Esteve CDMO, the Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) business of the Catalan pharmaceutical company, will invest 80 million dollars, equivalent to a little over 71 million euros, in a new production plant in China. This was announced in a statement this Wednesday, in which they detail that the move will serve to undertake the "relocation, expansion, and modernization" of its operations in the Asian giant.

Prefabricats Pujol has launched a new factory in Les Borges Blanques which, with an investment of 12 million euros, will allow for a 30% increase in production capacity, the company reported this Monday. The new plant incorporates next-generation technology that will allow manufacturing with lower cement and water consumption.

The Catalan economy will grow by 2.6% this year, three tenths more than what was forecast in the spring, but with risks due to the threat of rising inflation and the slowdown in investment. These are the forecasts from the Generalitat's Ministry of Economy, published this Monday for 2026 and 2027. In general, "a notable dynamism will be maintained despite the energy crisis," the document highlights. Looking ahead to 2027, the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) will be more moderate and will stand at 2.1%. And the unemployment rate will remain at the lowest levels since 2008.

Not everyone can save. In fact, 70 out of every 100 Catalans do so, while 30% claim they cannot put money aside with what they earn per month. And among those who do save, the most common amount is about 150 euros per month, while the average is 292 euros. In any case, of all those who can save a monthly sum, only 13% account for about half of all savings, with an average of over 300 euros. At the Spanish level, those who hold half of the saved money, which is 21%, set aside an average of 400 euros.

The Valencian supermarket cooperative Consum will invest 100 million euros in the construction of a new logistics platform in the city of Barcelona, as reported in a statement issued this Wednesday.

The European Commission, concerned about the European Union's loss of competitiveness compared to China and the United States, has long been repeating a mantra to reverse the situation: EU citizens need to invest more and have the means to do so.

The money to expand El Prat airport was left out of the Second Airport Regulation Document (DORA II) for the 2021-2026 period because the project derailed due to a lack of consensus between the Generalitat and the State. Five years later, the scenario is different: with the project back on the table, DORA III (2027-2031) includes a budget line to make this expansion possible, although it is not the most significant one. In fact, the money that will be allocated during this period (191.9 million euros) will be used for "preparatory actions". That is to say, for the initial procedures, but not for the expansion works, as explained by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, in a press conference this Tuesday. These actions include drafting the project and environmental compensations in case the expansion goes ahead.

Barcelona continues to consolidate its position as one of the European and global benchmarks in new technologies. According to a report prepared by IBM Consulting and collected by the Department of Business and Labor of the Generalitat, the country's capital remained in 2025 as the third city in the world in attracting foreign investment projects dedicated to artificial intelligence. According to the study, only London and Singapore, two of the most advanced technological ecosystems on a global scale, surpass Barcelona.

The stock market entries of the two competitors leading the race of commercial artificial intelligence – Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (ChatGPT)– are touching. While the market entry of Dario Amodei's leading company is assumed to occur this fall, Sam Altman's tech company "will be a listed company in 2027, or even sooner", according to the company's chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, as reported last Wednesday in a meeting with employees.

"The real estate market is a ticking time bomb, and I want to bet against it." American director Adam McKay dramatized in the film The Big Short the bursting of the 2007 housing bubble around a key figure: Michael Burry, the investor who bet everything against the U.S. credit market and escaped the crisis with unprecedented gains. More than two decades after those warnings, Burry has chosen a new target: artificial intelligence.

Nvidia, the maker of graphics memory chips that has dominated artificial intelligence in recent years, continues to push the market to grow at a forced pace. As announced in a statement, the most valuable company on the planet has reached an agreement with six of Wall Street's largest financial entities to mobilize $500 billion in investment dedicated to AI infrastructure. In a social media post, its CEO, Jensen Huang, assured that the alliance's objective is to "establish independent financing platforms" to activate the necessary capital to build and launch large-scale AI factories.

The Minister of Business and Labor of the Generalitat, Miquel Sàmper, boasted last week about an achievement that seems unimaginable not only from Catalonia, but from anywhere in Europe: "We are at a similar level to the United States or China" in the development of deep technology, he assured. This is the quantum industry, one that seems to be part of futuristic fiction, but which is already doing business in the Principality.

