Europe does not have its own chip technology. Therefore, it is dependent on the technology of the United States or China, but the latter is not an option for industrial purposes for geopolitical reasons. Existing technologies, and in particular programming codes, are the property of private companies, Nvidia, Intel, and others. Using their code means losing technological independence and depending on them commercially and technically. It is, therefore, not an option.A few years ago, the University of Berkeley developed an open-source code with universal access, RISC-V. Europe is promoting it through the DARE program because it eliminates proprietary limitations. It is likely that for this reason RISC-V will become the universal code of the EU, and perhaps the world, in the short term, Brazil, India, the EU, except for the USA and China.Openchip is a public-private company that has a project of approximately 500 million euros and seven years of duration on the RISC-V code. It was created by a private partner, GTD, specialized in the field of embedded software, rockets and satellites of the ESA – the European Space Agency –, and the public entity BSC – Barcelona Supercomputing Center –, a successful creation of doctor Mateo Valero, eminent professor at the UPC. Openchip's industrial objective is to design and prototype general-purpose chips, from the most sophisticated, HPC (high performance computing), for supercomputers, to standard ones, for industrial use. Openchip will be a fablesscompany, without a factory, which will subcontract its manufacturing to third parties based on the prototypes.The European Commission has recognised the project as important and classified it as an IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest). It has contributed 111 million in non-reimbursable funds on the grounds that the initial risk of the project made it unfeasible to obtain private funds in the capital market to finance it. The Generalitat, understanding the high technical and industrial value of the project, has provided significant funds as a loan. This stage has been completed with success after 24 months, and the first chip, BER10, is already available.The management team comes in part from Intel. The CEO is a Catalan with twenty years of experience in the US. The company has gathered 350 engineers with delegations in six EU member states – Ireland, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, and Spain – in just two years. The conclusion is that the first stage of the project has been successfully completed in record time and, therefore, the foundations for future development are solid.The company is carrying out a capital increase of approximately 200 million euros, approximately 50% public and 50% private. The private partner can be an investment fund or ACS, a leading industrial company, which will also be a client, because it has an important data center project. The public partner is SETT, an investment company of the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The increase will cover the capital needs until Openchip becomes profitable, once the investments are amortized, and will cover the financial needs in the next two years that the project requires. Openchip must be capable of designing chips that compete with all market products, even those of the commercial leader Nvidia; not yet, but within four or five years.This expansion will consolidate the project if, as planned, the strategic direction that GTD and BSC have maintained until now at Openchip is maintained for the new reference partners, the new private investor and SETT as a public partner. The course should not be changed, the current one should be maintained. That is, the general and non-restrictive capacity to generate company products, technological excellence, diversification and, ultimately, the will to establish itself as the first chip design and prototyping company in Southern Europe. This strategic objective that has brought Openchip to where it is today must not be lost: in the EU among the leaders in the chip design sector.The fact that the developed technology is based on an open and public code like RISC-V has generated for Openchip the possibility of having worldwide clients without limitations of use or application. It has closed an agreement with a Japanese company with such a solid and deep-rooted technical tradition as NEC, to produce the chips it will need in the future for its processors, which will become the axis of its industrial activity.This project, now a company, is a paradigmatic example of a series of technical and industrial successes. a) Adopt the open and free RISC-V code for development. b) Select suitable and experienced personnel, consistent in their abilities and specialities. c) Select a top-level management team, with the appropriate technical, commercial, and industrial capabilities. d) Have an industrial partner with market experience, GTD, and a public one, BSC, with adequate technological experience, who can transfer knowledge without the long periods needed to do so. e) Develop a local capacity, Barcelona, Catalonia, and Spain, but with a European scope. f) Know how to take advantage of European funds for technical development and, ultimately, position oneself appropriately in the market, both in the commercial and product scope as well as in the industrial one.If all this continues to happen, Openchip will be a leader in chips in Europe, covering a European deficiency that is both technical and structural. More capital and more resources will be needed, but success attracts. It will not be difficult to achieve, once the success of the first prototypes currently under development has been demonstrated. The occasion is this, achieved through acumen, knowledge, and also luck. This is why the opportunity is singular and unique. We must know how to take advantage of it and continue this chain of successes. Now is a critical moment that must be overcome. There is no reason to doubt it, but we must point out what has been done well to continue doing it the same way. Success lies in continuing what has been done for more than two years.

"Eoooo! Eoooo!", I say out loud to see if it echoes. And it certainly does! "I used to teach computer science in this chapel", says Sergi Girona, who studied for his degree – and doctorate – in computer science at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Luckily, the professor had a microphone (but the naughtiest students would sometimes sabotage his lesson: they’d make a radio station’s voice audible instead of his).

