Oct 21, 2026 · 33 min · 8 segments
Learn more about AI Field Day 9 here. Is NVIDIA destined to become the enterprise AI equivalent of IBM, or is the illusion of an unbreakable hardware…
Stephen FoskettHost
Scott RobohnPanelist
Mitch AshleyPanelist
Frederic Van HarenPanelist
Ron Pagani JrPanelistJohn WillisPanelist
Keith TownsendPanelist
Essentially, we have massive companies that are... have, have really, you know, not just put a stake in the ground, but, uh, built a cathedral on being the AI giant.
And, uh, the continent on which all of those companies rest is called NVIDIA.
Essentially, we are living in a, a, a new big iron world where everybody is reliant on NVIDIA, then there's a few mega providers, uh, that are doing the hard work, that are building things, and then there's everything else.
So Scott, uh, I'm gonna throw it to you first since this was your suggestion.
You know, being co-located with the OCP Summit here in San Jose this week, it's a real interesting comparison of, you know, uh, what... [clears throat] Early in my career, seeing IBM being so dominant, not the only technology provider, but, uh, the, the sun around which everybody else revolved for a time, and then other innovation coming along and, you know, taking it over, right? And helping, helping break it up.
No analogy, no comparison is perfect, so I'm not saying we're 100% exactly the same but, you know, history may not repeat, but it certainly does rhyme.
Um, you know, when we hear about the data center as the new unit of compute, um, and a vendor that likes to fill up those data centers with their, um, computational technology, um, uh, there's, there's some sim-some similarity there.
You know, to fan the flame of providing other options, some open, some other vendor ecosystems.
But, um, I like the con-contrast, and, uh, I wanna hear what others have to say about it.
Essentially, we have massive companies that are... have, have really, you know, not just put a stake in the ground, but, uh, built a cathedral on being the AI giant.
And, uh, the continent on which all of those companies rest is called NVIDIA.
Essentially, we are living in a, a, a new big iron world where everybody is reliant on NVIDIA, then there's a few mega providers, uh, that are doing the hard work, that are building things, and then there's everything else.
So Scott, uh, I'm gonna throw it to you first since this was your suggestion.
You know, being co-located with the OCP Summit here in San Jose this week, it's a real interesting comparison of, you know, uh, what... [clears throat] Early in my career, seeing IBM being so dominant, not the only technology provider, but, uh, the, the sun around which everybody else revolved for a time, and then other innovation coming along and, you know, taking it over, right? And helping, helping break it up.
No analogy, no comparison is perfect, so I'm not saying we're 100% exactly the same but, you know, history may not repeat, but it certainly does rhyme.
Um, you know, when we hear about the data center as the new unit of compute, um, and a vendor that likes to fill up those data centers with their, um, computational technology, um, uh, there's, there's some sim-some similarity there.
You know, to fan the flame of providing other options, some open, some other vendor ecosystems.
But, um, I like the con-contrast, and, uh, I wanna hear what others have to say about it.
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