Nvidia gets the headlines, but a hidden software monopoly charges a toll on every chip designed in Silicon Valley.
Nvidia gets the headlines. It designs the H100s and Blackwells that power the current AI boom, but it doesn't actually manufacture them. That happens at TSMC. We assume the manufacturing is the hard part. It isn't.The design phase has hit a wall. At the new 2-nanometer standard, engineers are no longer just drawing circuits; they are fighting quantum physics. Electrons tunnel through barriers. Signals decay. The "noise" at this scale is deafening. To build a chip that works, you must simulate these errors before you cut a single wafer.