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All articles published in English, by date, category and author.

1318 articles · Page 9 of 55

KBank Bets on SME Lending as the Rest of Thailand's Banking System Keeps Contracting
May 26, 2026SMEs

KBank Bets on SME Lending as the Rest of Thailand's Banking System Keeps Contracting

In the first quarter of 2026, Kasikornbank expanded its small and medium-sized enterprise loan portfolio by 0.5% compared to the end of the previous year. That number may not impress by its magnitude. What impresses is the context in which it occurs: the bank's total loans contracted 1.1% in the same period, and SME credit across the Thai banking system as a whole fell 4%, marking fifteen consecutive quarters of decline.

Javier OcañaJavier Ocaña9 min
Why PepsiCo Bets on Human Instinct While Automating Its Factories
May 26, 2026Business Transformation

Why PepsiCo Bets on Human Instinct While Automating Its Factories

The paradox is on the table from the very first moment. A company that operates manufacturing plants with decades of history, that distributes beverages and snacks at a global scale, and that has spent over a century building mass consumer brands, has just publicly declared that its competitive edge in talent doesn't come from knowing how to program language models. It comes from hustle.

Sofía ValenzuelaSofía Valenzuela9 min
CDP Raises Its Stake in Nexi and Redefines Who Controls Italian Digital Payments
May 25, 2026Finance

CDP Raises Its Stake in Nexi and Redefines Who Controls Italian Digital Payments

The Italian state did not privatize Nexi only to forget about it. What CDP Equity S.p.A., the investment arm of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, has just done is a clear signal that Rome has a very defined stance on who controls the country's payments infrastructure — and it is prepared to defend that stance with capital. The board of CDP Equity approved in late May 2026 the possibility of increasing its stake in Nexi S.p.A. to a maximum of 29.9 percent.

Francisco TorresFrancisco Torres8 min
Codex Is OpenAI's Bet to Prove It Can Make Money
May 25, 2026Innovation & Disruption

Codex Is OpenAI's Bet to Prove It Can Make Money

There is a pattern that repeats itself in the history of tech companies looking to open up to capital markets: the moment when the narrative of massive users is no longer enough and they need to show something more concrete. OpenAI is there. And the tool it chose to make that argument is not ChatGPT, but Codex, its software development assistance product, which in the last two months has received updates at a frequency no competitor has matched.

Elena CostaElena Costa8 min
China's Robot Butler Now Has an Address and a Price Tag
May 25, 2026Exponential Technologies

China's Robot Butler Now Has an Address and a Price Tag

China isn't testing whether a robot can mop a factory floor. It's testing whether it can mop your living room floor, make your bed, and fry an egg while you shower. That's exactly what GigaAI, a startup founded in 2025 with backing from Huawei's investment arm, announced in May 2026: the SeeLight S1, a dual-arm wheeled humanoid robot designed specifically for the home environment.

Clara MontesClara Montes9 min
When Noise Is Worth Less Than Evidence: The New Game of Indian Founders
May 24, 2026Business Models

When Noise Is Worth Less Than Evidence: The New Game of Indian Founders

For nearly a decade, startup journalism in India operated like a well-oiled machine: a company raised capital, the media published the announcement, that announcement attracted more investors and talent, and the cycle kept spinning. The fuel was abundant and cheap. Between 2015 and 2021, global interest rates were at rock bottom, venture capital flowed into India at record speeds, and the newsrooms covering the ecosystem grew right along with it.

Camila RojasCamila Rojas8 min
Extracting Lithium Without Destroying the Desert Now Has a Technical Architecture
May 24, 2026Sustainability

Extracting Lithium Without Destroying the Desert Now Has a Technical Architecture

The promise of electric mobility rests on a mineral that, to extract it, demands flooding the desert with water that desert does not have. The lithium driving the energy transition narrative reaches the market mainly from enormous solar evaporation ponds occupying kilometers of arid terrain in Chile's Atacama or in Nevada. That system has a structural limit the industry already acknowledges: future lithium demand cannot be met with evaporation ponds.

Lucía NavarroLucía Navarro8 min
When European Factories Become China's Cheapest Asset
May 24, 2026Strategy

When European Factories Become China's Cheapest Asset

There is a pattern that repeats itself when an industry enters forced transition: the assets that once defined the strength of a sector end up being acquired by those who arrived later, with less history and structurally different costs. The European automotive industry is living through that sequence now, not as a metaphor, but as a concrete movement of capital and productive capacity. What The Telegraph headline captures — China taking control of Europe's decaying factories — does not describe just a one-off transaction.

Martín SolerMartín Soler7 min
The Outgoing CEO Destroys More Value Than the Heir in Family Businesses
May 23, 2026SMEs

The Outgoing CEO Destroys More Value Than the Heir in Family Businesses

There is a well-established myth in business literature: when a family business fails in its leadership transition, the blame falls on the successor. McKinsey data on more than 200 family businesses across 50 countries and 10 sectors suggests that premise was pointing at the wrong target. The companies studied recorded, on average, a 5.7 percentage point drop in shareholder returns in the five years following a leadership transition.

