Evans: AI foundation models lack network effects and sustainable moats
Benedict Evans · How does OpenAI compete? · Dec 20, 2025 · at 1:07
Tech analyst Benedict Evans discusses why foundation model developers face weak defensibility compared to previous software platform shifts.
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“There's no network effect that we know of yet. And so unlike previous kinds of software platform shift, there's not any Obvious strategy in building the models where you can make yours better than everybody else's by doing that, following that plan. Well, you can hope for a breakthrough that no one else understands, but like you can't plan for your model to be 50% better than everybody else in some sustainable, defensible way.”
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