CUDA Proves Nvidia Is a Software Company
Key takeaways
- Apart from a brief bout of panic when DeepSeek first appeared, open-source AI models have not vastly outperformed proprietary models.
- Because if/when the machines take over, we should at least speak their language.The company that does have a moat is Nvidia.
- CUDA technically stands for Compute Unified Device Architecture, but much like laser or scuba, no one bothers to expand the acronym; we just say “KOO-duh.” So what is this all-important treasure good for?
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Illustration: Aaron Fernandez Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Forgive me for starting with a cliché, a piece of finance jargon that has recently slipped into the tech lexicon, but I’m afraid I must talk about “moats.” Popularized decades ago by Warren Buffett to refer to a company’s competitive advantage, the word found its way into Silicon Valley pitch decks when a memo purportedly leaked from Google, titled “We Have No Moat, and Neither Does Open AI,” fretted that open-source AI would pillage Big Tech’s castle.
A few years on, the castle walls remain safe. Apart from a brief bout of panic when DeepSeek first appeared, open-source AI models have not vastly outperformed proprietary models. Still, none of the frontier labs—OpenAI, Anthropic, Google—has a moat to speak of.
A regular column about programming. Because if/when the machines take over, we should at least speak their language.The company that does have a moat is Nvidia. CEO Jensen Huang has called it his most precious “treasure.” It is not, as you might assume for a chip company, a piece of hardware. It’s something called CUDA. What sounds like a chemical compound banned by the FDA may be the one true moat in AI.