a16z Podcast·Season 1, Episode 1146

From the Archive: Can Anyone Catch NVIDIA? | The Future of Chips and Infrastructure

From the Archive: Can Anyone Catch NVIDIA? | The Future of Chips and Infrastructure

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About this episode

As part of our summer replay series, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations on the future of AI infrastructure. SemiAnalysis founder Dylan Patel joins Erin Price-Wright, Guido Appenzeller, and Erik Torenberg to examine the rapidly evolving economics of AI hardware, from GPUs and custom silicon to data centers, power, and the global race for compute. The conversation explores NVIDIA's competitive advantages, the rise of custom chips from Google, Amazon, and Meta, the economics of frontier AI models, and the infrastructure constraints shaping the industry's next phase. They also discuss AI startups, export controls, robotics, enterprise software, and why simply copying NVIDIA isn't enough to build a winning AI hardware company. Whether you're building AI products, investing in infrastructure, or trying to understand where the industry is headed, this conversation offers a practical look at the forces shaping the future of compute. Resources: Follow Dylan Patel on X: https://x

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