Isabel RíosIsabel Ríos8 min
When Data Stops Speaking for Itself in Private Markets
May 23, 2026Business Transformation

When Data Stops Speaking for Itself in Private Markets

Private markets have spent a decade promising sophistication without always delivering it on the operational side. Funds are growing in size, structural complexity, and number of investors. Evergreen and semi-liquid vehicles are proliferating.

Valeria CruzValeria Cruz9 min
Lenovo's Nearly Doubled AI Revenue Reveals a Silent Redesign With Record-Breaking Figures
May 22, 2026Innovation & Disruption

Lenovo's Nearly Doubled AI Revenue Reveals a Silent Redesign With Record-Breaking Figures

March quarter revenues reached $21.6 billion, a 27% year-on-year growth — the highest rate in five years — and net income jumped dramatically to $521 million. The company's Hong Kong shares surged nearly 20% in a single session, becoming the biggest percentage gainer on the Hang Seng index that day. But the number that best explains the market's reaction is not in the margins or PC volumes: it's the fact that AI-related revenues grew 84% in the quarter and accounted for 38% of the group's total revenues.

Ignacio SilvaIgnacio Silva9 min
The United States Bets $2 Billion on Quantum Computing and Reveals What Kind of Industrial Policy It Is Building
May 22, 2026Exponential Technologies

The United States Bets $2 Billion on Quantum Computing and Reveals What Kind of Industrial Policy It Is Building

On May 21, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce formalized what had been hinted at for months in Washington's corridors: the federal government doesn't just want to fund quantum computing — it wants to be a shareholder in it. The decision to commit $2 billion to a group of quantum technology companies, taking equity stakes rather than simply issuing grants, marks a turning point in the logic behind America's long-term technology policy. This is not a check. It is a declaration of industrial architecture.

Gabriel PazGabriel Paz8 min
AI Agents Without Governance Are Operating Right Now Inside Your Company
May 22, 2026Artificial Intelligence

AI Agents Without Governance Are Operating Right Now Inside Your Company

The conversation about artificial intelligence in large enterprises follows a comfortable script: evaluating platforms, approving budgets, designing pilots. Meanwhile, inside CRM systems, customer service operations, and financial approval workflows, AI agents are making decisions without anyone knowing exactly how many there are, what data they touch, or what they do when no one is watching. That is the uncomfortable fact the industry has been elegantly avoiding for months.

Andrés MolinaAndrés Molina9 min
Why Indian Discretionary Consumption Is Punishing Fast Food Chains and Rewarding Jewellery Retailers
May 21, 2026Business Models

Why Indian Discretionary Consumption Is Punishing Fast Food Chains and Rewarding Jewellery Retailers

India's most comfortable macroeconomic phase in years has just come to an end. Ambit Institutional Equities states it plainly in its latest sector report: FY27 arrives with two simultaneous pressures on discretionary consumption — slower demand and margin compression from crude-linked input inflation. What follows is not merely a portfolio rotation, but a diagnosis of which business models have the structural architecture to withstand that double blow.

Javier OcañaJavier Ocaña9 min
Nestlé recycles in Kedah, but what it's building is something else entirely
May 21, 2026Sustainability

Nestlé recycles in Kedah, but what it's building is something else entirely

There's a number Nestlé Malaysia doesn't publicize in its official press release, but it says everything about its real strategy: 15,000 tonnes of solid waste diverted from landfills in a single year. That's not a public relations program. That's collection infrastructure operating at scale, covering 260,000 households across nine cities with a target of 300,000 before the end of 2026.

Elena CostaElena Costa7 min
Why the AI Rally in Asia Hides a Concentration Trap That Few Are Naming
May 20, 2026Strategy

Why the AI Rally in Asia Hides a Concentration Trap That Few Are Naming

Since late 2022, Asian markets have undergone a silent but profound reconfiguration. The emergence of generative artificial intelligence not only transformed the narrative of global markets, but reordered the specific weight of regional indices around a handful of names. Three companies — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix — came to explain more than half of the returns of the FTSE Asia ex-Japan index.

Sofía ValenzuelaSofía Valenzuela9 min
Radar Reaches One Billion and Shows How Inventory Became Retail's Most Expensive Infrastructure
May 20, 2026Startups

Radar Reaches One Billion and Shows How Inventory Became Retail's Most Expensive Infrastructure

There is a cost that large retailers have absorbed for decades without measuring it precisely: not knowing exactly what they have, where it is, and whether what the system says exists actually exists. That cost does not appear as a separate line on the income statement. It dissolves into compressed margins, cancelled orders, misallocated working hours, and customers who leave without buying.

Lucía NavarroLucía Navarro9 min