Compare moats
Up to three covered companies, band by band. Every call is a curated editorial judgment, never a disclosed figure — and every band carries its cited basis.
| CrowdStrike | Applied Digital | Vanguard International Semiconductor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moat rating | narrow Narrow rather than wide because the FY2026 10-K argues both ways and its own risk factors are the harder side: it describes a self-reinforcing data advantage and says "we do not believe any of our competitors currently have a true platform offering equivalent to the Falcon platform", but the same filing calls the market for security and IT operations solutions "intensely competitive, fragmented", warns that "Competitive pricing pressure may reduce our gross profits", and still carries the July 19 Incident as having "had, and is expected to continue to have, an adverse effect on our business, sales, customer and partner relations, reputation" more than two years after it occurred. | none The FY2026 10-K (filed 2026-07-29) shows contracted revenue, not a demonstrated competitive edge. About 1,410 MW is leased under 15-year take-or-pay, non-cancellable base terms worth about $36.2 billion, but only about 100 MW of the roughly 1.5 GW that is contracted and either operating or under construction was operating and earning revenue at May 31, 2026, and Item 1A says "lessees may have the right to terminate applicable leases if there are significant delays in construction." Item 1A also concedes "We do not have the resources to compete with larger providers of similar products or services at this time," and the Competition section names 13 power-advantaged developers the company competes with. Signed leases give revenue visibility, but the filing does not show a durable advantage. | none VIS is profitable and is raising prices, but the cited evidence shows a tight market, not a durable edge. Its 2025 annual report (2026-05-13) puts 2025 gross margin at 28.1%, with revenue up 10% and net income up 12%. In the same year PSMC, a Taiwanese peer, reported a gross loss (its 2025 annual report). VIS's Q2 2026 gross margin was 32.3% and its operating margin 20.4%. Blended ASP rose 3% QoQ, and guidance calls for another 2% to 4% in Q3 (management report, 2026-08-04). TrendForce (2026-01-27, citing Commercial Times) calls VIS 'widely viewed as a key bellwether' among mature-node foundries, with utilization 'near full since the fourth quarter of last year'. The rating is none, not narrow. VIS's global share was 0.9% in Gartner's 2025 ranking, as reproduced in its annual report. The same report concedes that capacity expansion by Chinese peers 'has created price competition in power semiconductors', its core segment, and that customers in China 'continue to exert pricing pressure'. The only evidence of lock-in is the company's own description. |
| Moat type | network effects The 10-K states the mechanism directly: "The more data that is fed into our Falcon platform, the more intelligent the AI Security Cloud becomes, the stronger our ability to anticipate and counter evolving adversary tradecraft, and the more our customers benefit, creating a powerful network effect that increases the overall value we provide." | none The 10-K claims three advantages: power-advantaged sites (it believes securing power and interconnection ahead of demand is 'the principal constraint on new HPC capacity and a core differentiator for us from many of our competitors'), a standardized 'franchise-style' design, and hyperscaler master service and master telecom service agreements 'that are difficult to obtain.' The filing does not show any of them to be durable. Its Competition section says competition 'centers on securing and developing sites with access to large-scale, reliable, and cost-competitive power and interconnection' and names 13 power-advantaged developers going after the same leases, and Item 1A concedes it lacks the resources to compete with larger providers. Signed leases are take-or-pay and non-cancellable, so a tenant leaving for convenience owes 'the full remaining contractual value,' but that is contractual lock-in on each lease rather than a moat source, so no moat type is assigned. | none No moat source is independently evidenced. Switching costs rest on the company's own account. The 2025 annual report says VIS focuses on 'specialty processes and customized technologies to avoid falling into price competition for homogeneous products'. It says its 'customized discrete devices and high-voltage processes contribute to deepening collaborative relationships with customers', and it plans to sign 'medium- to long-term contracts to stabilize capacity-utilization rates'. Customers are prepaying under those agreements: the cash-flow page of the 2Q26 investor-conference presentation shows 'Contract liabilities from LTA' of NT$5,974 million in 1Q26 and NT$1,710 million in 2Q26. Prepaying to reserve capacity while utilization is near full shows demand for scarce capacity, not that customers would find it costly to leave. Independent evidence points the other way. TrendForce (2026-05-07) reports that as Taiwanese foundries shift capacity and raise prices, customers in HV processes and CIS applications are 'increasingly turning to Chinese foundries for more stable pricing and capacity availability'. |
