It’s hardware — not software — that is again emerging as the dominant species in the AI age
Software Is Eating the World'. He convincingly argued that software-led companies like Apple, Amazon and Netflix were 'eating' brick-and-mortar companies, such as Blockbuster, Borders and Walmart, to become global category leaders. Andreessen's predictions did bear out, with software behemoths like Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta becoming the world's largest companies.
As the age of IT and software gives way to AI, there are declarations of how AI is eating software. It seems that new emerging titans like OpenAI and their LLMs — which are built on colossal amounts of data and powered by new kinds of software algorithms called transformers — are taking over. However, it's actually hardware that is again emerging as the dominant species in the AI age.
Nvidia, US-based MNC and maker of GPUs (graphics processing units), the hardware that powers most generative AI software, was at a $300 bn valuation in the pre-ChatGPT era in Nov 2022. It is $2.3 tn today, a nearly eight-fold jump.
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co) builds most of the GPUs that Nvidia designs. This $1.5 tn company is the most advanced and valuable factory — and a source of serious geopolitical tension between China and the West.
ASML, a Dutch company, produces the most complex machine ever created — Twinscan Exe:5000, weighing as much as a couple of Airbus A320s, prints nanometre-long silicon wafers, which make AI models possible. At $370 bn, ASML is Europe's most valuable company. Its market value is almost twice that of SAP, Europe's most
