Tech • AI • Robotics • Game
Vinted’s €10B second-hand push meets Nvidia’s $1B-a-day moat
Briefing
Nvidia defends a towering moat
Nvidia is portrayed as defending one of tech’s richest franchises, with roughly $1 billion in daily revenue and about 75% gross margin. Forecasts cited for 2028 put annual revenue near $627 billion, underscoring how central its accelerators have become to AI infrastructure. That profitability is now attracting pressure from nearly every layer of the market, from cloud operators to model developers. The core editorial point is that Nvidia is no longer just winning on chips, but on the economics of the entire stack.
Google TPU pressure builds on Nvidia
Google is expanding the reach of its TPU line as hyperscalers and AI labs look for alternatives to Nvidia GPUs. Reports referenced suggest Anthropic could buy hardware worth billions, signaling that non-Nvidia supply is becoming strategically relevant. The competitive field also includes AMD, Amazon, OpenAI and Chinese groups seeking more control over cost and availability. Even so, switching remains difficult because customers are deeply tied to Nvidia’s software environment.
CUDA lock-in still anchors Nvidia
The biggest defense for Nvidia remains software maturity rather than silicon alone. AI developers have spent more than a decade building workflows on its tooling, making migration costly in performance, engineering time and operational risk. Earlier in-house options such as Amazon Trainium were seen as less capable, reinforcing the incumbent advantage. That means rivals must compete not only on chip performance, but on ecosystem credibility and deployment reliability.
OpenAI and China seek alternatives
OpenAI is described as pursuing its own processor efforts, while Chinese model makers including DeepSeek are moving toward domestic hardware. The shared strategic goal is to reduce dependence on a single supplier whose pricing power has become extraordinary. For customers, the issue is not just performance, but bargaining leverage, supply assurance and long-term platform control. That broadening push makes the challenge to Nvidia more structural than cyclical.
Vinted says €10B is still small
Vinted argues that even after reaching roughly €10 billion in annual sales, it remains tiny relative to the wider apparel market. Chief executive Thomas Plantenga contrasted that figure with about €450 billion in new clothing sold each year in Europe. The implication is that second-hand commerce has grown fast without yet becoming the default consumer habit. For Vinted, scale today is less a finish line than evidence of how much market conversion still lies ahead.
Thomas Plantenga recalls Vilnius rescue
Thomas Plantenga, a Dutch executive, said he first arrived in Vilnius for a five-week consulting assignment backed by Insight Ventures. He found a strong technical founding team but a business in acute difficulty, then chose to stay and execute a turnaround. His account stresses direct communication, complementary management skills and the determination of the local team. That combination, he suggests, turned an emergency intervention into a long-term leadership tenure.
Vinted survived with brutal centralization
The turnaround at Vinted centered on survival measures rather than incremental improvement. The company shut offices outside Lithuania, including operations in the United States and Paris, and concentrated activity in Vilnius. It also cut costs aggressively to stabilize the business after a near-crisis period. The episode is presented as a stark example of how European tech winners can emerge from disciplined consolidation rather than abundant capital.
Europe’s fragmentation slows Vinted expansion
Plantenga argues that Vinted’s cross-border growth highlights both the promise of European internet businesses and the friction created by fragmented regulation. The company’s model depends on scaling across national markets, yet differing rules and market structures raise costs and complexity. That leaves successful regional platforms operating in a market that is large in theory but uneven in practice. The broader takeaway is that Europe can produce category leaders, though often with more operational drag than rivals in more unified markets.
Videos covered
CEO de Vinted depuis 10 ans : rencontre avec Thomas Plantenga
- •A market leader that still sees itself as small
- •From five-week consultant to long-term chief executive
- •A brutal turnaround in Lithuania
Ruses et coups de pression : la méthode Jensen Huang
- •A chip giant with unusual margins
- •Competition is closing in
- •Why Nvidia’s lead still matters