I really like your analysis and agree up to a point.

The problem with a moat in the consumer space is it depends on brand and marketing. OpenAI came into this world as a tech novelty, then an amazing tech tool, then a household name.

But… can they compete with massive consumer companies like Apple, Google, etc? In the long run?

There’s no technical reason they can’t. The question is whether they have consumer marketing in their blood. The space doesn’t have a lot of network effects, so it’s not like early Facebook where you had to be on it because everyone was.

Not saying they’ll fail, just saying it would be a significant challenge to be a hybrid frontier model / consumer product company.