Comment by ForHackernews
3 months ago
Given how poorly Intel and AMD have fared, it suggests the hardware moat is much deeper than the software one.
3 months ago
Given how poorly Intel and AMD have fared, it suggests the hardware moat is much deeper than the software one.
Nvidia's moat is their pace of performance growth, which is hardware + software + cultural.
If they skip a beat, or it becomes impossible to increase performance (TSMC node stumble or P4-style dead-end), then it won't take long for someone to catch up.
If they keep executing on better hardware performance + software to support it? They keep the money spigot on.
People are saying that nvidia doesn't have any moat for 20 years. And nvidia hasn't been dethroned, but grown into the largest company in the world in the meantime.
Both realities are true.
They don't have a moat... because their moat is their performance growth rate.
If they stopped today, competition would flood in. But by the time competition catches up to Nvidia today, Nvidia has moved several steps ahead.
Nvidia doesn’t make hardware. It designs hardware. TSMC makes hardware.
You can make the same comment for pretty much any company that outsources (some of) its production, and it’d be irrelevant, pedantic and off-topic every time.
You’re also wrong. TSMC produces but a small part of the products that Nvidia sells: the silicon. They don’t produce any of the tens of thousands other components that go in a server.
Its not being pedantic at all. Intel designs chips and manufactures chips. Intel’s major issue is not its design chops - some of its most advanced designs today are manufactured by TSMC.
And calling the actual processor a “small part” of where Nvidia’s value is doesn’t jibe with reality.