This is addressed in the article.
> In fact, they are conducting a massive, multi-phase shift in software strategy. Phase 1 is releasing and open sourcing a new native PyTorch backend. They will also be open sourcing the compiler for their kernel language called “NKI” (Neuron Kernal Interface) and their kernel and communication libraries matmul and ML ops (analogous to NCCL, cuBLAS, cuDNN, Aten Ops). Phase 2 consists of open sourcing their XLA graph compiler and JAX software stack.
> By open sourcing most of their software stack, AWS will help broaden adoption and kick-start an open developer ecosystem. We believe the CUDA Moat isn’t constructed by the Nvidia engineers that built the castle, but by the millions of external developers that dig the moat around that castle by contributing to the CUDA ecosystem. AWS has internalized this and is pursuing the exact same strategy.
This isn't an "enormous software investment", this is table stakes which lose out heads up against Nvidia. See AMD.
I wish AWS all the best, but I will say that their developer-facing software doesn't have the best track record. Munger-esque "incentive defines the outcome" and all that, but I don't think they're well positioned to collect actionable insight from open GitHub repos.