Subida acentuada de WAR (WAR)

Investors who purchased the Vanguard Energy Index Fund ETF before the onset of the US war with Iran gained a profit, with a $1,000 investment growing to $1,031.85 (a 3.18% gain). The ETF benefited from rising oil prices after an attack on Iran disrupted energy supplies and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global crude oil and LNG trade. Supply fears drove Brent and WTI oil prices above $100 per barrel, supporting energy company stocks. The ETF climbed above $160 in early March, reaching around $170—a six-month high. It later experienced corrections as ceasefire talks and diplomacy reduced geopolitical risks. By early July, shares fell to around $150, the period's low, but recovered above $160 by August. Despite volatility, the ETF gained 7.66% over the past six months. This fund tracks a diversified portfolio of major energy companies, including oil producers, refiners, and exploration firms, with holdings in companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron. While oil prices have retreated slightly from their peaks, geopolitical uncertainty continues to exert upward pressure on energy markets, with investor focus remaining on the Strait of Hormuz.

On August 10, Luke Dashjr, a long-time Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) editor and co-founder of Ocean mining pool, was removed from the BIP editing team for bypassing discussion protocols and preemptively assigning a number to BIP-110, a controversial soft fork proposal he helped draft. The conflict stems from Bitcoin Core's version 30 release in October 2025, which removed the default 83-byte limit on OP_RETURN, a field used for embedding non-transaction data. In response, BIP-110 aimed to enforce this limit as a consensus rule. It controversially lowered the activation threshold for miners to 55% and included a mandatory activation clause, causing significant community backlash. Major mining pools like Foundry USA and AntPool did not support it, with public criticism from figures like F2Pool's Wang Chun and Michael Saylor, who argued it compromised Bitcoin's neutrality. On August 8, at block height 961,632, nodes running the BIP-110 patch rejected the main chain block, causing a chain split. The minority chain, supported by only about 2.53% of the network's hash rate, produced just one additional block before stalling. The main chain quickly outpaced it by over 240 blocks. No major exchanges have supported the minority chain. The event highlighted Bitcoin's governance reality: while rules can be proposed by a few, ultimate authority lies with the economic majority—miners willing to expend hash power and users/exchanges recognizing a chain's validity. Following the failed split, BIP-110 proponents, including Luke Dashjr, have begun discussing a change to the proof-of-work algorithm to create a separate coin, though this remains in early discussion stages.

DeepSeek and other major AI players are quietly shifting their battle for supremacy to the infrastructure front, with Wulanchabu, a small city in Inner Mongolia, emerging as a key battleground. The article details a visit to the massive data center clusters there, highlighting the industry's pivot from a light-asset model of renting computing power to a strategic race to build and control foundational AI infrastructure. Wulanchabu's advantages—low electricity costs (around ¥0.32-0.35 per kWh, 90% green energy), cool climate, and proximity to Beijing—have made it China's largest AI computing cluster. Companies like Alibaba Cloud are deploying modular, prefabricated data center "cabins" that can be assembled on-site in as little as 100 days, dramatically accelerating deployment compared to traditional multi-year construction. This "new Foxconn" model standardizes components for mass production. The drive for efficiency is paramount. Alibaba’s latest architecture flattens design, integrating power distribution, backup batteries, and liquid-cooled server racks into single modules. The ultimate bottleneck is power. As AI training and, increasingly, inference demand skyrocket, electricity cost and availability become decisive competitive factors. The industry faces the challenge of aligning fast-paced computing demand with slower power grid planning. DeepSeek's significant investment in building its own computing center in Wulanchabu underscores this trend: securing large-scale, low-cost dedicated computing power is now a prerequisite for survival in the AI race. The article concludes that this Chinese manufacturing-supported paradigm for AI infrastructure, focused on modular, rapidly deployable, and cost-optimized data centers, could reshape the global AI landscape as it scales.

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Asset Management and a long-time Bitcoin critic, argues that Bitcoin is performing as "anti-gold," falling in price while traditional safe-haven assets like gold and silver rise. He points to a yearly performance where gold is up 9% and silver 11%, while Bitcoin is down 11%, citing this divergence as proof that Bitcoin's narrative as "digital gold" is flawed. Schiff links the surge in precious metals to geopolitical risks, war, and resulting inflationary pressures from higher oil prices, which drive investors to traditional safe havens. In contrast, Bitcoin recently fell below $64,000, extending its period of underperformance against major asset classes he tracks. This is not the first time Schiff has challenged Bitcoin's correlation with gold, having previously stated the connection "was never real." He has also warned of significant potential losses for corporate Bitcoin holders like MicroStrategy. Bitcoin proponents counter that short-term price divergence during a risk-off period does not settle the long-term debate on Bitcoin's role as a store of value.

"China's Tech Independence: A Battle from Lithography Machines to ABF Film" In August 2026, Japan's Ajinomoto announced a 30% supply cut of ABF film to Chinese mainland clients, causing industry-wide shock and fears of price hikes and shortages in the semiconductor supply chain. That same year, Chinese company Lotus Holdings, known for its MSG business, acquired a small domestic ABF film startup for 103 million yuan, aiming to change this passive situation. ABF film is a core insulating material for advanced CPU, GPU, and AI chip packages. Ajinomoto, originally a food flavoring company, has monopolized over 95% of the global ABF film market for nearly 30 years, deriving its technology from byproducts of monosodium glutamate production. With AI chips consuming 5-10 times more ABF film than traditional chips, the supply-demand gap is widening. Ajinomoto's supply cut to China, where domestic ABF film production accounts for less than 5%, directly threatens the production of domestic high-end AI chips and their substrates. This incident highlights a crucial but often overlooked truth: the vulnerabilities in China's quest for technological self-reliance extend beyond headline areas like lithography machines to critical but seemingly minor components—insulating films, photoresists, electronic specialty gases, etc. The article frames China's tech independence as a multi-front war. While major breakthroughs have been achieved in chip design (e.g., Huawei's HiSilicon), foundry (e.g., SMIC), and memory chips (e.g., YMTC), countless smaller "Ajinomoto-style" chokepoints remain. Lotus Holdings' acquisition represents a significant shift: the battle is no longer fought only by tech giants but has become a collective, industry-wide effort involving companies from diverse backgrounds. Historically, external blockades have often spurred China's technological breakthroughs, as seen with Huawei's Kirin chips and YMTC's 3D NAND flash memory. Ajinomoto's supply cut, while a short-term challenge, may similarly catalyze domestic innovation in ABF film and other critical materials. The path to technological sovereignty is long and arduous, requiring sustained patience and investment to fill every gap in the complex supply chain. Lotus's move is not an immediate solution but a step towards that future, symbolizing a broader, relentless march toward independence.