Catalonia aims to make the definitive leap into the market in the quantum industry. After years focused on "generating knowledge," in the words of the Secretary of Digital Policies of the Generalitat, Maria Galindo, the country is experiencing a moment of "quantum effervescence" that allows it to aspire to compete with international powers. According to a sectoral report prepared by Acció, the agency for business growth of the Department of Business and Labour, this industry invoiced 91.4 million euros in 2024 – the last year with definitive data; a limited figure, but one that the sector celebrates within the framework of still incipient deep technology.

The European regulation of cryptocurrencies, known as the MiCA regulation, has reshaped the digital asset landscape on the continent. Far from the wild west that had dominated the early years of the industry, Brussels has managed to put fences around the field. To the point that the major player in the market, the giant Binance, has not been able to acquire the community permit to operate in the EU, and retired on July 1st. The new framework imposed by the European Commission aims to offer security to investors, and part of the sector crypto has taken the regulation as a business loophole. Catalonia is proof of this: the first cryptocurrency platform created in the country, Venga, received the MiCA license last week to operate in the region with a model far removed from the market's image. "We are an app for people who are new to the space. We built it from scratch so you can enter it easily," explains the company's executive director, Michael Stroev, in conversation with the "Companies.

The real estate franchise Tecnocasa has turned to the thousand offices it has throughout Spain to analyze the housing market situation and conclude that "clearly, there is a change in cycle", in the words of the company's CEO, Paolo Boarini. "It is very difficult for prices to continue rising," he warned at the presentation of the report prepared by the Tecnocasa-Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) Chair this Wednesday.

The trend of retail investors resorting to the claims service of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV, the Spanish stock market regulator) is growing. Last year, this body received a total of 1,398 submissions, a figure that consolidates the rise experienced over the last decade, with the exception of 2024, and more than 97% were from individuals, i.e., retail investors. The CNMV's claims service finalized a total of 1,273 cases, compared to 1,220 in 2024.

The European Commission is looking for ways to spur European capital to foster its start-up ecosystem. The European Commissioner for Startups, Innovation and Research, Ekaterina Zaharieva, acknowledges a series of obstacles that still hinder the development of innovative sectors in the Twenty-seven. Among the most serious, she has pointed out the regulatory and financial fragmentation of the Union. She has also regretted the lack of venture capital to finance the large rounds and market exits with which many startups culminate their growth. Even more so with the advancement of the startup profile: in the last decade, the startup landscape was eminently digital and service-oriented. Now, with a focus on deep technology, much more capital-intensive, the problem becomes even more serious, according to sources in the technology sector consulted. A technology that, in its development phase, is more than present in the EU: "We have everything we need to lead," Zaharieva states.

Catalonia has a housing supply problem. This was highlighted by economist Carme Poveda, director of the Economic Memory of Catalonia 2025, a study that Catalan chambers of commerce have been producing for 61 years. This year the report includes a monograph on housing with articles by new experts. According to Poveda, "there is consensus" that there is a supply problem. In this regard, he highlighted that since 2021, 200,000 new homes have been created in Catalonia, while only 62,000 new dwellings have been completed.

When he was young, Pedro Escudero (Astorga, 1975) was on track to become a professional tennis player. He is from the same generation as Carles Moyà and Albert Costa. But a serious injury forced him to give up racquet sports. He went to the United States to recover and there he earned a scholarship to study in the country and stay. Since then, he has accumulated three decades as an investor on Wall Street, in recent years with his own fund with a return above that of the S&P 500. He is now launching a fund in Spain "to democratize elite investment" with which he plans to raise up to 2 billion euros, starting with stakes of 500 euros. The subscription period has begun once approved by the Luxembourg regulator with authorization to be marketed in Spain.

Barcelona scores a new victory in the European technology ecosystem. The British company Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), one of the regional benchmarks in quantum computing, will establish its new manufacturing and innovation center for this technology in the city. The project will represent a total investment of 92 million euros, and will be the most important quantum facility in Southern Europe. This is OQC's first location in continental Europe and, once operational, it will create approximately 210 highly qualified jobs.