The Usual Suspects, And Why They Still Matter
So, who are these shovel-sellers? The names won't surprise anyone who’s been paying attention, but their position is now stronger than ever. First, you have NVIDIA, the undisputed darling of the AI ball. Their graphics processing units, or GPUs, have become the essential engine of modern AI. It’s almost impossible to imagine Amazon building out its AI capacity without placing colossal orders with them.
Then there's a company like Super Micro Computer. They are the specialist tailors in a world that suddenly needs bespoke suits. They build the high-performance, custom-configured servers that house those powerful NVIDIA chips. As cloud giants like Amazon scale up, they need precisely this kind of specialised hardware, not just off-the-shelf boxes.
And let's not forget the reliable old hands, like Dell Technologies. They bring decades of experience in enterprise hardware to the party. From servers to storage systems, they can supply the sheer volume and variety of equipment needed for an expansion of this magnitude. Their established relationships with the big cloud providers give them a significant foot in the door.