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Rocketships and Slingshots

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42 points juecd | 1 comments | 04 Sep 25 21:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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alphazard ◴[04 Sep 25 22:37 UTC] No.45133025[source]▶
No examples included of "hard earned technical moats". I'm a bit skeptical that these really exist, other than in a few extreme cases. A true technical moat requires secrecy and control of the talent pool. SpaceX comes to mind, Nvidia might be another example.

I don't even think the current AI companies really have technical moats. It seems like the differentiator is just how much money they have to throw at compute.

Most moats are actually regulatory, ranging from copyright and patents, to anti-competitive regulation, to explicit wealth transfers from taxpayers to the company.

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nickdothutton ◴[05 Sep 25 16:36 UTC] No.45140525[source]▶
A well constructed patent wall makes a pretty good moat for some. See Qualcomm, 40 years in the game and 40 Billion in annual revenue. I have worked with companies (with a better mouse trap) trying to bring it to market. Very tough.
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1. dghlsakjg ◴[05 Sep 25 19:33 UTC] No.45142699[source]▶
That’s a regulatory moat.