Install Base Moat¶
jensen-huang's claim that install base, not architectural elegance, defines a computing platform. Developers build where developers can reach users; users stay where their software works; the flywheel compounds.
The x86 proof¶
Many RISC architectures were more beautifully designed than x86. x86 still won and defined decades of computing. Elegance lost to reach.
Applied to CUDA¶
CUDA's moat is not the GPU ISA — it's the millions of developers, the accumulated software, libraries, frameworks, optimizations, and institutional knowledge that compile to it. A hypothetical "better" accelerator architecture has to overcome that gravity well, not just the silicon.
Investment lens¶
When evaluating accelerator / compute platform bets, ask: what is the developer install base, and is it growing? A superior benchmark without developer gravity is a science project, not a platform.