Here’s how the major players position across the five archetypes as of January 2026.
Strategic Enablers
| Company | Position | Moat |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | Hardware kingmaker facing first real competition | CUDA ecosystem, annual architecture cadence |
| Apple | Privacy-first on-device AI | Device ecosystem, trust, zero API costs |
Full-Stack Integrators
| Company | Position | Moat |
|---|---|---|
| 2025’s clear winner, TPU-to-Gemini-to-distribution | Search/YouTube/Android distribution | |
| Microsoft | Enterprise integration via OpenAI + Anthropic + Copilot | Office 365/Windows/GitHub presence |
Specialized Dominators
| Company | Position | Moat |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Model leader under pressure, “code red” moment | Brand, ChatGPT user base |
| Anthropic | Safety specialist rising, enterprise focus | Constitutional AI, Fortune 500 trust |
| Meta | Open source catalyst | Ecosystem influence, research talent |
Domain Specialists
| Company | Position | Moat |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Agentforce pioneer, “fastest growing product ever” | 20 years of customer data, enterprise trust |
| ServiceNow | AI Agent Control Tower, Global 2000 stronghold | Billions of workflow data points |
| SAP | ERP-embedded AI via Joule | End-to-end business process data |
| Workday | HR/Finance AI specialist | 800B+ annual transactions |
Focused Experts
| Company | Position | Moat |
|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Fastest-growing SaaS ever, AI coding leader | AI-native architecture, product velocity |
| Glean | Enterprise search leader | Horizontal need, search-to-agent pipeline |
| Replit | Accessible dev platform, Google partnership | “Anyone can be entrepreneurial” |
This is part of a comprehensive analysis. Read the full analysis on The Business Engineer.
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