📈 Data to start your week

China controls atoms ↑ Europe re-arms ↑ Attention economy ceiling ↑

Hi all,

Here’s your Monday round-up of data driving conversations this week in less than 250 words.

Let’s go!

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Bayan Obo Rare Earth Mine in Inner Mongolia (Map data ©2025 Google)

1. Xi’s choice ↑ China controls more than 90% of the world’s processed rare earths and magnets, and from 1 December any product with over 0.1% rare earths will need an export license.

2. AI coding wars ↑ Developers have approved 74% of code written by OpenAI’s Codex, while Claude Code is just slightly behind.

3. $7bn to learn ↑ A bulk of the $7 billion that OpenAI spent on compute last year went to experiments and research, and only a small portion on final model training.

4. Chinese AI DAU ↑ Two-thirds of people who use AI tools in China use them daily, with 46% of those surveyed saying they’re “both excited and concerned” about AI.

5. Renewables pricing power ↑ Spain’s expansion into wind and solar has driven electricity wholesale rates down by 32% compared to the EU.

6. Money for defense ↑ 2025 has already seen $9.1 billion invested in defense tech – 1.4x of all 2024 – with Europe tracking a record $2.3 billion, driven by mega rounds.

6. A European front ↑ For the first time since WW2, Europe will spend more on defense procurement than the US this year.

7. Time on apps ↓ Time spent on social media peaked in 2022 and young people cut back first.

8. Planetary health ↓ The addition of ocean acidification to the planetary boundaries health check now puts us at 7 out of 9 planetary boundaries that are crossed.

Thanks for reading.