necessarily be the one who has the most drones, but rather the one who manages to build capable systems to adapt to the environment with the flexibility of a living organism. Therein lies the great technological race that is beginning to take shape. Armies no longer just want fast or cheap machines, they also want platforms that learn, react, collaborate and survive like animals. And while Russia and Ukraine transform the sky into a permanent surreal experiment, a simple stork has just remembered that nature, for now, continues playing in another league. Image | Jean-Raphaël Guillaumin In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back. In Xataka | The war has entered the phase of mathematics: cheap Russian missiles are destroying the scarce Ukrainian interceptors

China is neither nor does it want to be in the 2nm war between TSMC, Intel and Samsung. Your plan to win is different

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“Many people believe that competition in the semiconductor industry comes down to the advanced nodes and that we will only achieve success when we reach 2 or 3 nm. This is a misunderstanding“. This statement was made by Richard Chang Rujing, the founder of SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer with a global market share of about 5%. Rujing has spoken these words with a very clear intention: he wants China to strengthen its supply chain and its position in the global integrated circuit market by developing its manufacturing capacity for mature chips. Currently the most advanced integration technology that SMIC has in production is 7nm photolithography due to their inability to access equipment extreme ultraviolet lithography (VVE) of ASML. And there is no doubt that it and other Chinese chip manufacturers would benefit greatly from having the capacity to produce 5, 3 and 2 nm semiconductors. In this way they could compete on equal terms with TSMC, Intel and Samsung. However, there is something very important that we should not overlook: advanced nodes represent less than 20% of the world market of integrated circuits by product volume, while more than 80% of demand It comes from the segments of mature nodes and specialized processes. Rujing wants SMIC and the other Chinese chipmakers to invest more in their mature nodes, and it makes sense. After all, this is the strategy that is allowing China resist US pressure. Mature chips are the medicine the Chinese industry needs During the first two months of 2026, China exported integrated circuits worth $43.3 billionwhich represents an increase of 72.6% compared to the same period in 2025. This information comes directly from Chinese customs records, so it is presumably reliable. However, the most astonishing thing is that this country’s exports as a whole have grown by 21.8% during January and February, so it is evident that the semiconductor industry has been stimulated with much more intensity than other sectors. More than 80% of demand comes from the mature nodes and specialized processes segments Domestic demand has stimulated the growth of the Chinese chip industry in recent years, but the figures I have collected in the previous paragraph show that external demand is also very strong. In this context it is reasonable for us to ask what type are integrated circuits that Chinese manufacturers are mass producing. And the answer is very revealing: these are chips derived from mature integration technologiesusually 28 nm or less advanced. After all, the semiconductors that we mostly find in electronic devices, household appliances or cars, among other products, have been produced using them. Many Chinese chip manufacturers, such as Hua Hong Semiconductor, China Resources Microelectronics or Guangzhou ZenSemi, are manufacturing 28 nm integrated circuits or with even more mature technologies. And the Beijing Yandong Microelectronics (YDME) company is going to build a 4.6 billion dollar plant expressly to produce 28nm semiconductors on 300mm wafers. It is evident that these companies would not focus on the manufacturing of mature chips in this way if it were not a profitable strategy, and, above all, necessary to sustain the Chinese integrated circuit industry at a time as critical as the current one. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | China is preparing for the worst scenario: it fears that the US will prevent TSMC from delivering chips for cars and smartphones

Alcohol needs to win over a generation that is becoming less interested in alcohol. Your strategy: offer something else

