Semana geoeconómica
Desde el hombre más rico de África que lanza en Nigeria la mayor OPV del continente hasta el 'technobro' que se convirtió en ministro, y de ahí, a preso
Pablo Pardo Actualizado Domingo, 5 julio 2026 - 00:09
If we can use the plane to go on vacation this summer (even at somewhat overwhelming prices and with fewer routes than we would like), it is above all thanks to Nigeria, since the Dangote refinery, on the outskirts of the economic capital of that country, Lagos, supplied aviation fuel to Europe during the worst moments of the Hormuz closure (and did so, in part, by leaving Nigerian airlines without fuel). This circumstance will make Dangote very popular with investors when it carries out its stock market debut (scheduled for September), which will be the largest IPO of an African company. The refinery is valued at 34 billion euros, and belongs to Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, with an estimated fortune of 30 billion. The IPO reveals that international capital is increasingly interested in Africa, and that continent is opening its markets to portfolio investment.
Leadership is better when you have a cash register at hand
The phrase "I am in politics to get rich" has been erroneously attributed for three decades to the former Minister of Labor and government spokesperson under José María Aznar, Eduardo Zaplana. In reality, it is the work of the ethical genius of the former general secretary of the PP of the Valencian Community, Vicente Sanz, although it reflects a universal attitude. That became clear on Wednesday with the publication by the White House that Trump earned $1.16 billion (1 billion euros) in private activities in his first year as president, including the purchase of Intel shares a week before it decided the partial nationalization of the company. The King of England Charles III has also published for the first time his voluntary payment to the tax authorities, which last year amounted to 15 million euros. Although the information from the British Royal House raised questions due to its scant details, there is the consolation that, at least, Charles III does not follow the model of Trump and Saez.
From Merkel's Swabia to Merz's Sweden, Germany wants to invest
In 2008, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel used the example of the 'Swabian housewife' to lecture southern Europe on the Germanic virtue of thrift (she said nothing about the virtue of reaching agreements with Vladimir Putin to sell him gas at 40% below market price). Swabia - where the housewife came from - is a German region famous for being thrifty, hardworking, prudent, and serious. Like Merkel. But now, her fellow party member Friedrich Merz wants Germans to invest more and save less. The chancellor proposes raising pension contributions by 2% of gross salary, and allocating that entire amount, as in the Swedish model (not Swabian), to financial investment. Merz believes this would contribute 30 billion euros annually to the German and EU capital market, mitigating Europe's dramatic capital shortage, which is a brutal brake on the development of new companies, especially technology ones.
Disarmament agreements... for Artificial Intelligence?
In a study by the British university King's College, three large Artificial Intelligence (AI) models - GPT 5.2, Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 3 Flash - resorted to the use of nuclear weapons in 20 out of 21 cases. The US and China, which are the only countries that matter in AI, do not let that technology decide their wars. But they do use it to select targets, and create and analyze tactics and strategies. Additionally, they employ models that can penetrate and modify any security network, and that no one - not even their own creators - knows how to control properly. This has led some voices in Silicon Valley and in Zhongguancun (its Chinese equivalent) to call for Washington and Beijing to reach agreements to prevent AI from blowing up the planet, just as during the Cold War they reached a series of treaties limiting their nuclear forces. For the moment, however, politicians are Olympically ignoring these ideas from the industry.
Brazil focuses on protecting the Amazon as an industrial policy
The first person to defend the protection of the Amazon was the Brazilian André Rebouças in 1876. The idea was outrageous for the time. Even more so in a slave-owning country where Rebouças was also an abolitionist. Almost a century and a half later, protecting the Amazon remains difficult because the economic costs are enormous. But that could be changing. The Brazilian government, with help from the OECD, launched in May the National Biodesarrollo Plan to try to capitalize on those assets so that the largest tropical forest becomes a generator of economic development and technology. The reason is simple: between 15% and 20% of the world's plant and animal species are in Brazil, which means incalculable potential in genetics, pharmacy, medicine, engineering and chemistry. If, as mathematician Clive Humby said in 2006, 'data is the new oil,' then tropical forests and oceans are the world's largest database.
From 'technobro' to minister, and from there, to prisoner
In 15 years, the Indonesian Nadiem Makarim has been successively an entrepreneur, leader of a giant tech company, and minister. On Tuesday he added a new title to his resume: prisoner, due to a corruption scandal when he was Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Science. And on top of that, Chinese TikTok now controls the company that propelled him to all that, Gojek, which was once the Indonesian example of a 'super app', that is, a website that can be used to order a taxi, send money, or place an order. With a 10-year prison sentence, Makarim has received one of the harshest sentences imposed on a tech entrepreneur, only behind those of Americans Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) and Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos). In China, 'technobros' do not go to prison; instead, their companies have their wings clipped for 'regulatory' reasons, or disappear for a few months, as happened to Jack Ma of Alibaba in 2019.
