Nvidia reports earnings on August 26. Most investors will be watching Blackwell demand, Rubin margins, and whether (NVDA) can beat expectations again. I am watching something else. Nvidia’s biggest customers are spending extraordinary amounts on its chips while also spending billions trying to reduce their need for them. That is not because Nvidia’s products are failing. It is because they are working too well.
Nvidia’s gross margins remain around 75%. That is fantastic if you own (NVDA). If you are (MSFT), (AMZN), (GOOG), or (META), paying those margins is also an incentive to build more of the technology yourself. Google has its TPUs, Amazon has Trainium, (MSFT) is developing Maia, and (META) is pushing further into custom silicon. None of them need to replace (NVDA). They only need to reduce the percentage of their next AI dollar that goes to Nvidia.