Jensen Huang explained why NVIDIA broke its own rule of changing only 1-2 chips per generation. For Vera Rubin, they redesigned all six chips simultaneously.
The reason: Moore’s Law now delivers only 1.6x more transistors per node—down from the 2x improvements of previous decades.
To achieve 5-10x performance gains, NVIDIA must pursue “extreme co-design” across the entire stack. Optimizing any single component in isolation no longer delivers breakthrough performance.
Full-Stack Integration
CPU, GPU, memory, networking, and software must work as an integrated system. The six chips in the Vera Rubin platform were redesigned together:
Compute chips optimized for new memory hierarchy
Memory chips designed for specific access patterns
Networking chips matched to data flow requirements
Software stack co-designed with hardware capabilities
Jensen’s framing: “The faster you train AI models, the faster you get the next frontier to the world. This is your time to market. This is technology leadership. This is your pricing power.”
The End of Wait-for-Next-Node
The era of “just wait for the next process node” is over. Performance gains come from:
Architectural innovation — New chip designs, not just smaller transistors
System integration — Components designed together, not assembled separately
This favors NVIDIA, Apple-style integration, and sovereign chip programs over commodity assemblers.
Strategic Implications
Vertical integration has become essential. Companies that control the full stack—from chips to software—deliver performance improvements that horizontal players cannot.
Performance gains now come from architectural innovation and system integration, not transistor density alone. With Vera Rubin now in production, this architecture defines the 2026 infrastructure landscape—and vertical integration is the only path forward.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