The Government will approve this Tuesday at the executive council meeting to allocate fourteen million euros for the deployment in Barcelona of one of the first European artificial intelligence factories. It is the BSC AI Factory project, an artificial intelligence infrastructure driven by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - National Supercomputing Center (BSCCNS).

A recent report prepared by specialized technology companies has shown that nearly half of Spanish companies have already suffered losses related to the climate emergency. From supply chain disruptions due to extreme weather events to factory shutdowns due to floods or droughts, the private sector is already beginning to feel the environmental tensions that threaten to turn the planet upside down on its balance sheets. The figures are more than eloquent: in the worst cases, some companies have registered losses of up to 500,000 euros due to just one unforeseen climatic phenomenon. The company behind the study, the Catalan Mitiga Solutions, has been one of the pioneers in observing, calculating, and –as the name suggests– mitigating this devastation. "We offer climate intelligence to identify climate risks in different assets, from infrastructure to a company's business model," explains its founder and CEO, Alejandro Martí, in conversation with Empreses.

New scientific milestone for Barcelona, which continues to take steps to consolidate itself as one of the European capitals of knowledge, research and innovation. This Thursday, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) has officially presented its third quantum computer, the EuroQCS-Spain, which with a cost of 9.8 million euros makes the institution one of the few centers in the world that combine supercomputing and quantum technology. "It is the only one with three quantum computers connected to a classic supercomputer," claimed the director of the BSC, Mateo Valero, during the presentation of the new technology, which has been co-financed by the European Commission and the Spanish government.

Telefónica and Fujitsu will expand the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer to make Barcelona one of the seven artificial intelligence (AI) "factories" planned for the European Union (EU). The project, with an investment of €129 million, was awarded to both companies through a call for proposals launched in July. One of the main objectives of the project, with its €129 million budget, is to facilitate access to these new technologies for SMEs. start-ups and public administrations.

Alba Cervera's (Barcelona, ​​1991) decision to study physics has a lot to do with Star Trek and Isaac Asimov. Her father loved science fiction and instilled that passion in her. Cervera was fascinated by everything related to space and decided she wanted to be an astrophysicist. However, while studying for her physics degree at the University of Barcelona, she discovered quantum information and dedicated herself to it completely. And today she is one of the most recognized scientific voices in that field.

Two decades of science and knowledge serving the public have positioned Catalonia as one of the most innovative regions in Europe. This is the legacy of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) since its inception 20 years ago with the installation of the first MareNostrum supercomputer. During this time, the center has become a hub for talent, research projects, and economic growth in the Catalan capital, while simultaneously increasing its computing capacity with the installation of increasingly powerful supercomputers, culminating in MareNostrum 5. The arrival of a new quantum computer, one of the first of European production, and from one of the first European artificial intelligence (AI) factoriesAnd the MareNostrum 6 on the horizon marks the future of the institution, which is clear that it wants to continue advancing true to its legacy.

The Catalan multinational blood products company Grifols is embarking on a new era. The company is considering returning to dividend payments and has seen its share price rise after the shock caused by the attacks from the short-selling fund Gotham City Research. At this week's shareholders' meeting, the current chairman, Thomas Glanzmann, retired after 19 years on the board of directors. For the first time, a woman is assuming this position: Anne-Catherine Berner.

Cristian Canton (Terrassa, 1980), who was previously director of artificial intelligence (AI) at Meta's US headquarters, will take over as the new associate director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in the coming days. He will succeed Josep Martorell, who is leaving the center after nine years. Canton is leaving after more than 15 years at large corporations such as Meta and Microsoft to join the BSC management team, where he will seek to transfer his experience to the private sector. In a conversation with ARA, he discusses this professional change and reviews the institution's future challenges.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office is reviewing the Next Generation EU funds that the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has received to finance MareNostrum-Ona, the first quantum computer in Spain. The launch of this tool is part of an initiative by the Spanish government's Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service.

Technology company Intel will open a pioneering microchip design laboratory at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). It will involve an initial investment, shared with the Spanish government, of €400m over a period of ten years, according to La Vanguardia. The new RISC-V processor laboratory will be built thanks to the agreement reached with Intel within the framework of the post-covid funds for microchips, approved yesterday by the executive and which has a total budget of €12,250m.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) will build and coordinate the first quantum computing network of the State, a science that would allow to understand complex chemical reactions to give rise to new drugs, improve industrial batteries or optimise artificial intelligence algorithms for the world of finance, logistics or security. These are just some examples of the benefits that could be obtained from the production and use of quantum computing, a discipline little explored in Spain but strategic to manage phenomena that happen at a microscopic level and make multiple operations with a great impact on the resolution of real problems, especially in the industrial sectors.