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Стрімке зростання ринку штучного інтелекту дедалі частіше оголює несподівані “вузькі місця” у глобальних виробничих ланцюгах. Одним із таких обмежень виявилося спеціалізоване скловолокно для напівпровідникової промисловості, без якого неможливе масштабне виробництво сучасних ШВ-чипів. Як з’ясувалося у розслідуванні The Wall Street Journal, матеріал потрібної якості фактично постачає лише одна компанія у світі – японська Nittobo.

Історично Nittobo працювала з ткацьким обладнанням і технологіями обробки волокон, але саме ця експертиза дозволила їй раніше за конкурентів увійти в сегмент технічного скловолокна. За роки роботи компанія накопичила значну кількість ноу-хау та зайняла домінуючі позиції на ринку T-glass – спеціального типу скловолокна, яке використовується у виробництві напівпровідникових компонентів і друкованих плат.

T-glass застосовується в підкладках чипів як армувальний елемент. Він забезпечує структурну стабільність мікросхем під час роботи за високих температур, що є критично важливим для сучасних ШІ-прискорювачів та процесорів.

Різке зростання попиту змусило Nittobo переглянути цінову політику. Очікується, що вже цього року ціни на її продукцію зростуть щонайменше на 25%. При цьому Nittobo – не єдиний японський постачальник матеріалів для чипів, який іде на подорожчання. Компанія Resonac планує підвищити ціни більш ніж на 30% для частини свого асортименту.

Глобальна напівпровідникова індустрія також значною мірою залежить від менш очевидних японських виробників. Зокрема, компанія Ajinomoto, відома як виробник харчових добавок, постачає спеціальні плівки, що використовуються під час пакування чипів разом зі скловолокном T-glass.

Водночас ситуацію не можна зводити лише до спроби скористатися ШІ-бумом. Nittobo вже оголосила про плани до 2028 року утричі збільшити обсяги виробництва скловолокна, розпочавши масштабну інвестиційну програму наприкінці поточного року. Проте навіть такі темпи розширення не дозволять у короткостроковій перспективі повністю задовольнити потреби клієнтів.

У минулому фінансовому році Nittobo зафіксувала рекордний операційний прибуток у $104 млн. Аналітики зазначають, що японські компанії традиційно обережно ставляться до різкого нарощування виробничих потужностей, остерігаючись перегріву ринку. Усередині самої Nittobo ШІ-бум також не вважають достатньо довгостроковим трендом, щоб радикально змінювати масштаби бізнесу.

У результаті глобальне виробництво ШІ-чипів опинилося в залежності від вузького сегмента матеріалів, розширення якого відбувається значно повільніше, ніж зростає попит на штучний інтелект.

Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has commissioned 1.4 GW of gas-based distributed generation capacity, of which 1.1 GW has been connected to the power grid and 0.3 GW installed to cover on-site consumption. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Energy.

“In January alone, 192 MW of new capacity was brought online in Ukraine,” the ministry noted.

Nearly 60% of the existing capacity was built by private investors, while the rest was developed by state-owned and municipal enterprises using their own funds as well as international donor assistance. Within the Energy Support Fund, projects totaling 196 MW have been implemented in communities, including frontline areas.

“Currently, around 3 GW of new projects are at various stages of implementation. The key goal for this year is to fully cover the energy needs of critical infrastructure facilities in every region with distributed generation,” the Ministry of Energy emphasized.

The draft amendments to the Distributed Generation Development Strategy through 2035 set target needs of 2.2–2.7 GW of additional guaranteed generation capacity, broken down by region across Ukraine.

Cuba has gone a full month without importing oil for the first time in ten years. The country is facing shortages of everything from cooking gas to water and electricity, Bloomberg reports.

Mexico’s decision to halt all oil shipments to Cuba has dealt a new blow to the island. Mexico had become Havana’s main oil supplier after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and cut off fuel supplies from Venezuela.

Monthly crude oil deliveries from Mexico had helped Cuba produce enough gasoline to meet roughly one month of domestic demand. In January, oil imports to the island fell to zero for the first time since 2015.

Supplies had already been under threat since December 2025, when the United States launched a maritime blockade aimed at cracking down on “shadow fleets” transporting oil from Venezuela and Russia.

Last year, nearly 80% of Cuba’s imported oil needs were met by Mexico and Venezuela.

Ukraine’s trade turnover in January of the current year amounted to $9.9 billion, including $6.7 billion in imports and $3.2 billion in exports, according to the press service of the State Customs Service of Ukraine.

