People that do not understand why Android is free and fail to recognize how Google is using its dominating position in one market to dominate other market should read this "Laws of Tech Economics: Commoditize Your Complement" [1] and here HN discussion [2].

[1] https://www.gwern.net/Complement#2

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17047348

> In the case of maps, there weren't many great alternatives for a long time, due to Google sucking all the oxygen/profit potential out of the field with their excellent free offerings.

There was a related discussion[0] on HN a few weeks ago that I found enlightening. Commentator ucaetano's phrasing of the strategy was "create a desert of profitability around you". The discussion of moats vs deserts found here [1] is also useful.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17047348 "Laws of Tech Economics: Commoditize Your Complement"

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17048492

I think this is a classic [Commoditize Your Complement](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17047348) - Nvidia wants open models because their business is hardware and it's complement is AI models, so they want AI models to be commoditized so that hardware is the industry with leverage. OpenAI/Anthropic/etc want closed models so that the AI model development/data has leverage over the hardware providers.