Nvidia is bankrolling AI startups to loosen Big Tech's grip on its chip business - the-decoder.com

NVIDIA is increasingly acting as a central bank for AI startups, investing in young cloud providers to reduce its reliance on major tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. By offering financia... Read original →

NVIDIA is reshaping the AI infrastructure landscape by transforming GPUs from commodities into controlled service nodes through financial guarantees to cloud startups. This vertical integration accelerates co-design between chips and cloud orchestration software, raising barriers for ASIC competitors. However, deep entanglement with startups reliant on Taiwan, China’s foundry capacity heightens supply chain vulnerability under tightening U.S. export controls. In response, Google and Microsoft will likely fast-track proprietary TPUs/ NPUs and promote NVIDIA-agnostic frameworks, while Amazon doubles down on Graviton-Trainium synergy. Over the next 18 months, a wave of 'proxy clouds'—ostensibly independent but functionally NVIDIA-dependent—will emerge. While this strategy bolsters margins, it risks antitrust scrutiny, especially as the EU intensifies oversight of AI infrastructure concentration.