Build a foundation model? โ Train on NVIDIA GPUs
Deploy an application? โ Run inference on NVIDIA
Construct a data center? โ Fill with NVIDIA hardware
Build a robot? โ Use NVIDIA edge chips (Jetson/Drive)
Need interconnects? โ NVIDIA-backed Ayar Labs
Need power? โ NVIDIA-backed Commonwealth Fusion
The Conclusion
There is no NVIDIA-free path through the AI stack at scale.
Jensen Huang isn’t building a chip company. He’s architecting an empire where NVIDIA is essential infrastructure โ as explored in the economics of AI compute infrastructure โ for the AI ageโas fundamental as electricity was for the industrial age.
The question isn’t whether NVIDIA’s investments will generate returns. The question is whether any competitor can build a comparable strategic architecture. So far, no one has.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
