It's not as bad as it used to be, but one moat some companies had was "excellent support for Linux/Unix/BSD". Until CUDA no one in their right mind would buy Nv

It's not as bad as it used to be, but one moat some companies had was "excellent support for Linux/Unix/BSD". Until CUDA no one in their right mind would buy Nvidia for their Linux workstation, just like you'd avoid certain Broadcom wireless chips. Hardware companies need their devices supported by as many operating systems as possible, especially if those devices can be used in servers, desktops less so. Apple is pretty much the exception.