These are the biggest AI chip rivals Nvidia is facing

Nvidia’s technical dominance and surging revenues show no signs of slowing down.

At the same time, as capital expenditures explode and technical shifts disrupt the field, the company’s concentration of power draws fresh pressure.

Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) aren’t cheap. And as customers look to reduce reliance on them, some companies are emerging as rivals.

AI’s focus is also evolving. While GPUs dominate training, inference—or running AI models and having them perform tasks—is continuous and cost-sensitive. A wave of startups is building inference chips that they’re positioning as cheaper and more efficient than GPUs.

AI hardware chain companies are often both competitors and partners. Silicon giant Broadcom, for instance, designs chips that compete with Nvidia’s and also furnishes the networking tech to connect its GPUs.