> Since Google doesn't sell TPUs, they are extremely well-positioned to ensure no one else can profit from any advantages created by TPUs.

First part is true at the moment, not sure the second follows. Microsoft is developing their own “Maia” chips for running AI on Azure with custom hardware, and everyone else is also getting in the game of hardware accelerators. Google is certainly ahead of the curve in making full-stack hardware that’s very very specialized for machine learning. But everyone else is moving in the same direction: lots of action is in buying up other companies that make interconnects and fancy networking equipment, and AMD/NVIDIA continue to hyper specialize their data center chips for neural networks.

Google is in a great position, for sure. But I don’t see how they can stop other players from converging on similar solutions.