“During January 2026, Ukraine imported goods worth $6.7 billion and exported goods worth $3.2 billion. At the same time, taxable imports totaled $4.4 billion, accounting for 66% of total imported goods. The tax burden per 1 kg of taxable imports in January 2026 amounted to $0.50 per kg,” the statement said.

The countries from which Ukraine imported the most goods were China ($1.9 billion), Turkey ($703 million), and Poland ($623 million). The main export destinations were Poland ($358 million), Turkey ($276 million), and Italy ($232 million).

Of the total volume of goods imported in January 2026, 69% fell into the following categories:

• Machinery, equipment, and vehicles — $2.7 billion (customs clearance generated UAH 14.8 billion in budget revenues, accounting for 24% of customs payments);

• Fuel and energy products — $1.1 billion (UAH 26.6 billion paid to the budget, or 43% of customs revenues);

• Chemical industry products — $869 million (UAH 7.1 billion paid to the budget, or 11% of customs revenues).

The top three export categories from Ukraine were:

• Food products — $2.0 billion;

• Metals and metal products — $286 million;

• Machinery, equipment, and vehicles — $253 million.

In January 2026, export duties collected on goods subject to export tariffs amounted to UAH 187.1 million.

German automotive group Volkswagen became the largest seller of electric vehicles in Europe last year.

According to the report, sales results in 2025 suggest that the Wolfsburg-based automaker may push the American EV manufacturer Tesla out of its leading position.

Tagesschau journalists cite an analysis by consulting company JATO. According to the data, VW sold 274,278 electric vehicles last year — a 56% increase compared to 2024. The strong performance was driven mainly by sales of new VW models, in particular the mid-size electric sedan ID.7.

As for Tesla, its sales in Europe fell by 27% in 2025 compared to 2024. This may be linked to the company’s continued focus on selling what are seen as its “outdated” models in the European market. Another possible reason for the decline, the authors note, is reputational damage related to political issues. As Tagesschau reports, Tesla is currently regarded as the company with the worst reputation in Germany.

However, the Tesla Model Y remained the best-selling electric vehicle model in Europe in 2025. Second place was taken by the Skoda Elroq, produced by automaker Skoda, which is part of the Volkswagen Group.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb faced what has been described as the largest operational incident in crypto history on Saturday. During a promotional campaign to distribute bonus points, a technical glitch mistakenly credited 695 users with Bitcoin worth $44 billion (around 620,000 BTC). Reuters reported.

According to the platform’s official statement, instead of awarding bonus points equivalent to 2,000 won ($1.37), the system transferred 2,000 BTC to some participants.

The exchange’s technical team detected the anomaly after 35 minutes, during which access to the affected accounts was frozen. Bithumb confirmed that more than 99.7% of the mistakenly transferred assets have now been successfully recovered.

The incident triggered a short-term shock in Bithumb’s local Bitcoin order book. As some users attempted to sell the assets, BTC prices on Bithumb dropped by 17%, falling to 81.1 million won, while prices on global exchanges remained stable. The price gap has since been eliminated.

Despite the massive figures involved, Bithumb stressed that the incident did not affect other clients’ funds and did not impact the platform’s overall solvency.

South Korean regulators have already requested a report on measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Global semiconductor sales increased by 25.6% in 2025, reaching $791.7 billion, according to a press release from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

In particular, shipments in the fourth quarter totaled $236.6 billion, which is 37.1% higher than in the same period of 2024. Compared with the third quarter, sales grew by 13.6%.

In December, sales rose by 2.7% month over month to $78.88 billion.

“In 2025, the global semiconductor industry reached a record level of nearly $800 billion in sales, and in 2026 sales are projected to approach $1 trillion,” said SIA President and CEO John Neuffer.

He noted that semiconductors underpin virtually all modern technologies, and that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, 6G, autonomous driving, and others will continue to drive strong demand for chips.

In 2025, chip sales increased by 30.5% in the Americas, by 17.3% in China, by 6.3% in Europe, and by 45% in the Asia-Pacific region and other markets. Meanwhile, sales in Japan declined by 4.7%.

In December, year-on-year chip sales rose by 27.1% in the Americas, 17% in Europe, 34.1% in China, and 76.4% in Asia-Pacific markets. Japan was the only region to record a decline, down 8.4%.

The SIA represents about 99% of the U.S. semiconductor industry and roughly 66% of chip manufacturers worldwide.