Everybody's Building Their Own Stack

Three deals this week looked unrelated. They are the same deal. A chipmaker bought the software layer, a software giant built its own models, and the biggest model-maker built its own chip — and the strategic logic behind all three is identical. Stephen Forte connects them into one idea: everybody is building their own stack. In this episode: Qualcomm buys Modular (~$3.9B) — why acquiring software that runs AI across any chip is an attack on Nvidia's real moat, the CUDA software lock-in. Microsoft's MAI models — the largest backer of OpenAI quietly builds the capability to not need OpenAI, and what that says about vendor dependence. The bull-vs-bear debate — Yann LeCun's warning that the economics cannot persist, given a fair hearing and a direct answer. What's coming: Google Gemini 3.5 Pro — the expected 2-million-token context window explained in plain terms, and why "ask the AI about your entire business at once" is the real unlock. The YPO Technology Network AI Brief is a daily briefing on the AI news that matters to CEOs and senior operators, hosted by Stephen Forte.