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▶ 56:00 · $GOOGL · Google TPU, Meta MTIA, Microsoft Maia, OpenAI Jalapeno are non-existential side projects vs Etched's existential focus
episode briefing
Invest Like The Best

The Two Harvard Dropouts Who raised $800M to take on NVIDIA

2026-06-30 · 5 company · 7 thematic
sentiment
2 bull1 bear2 neu
speakers
gavin baker

Managing partner and CIO of Atreides Management, a technology-focused hedge fund. He previously ran the Fidelity OTC fund for years and is one of the most-followed voices on semiconductors, AI infrastructure and growth tech.

rob

CCO of Saronic; 22-year Marine Corps veteran (active and reserves); worked at defense primes, ran a consulting firm; joined Saronic via Joe Lonsdale/8VC connection and hunting trip with CEO Dino; leads growth, government relations, contracts, proposals, and international portfolio.

quote
“It fundamentally is not existential for my company for this product to win for Google with TPUs like their revenue comes from search. Google won't fail if TPUs fail. That's right. Meta won't fail if MTIA fails. Microsoft won't fail if Maya…”
—rob

episode shorts · 1

Building a Company for the Obsessed

now playing · $GOOGL
$ETCHEDbullish· high· posgavin baker
Etched builds full-stack inference racks targeting 10x throughput via low-voltage and cluster-scale memory
Etched vertically integrates chip, board, rack, interconnect, and software to solve inference bottlenecks: thermal throttling via low-voltage design (half GPU voltage) and memory…
$NVDA···bearish· highgavin baker
Nvidia's GPU architecture thermally throttles at high utilization; Etched claims 10x inference advantage via low-voltage design
GPUs are fundamentally limited by thermal constraints: adding more FLOPs doesn't increase performance because chips self-regulate clock speed. Nvidia's general-purpose architectur…
$TSMC···bullish· highgavin baker
TSMC's customer service and yield collaboration model is a structural moat beyond process technology
TSMC's real value is service, not just tech: they run yield experiments on their own dime based on customer recommendations and adopt changes across the line when proven. This par…
$AMD···neutral· lowrob
AMD's inference curve slightly worse than Blackwell but still an $800B company — shifting curve further creates massive value
AMD's interactivity-throughput curve is slightly worse than Blackwell's, yet AMD commands $800B market cap. Etched aims to shift the curve 'much further out,' implying order-of-ma…
$GOOGL···neutral· mediumrob
Google TPU, Meta MTIA, Microsoft Maia, OpenAI Jalapeno are non-existential side projects vs Etched's existential focus
Hyperscaler internal chips lack existential urgency: Google won't fail if TPUs fail, Meta won't fail if MTIA fails. Their FLOP density lags Nvidia's B300 because they only need 's…