In business, a moat is something a company has that is very hard for other companies to copy.
This page explains this week's Nvidia news in easy English for learners. Practice listening and reading with a video, story text, new words and a quiz.
Watch the video first. Then read the story, learn the new words, and take the quiz.
Really Learn English is not connected to Nvidia. This page is for learning English.
For thirty-three years, one man was the boss of Nvidia, the company that sells most of the chips that AI runs on. And this week he left.
The price of the company fell, and many people asked, "Is this the end?"
But people who invest money have a word for a moment like this. They say, "Don't look at the king. Look at the moat."
A moat is the water around a castle. It keeps the enemy out. And in business, a moat is something you have that is very hard to copy.
So what is Nvidia's moat? It is not only the chips.
For almost twenty years, millions of programmers built their programs with Nvidia's own tools. And these tools work like a language, so those programs run best on Nvidia chips.
If a company wants to change to another chip, it has to write a lot of it again. And that takes years, and a lot of money.
You see, anybody can try to build a fast chip. But nobody can make the whole world speak a new language in one day.
So the king is gone, but the water is still there.
The thing is, a moat does not stay full forever. The biggest buyers are now building their own chips, and each new chip is like a bridge over the water.
Kings come and go. Castles rise and fall.
But the companies that survive are the ones that never stop giving people a reason to choose them.
By submitting your email, you consent to receiving updates and newsletters from us and to the sharing of your personal data with third parties for the purposes of sending you communications. We will not spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information, please see our privacy policy.
