E077: NVIDIA, Intel, and the Illusion of Moats: Rethinking Strategy in the Age of AI Velocity

In this episode, I revisit a core idea that many leaders take for granted: that dominance lasts.

After publishing a piece comparing NVIDIA to Intel, I went back to stress-test my own thinking not to prove it right, but to see where it breaks. What I found wasn’t a reversal, but a deeper layer of strategy that most of us overlook. Because the real risk isn’t always where we think it is.

We often talk about moats, lock-in, and competitive advantage as if they’re fixed. But history tells a different story. Companies fade. Architectures persist. And sometimes, the real moat isn’t position, it’s velocity.

This episode explores three shifts that can change how you think about strategy in the AI era:

00:29 - Why platform lock-in feels permanent until it isn’t

01:54 - What Jensen Huang sees in history that most miss

02:24 - The critical distinction between company and architecture

04:45 - How Intel really lost and what leaders misread

05:42 - NVIDIA’s “speed of light” principle and why velocity may be the true moat

06:42 - Rethinking competitive advantage beyond position

07:10 - Why this may not be a market share game at all

08:07 - What happens when the “center” of a market doesn’t exist yet