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The alcohol industry has come to an interesting conclusion. Maybe Generation Z is less interested for the drink that millennialsbut that does not make it immune to an age-proof claim: curiosity. Starting from this premise, the companies dedicated to producing distillates and wines have decided to refocus their strategy and bet on new products that appeal to the youngest. And that happens so much for him came no/low as for him tequifresa either Dubai chocolate. The goal is clear: connect with a demographic cohort that seems to be losing interest for alcohol and will decide the future of the industry. What has happened? Basically, Madrid has just said goodbye to the Gourmet Salonone of the largest European fairs for the high-end food and beverage industry. Until then, nothing out of this world or that may be of interest beyond the specialized industry. The curious thing, how has revealed the EFE Agro agency, is that on this occasion at IFEMA not only bottles of traditional wines, craft beers and traditional spirits have been seen. Companies in the sector have wanted to bet on new unorthodox products and flavors to awaken the curiosity of customers. And that (although at first it may seem anecdotal) is of interest beyond the industry. Why’s that? Because the sector is transforming. Just take a look at the newspaper library to check it out. Although Spain chains record tourism figuresin 2024 the sales recorded by the brewery association fell by second year in a rowsomething that had not happened for more than a decade. The figures Advanced by Circana suggest that the outlook was more promising in 2025, although also with surprise: sales of ‘without’ beer increased almost three times as much as those of alcoholic beverages. Its turnover is still much lower than that of ‘con’ beer, but there is a trend change. And the rest of the drinks? The panorama is similar in the case of wine. The Spanish Oenology Federation estimates that in 2025, 9.35 million of hectoliters, 5.2% less than the previous year. As with beer, its demand is very established and has experienced fluctuations in recent years, but that does not mean that wineries are looking for new business niches. For example, the development of ‘without’ wines or the use of new formatslike packaged broth bag-in-box or served directly from the tap. With respect to spirits, the employers’ association estimates that in 2024 their consumption contracted 3.7%which aggravates the fall that had already suffered in 2023. What is the strategy? From what has been seen these days at IFEMA, the industry wants to go one step further. Bottles of tequila flavored with strawberry, melon, peach or even with even more unorthodox flavors have been promoted on the stands. Orujos Panizo, which has been dedicated to the production of spirits for almost 90 years, has launched, for example, a cream liqueur Dubai chocolate. The objective is clear: to take advantage of the wave of popularity of the sweet and reach out to the young public at a time that, the head of the company recognizes, is not exactly good for the industry. The strategy does not seem misdirected. EFE Agro assures that the demand for some fruit creams with tequila is growing by double digits. Of course, the product starts from “very low” figures. Are there more ideas? Yes. To bet on him tequifresa either meloncello the one known as came no/lowpartially dealcoholized or alcohol-free broths. From being practically unknown in the sector, ‘without’ bottles have begun to sneak into professional tastingscontribute millionaire income to some companies and (above all) generate promising business expectations in the medium term. The specialized medium Italian Food News assures that the ‘without’ wine market expects to expand with a compound annual growth rate of 10% until 2033, expanding its market from 2,000 million to around 5,200. Does consumption change that much? It seems so. And the change is especially interesting among Generation Z, the population cohort born between the mid-1990s and the first decade of this century. Although 76% of young people between 14 and 18 years old admit having tried alcohol at least once in their life and 21% have gotten drunk in the last month, their relationship with drinking is changing. At least when compared to previous generations. “Generation Z drinks less than millennials and these, in turn, less than the boomers“, explains to The Country Andera Mellado, promoter of a ‘sin’ beverage distributor. “They’ve seen how their elders drank and they don’t want to get into that.” Is it just supply and demand? No. It’s something cultural. Habits change, the way of find a partner and to enjoy the leisure. They even change events that until not so long ago were inextricably linked to the “open bar”, like weddings. The vocabulary is also transformed. Terms become popular straight edge and Dry January and Anglo-Saxon expressions like superb curious, mindful living either zebra stripingwhich identify new ways of approaching drinking. That of course doesn’t mean that alcohol has disappeared from Generation Z’s radar or there are no more bottles. 28% of young people recognize that in the last month they have binged on alcohol, the so-called bringe drinking. What do the studies say? That in general there is a decrease in alcohol intake. Although Spain has one of the higher levels of consumption, WHO data show that the average per capita has decreased in recent decades. If in 1975 it reached 18.5 l (pure alcohol), in 2022 it was already around 11.7. The study on consumption among younger youth (14-18 years old) from the Ministry of Health also shows a gradual loss of interest in drinking over recent years, especially since the middle of the last decade, although in both cases it is a trend with fluctuations. Images | Panizo Distilleries, Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash), Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash) and Ministry of Health In Xataka | Having a beer or a wine at 65 seems like a harmless indulgence. We have more and more evidence to … Read more

so you can win a Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition

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One more week, we return with a new exclusive giveaway for the community of Xataka Xtra. The first draw was a 75-inch LG televisionthe second a Nothing Phone (3a) Community Edition of which there are only 1,000 units and now we return with a super, super, super limited product that, in fact, is not sold in Spain: the Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition. We are going to discover both the device and the mechanics to participate right away, but first it is worth remembering that You can join Xataka Xtra from only two euros per month. This subscription includes access to this exclusive giveaway and all those that will come in the future, as well as unique discounts on digital services, a direct line with Xataka editors in El Consultorio, an exclusive Discord server and much more. And now, yes, the draw. How to participate in the exclusive draw for a Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition Like all exclusive raffles for Xataka It’s that simple. Make sure you check that box to automatically participate in the exclusive Xataka Xtra draws | Image: Xataka A gesture as simple as a click or a press, depending on where you read us from, will allow you to access this draw and future ones. If you are already part of Xataka Xtra and have participated in previous draws, don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything, so you can ignore this paragraph. As a summary, the draw is as follows: Requirements: be a Xataka Xtra subscriber and resident in Spain (Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla) Start of the draw: Monday, March 30. End of the draw: Friday, April 10, at 9:00. Winner selection and resolution: Friday, April 10. How will the winner be chosen? From Xataka we will choose a random subscriber and two substitutes. If the winner does not respond within the period stipulated in the legal bases of each draw, the winner will go to the first substitute and, if this does not happen either, to the second. Winning a giveaway does not prevent you from winning in the following ones. You can find the legal bases at this link. Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition | Image: Xataka Regarding the award, the Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition has a radically different finish than the standard model, with a black synthetic leather back, gold details inspired by House Targaryen and dragons and a technology that makes the back turn red when exposed to heat. It is a very cool mobile, yes, but also a collector’s item. It is not sold in Spain, but thanks to Realme Spain from Xataka we have the possibility of getting a true fan of the George RR Martin universe to take it home. In Xataka | Subscribe now to Xataka Xtra

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