On theCUBE Pod: Nvidia antitrust, AI kingmaking and the future of personal computing
The evolving tech landscape continues to deliver fresh developments, and this week's theCUBE Podcast dives into three trending topics: Nvidia antitrust, artificial intelligence and personal computing.
"Big news around AI companies, OpenAI got billions," said John Furrier (pictured, left), executive analyst of theCUBE Research. "Is Nvidia's antitrust scrutiny a pause on the AI hype cycle? Is the 'build it and they will come' funding strategy the new kingmaking in Silicon Valley?"
In the latest episode of theCUBE Pod, theCUBE Research's Furrier and Dave Vellante (right), chief analyst, discuss Nvidia antitrust violations and questions about its dominance in the GPU market, venture capitalists pouring money into AI startups, and how the rise of AI and custom silicon hints at a radical transformation of personal devices. Furrier and Vellante offer keen insights on what lies ahead for the industry.
Nvidia's rise to dominance in the GPU market is no surprise to tech insiders, but the company's success has drawn attention from regulators. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are now investigating potential Nvidia antitrust violations, raising questions about whether the company's market power stifles competition. Furrier and Vellante tackled this topic, expressing skepticism about the need for such scrutiny.
"I think Nvidia does have a monopoly on high-end GPUs ... but they stumbled into it," Vellante said. "They started developing CUDA 15 years ago and doubled down on big GPUs. Then, all of a sudden, ChatGPT comes out and looks like Nvidia was geniuses and everybody starts buying GPUs."
Nvidia's dominance is more of a result of foresight than anti-competitive behavior, according to Vellante, who noted the lack of competition in the space.
"I don't understand how Nvidia is using its 'monopoly power' to thwart competition," he said. "It doesn't have competition. The rest of the world is trying to catch up."
The broader impact this scrutiny could have on Nvidia's stock price and the general market could risk knee-jerk reactions from regulators, according to Furrier.
"There's a knee-jerk reaction in the government to tax growth," he said. "These antitrust investigations mark a significant turning point in the market, because it shows that the hype's tampering down because they're trying to rein it in."
In an era of smartphones and tablets, many have declared the personal computer obsolete. But Furrier and Vellante argue that the PC isn't dead - it's evolving. The rise of AI, custom silicon and advanced computing capabilities is setting the stage for a personal computing renaissance.
"The PC is going through a radical transformation," Vellante said. "Personal computing is going to get supercharged by AI and AR and VR that's going to be embedded."
He further added that, in his opinion, custom silicon will be having a renaissance and that the personal computing business will thrive.
Furrier pointed to a growing trend of companies, such as Apple Inc., Tesla Inc. and Google LLC, developing their own custom chips and encouraged other companies to embrace custom silicon.
"This is an extinction moment in my opinion for some companies," he said. "If they are not doing AI PCs with custom silicon, it could be worse than a Y2K disruption. You have to get the custom silicon, and you got to have it on multiple devices."
AI and custom silicon will lead to new kinds of personal computing devices, blending the power of traditional PCs with the portability of modern gadgets, Vellante pointed out.
"I think the future of [personal] devices are going to be judged by how well they run AI workloads," he explained.
TheCUBE Research analysts also touched on the role AI will play in enhancing productivity, both for individuals and enterprises.
"Number one, when people say the benefits of AI, it's personal productivity," Furrier said. "I think the PC of the future is a personal computing device, devices, plural, for the personal productivity and enterprise-scale, because that's the two areas that are hot right now."
A major topic of conversation on this week's podcast was the growing trend of "kingmaking" in the AI world, where venture capitalists pour massive investments into a select few companies in the hope of creating market leaders. This strategy, which echoes the early days of the internet, is not without its risks, Furrier and Vellante noted.
While the current AI funding frenzy is exciting, it's also fraught with uncertainty.
"I don't think this is a viable strategy. I think it's carnage actually," Furrier said.
Excessive funding doesn't guarantee success and emphasizes the need for strategic capital deployment, according to Vellante.
"Capital is just one ingredient of the determined success," he said, adding that the "kingmaking" strategy is problematic as it doesn't guarantee long-term success and may restrict a company's flexibility.
Wrapping up the episode, Furrier and Vellante highlighted some upcoming industry events, including Oracle CloudWorld, CrowdStrike Fal.Con, and Salesforce Dreamforce, which are expected to showcase cutting-edge innovations in AI, cloud computing and enterprise technology. They also introduced the CUBEd Awards, a new initiative to recognize innovation in various tech sectors.