| Leadership | co leader Co-leader rather than clear leader because the only claim of platform primacy available is the company's own ("we do not believe any of our competitors currently have a true platform offering equivalent"), while the same 10-K describes a fragmented market and lists seven distinct categories of competitor, from legacy antivirus to network security, cloud security, identity and legacy SIEM vendors. | behind The 10-K makes no leadership claim and gives no ranking or share figure. Item 1A concedes "We do not have the resources to compete with larger providers of similar products or services at this time" and that some rivals have "substantially greater liquidity and financial resources than we do." Its Competition section places APLD against established operators (Digital Realty, Equinix), hyperscalers that build their own capacity, independent developers and 13 named power-advantaged developers (IREN, Cipher Digital, TeraWulf, Hut 8, Riot, CleanSpark, HIVE, Core Scientific, Bitdeer, Galaxy Digital, Fermi, Keel Infrastructure, MARA). | at parity VIS sits in a cluster of similar-sized specialty foundries. In Gartner's 2025 foundry ranking, as reproduced in VIS's 2025 annual report, VIS is ninth with US$1,556 million and a 0.9% share, next to Nexchip (US$1,579 million, eighth). TrendForce ranks it ninth in 1Q26 with a 0.8% share and eighth in 2Q26 with $451 million, $9 million behind seventh-placed Tower. No independent share was found for power-management foundry, its core segment. The annual report's statement that VIS 'has become the preferred partner' for U.S. customers seeking capacity outside China is the company's own claim. |
| Pricing power | moderate The 10-K's risk factors state that "Competitive pricing pressure may reduce our gross profits" and that competing successfully may require "aggressive pricing", which is the company's own case against strong pricing power; the offsetting factor it cites is module consolidation on one sensor. | weak Item 1A says "Due to the limited number of hyperscalers, we expect that a limited number of customers will continue to account for a high percentage of our revenue for the foreseeable future," and that if customers' equipment usage declines or they discontinue use of its facilities, APLD "may be compelled to lower our lease prices in some instances or risk losing a significant customer." One customer was 59% of FY2026 revenue from continuing operations. Take-or-pay, non-cancellable terms protect contracted revenue over the base term, and Note 19 reports a $39.1M HPC Hosting segment profit on $385.3M of segment revenue in FY2026, but those terms are agreed with a small group of concentrated buyers. | moderate VIS is passing on increases, but within limits. Q2 2026 blended ASP rose 3% QoQ, gross margin rose to 32.3% from 28.0% a year earlier, and Q3 guidance calls for ASP up 2% to 4% (management report, 2026-08-04). TrendForce (2025-12-25, citing chinastarmarket.cn) reports that VIS notified customers of increases of around 10%, in an article on BCD price hikes. TrendForce (2026-01-27) estimated VIS hikes of about 4% to 8% from Q1. The limits: the annual report concedes Chinese pricing pressure in power semiconductors. TrendForce (2026-04-03) expects utilization 'to diverge among foundries, making broad-based price increases unlikely'. |
| Summary | A single lightweight sensor collects enterprise data once and reuses it across 33 cloud modules, and the pooled telemetry trains the models every customer is then defended by — the 10-K calls this crowdsourced, high-fidelity data "cloud-scale AI" and treats it as the fundamental differentiator from competitors. | Applied Digital designs, builds and operates purpose-built, liquid-cooled HPC data centers, which it calls 'AI factories', and leases the capacity to CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers. At May 31, 2026 its 10-K lists five campuses (Polaris Forge 1-3 and Delta Forge 1-2) with about 1,410 MW contracted under roughly 15-year take-or-pay, non-cancellable leases worth about $36.2 billion over the base terms. The filing claims three sources of advantage: it controls power-advantaged sites, it uses a standardized 'franchise-style' design built to deliver about 150 MW in about 14 to 18 months, and it holds hyperscaler master agreements that are 'difficult to obtain.' The same document shows how early the company is. About 100 MW was operating and earning revenue. One customer was 59% of FY2026 revenue from continuing operations. It competes with Digital Realty, Equinix, hyperscalers that build their own capacity and 13 named power-advantaged developers, and it concedes that it lacks the resources to compete with larger providers. Signed leases give long-dated revenue visibility, but the filing does not show a durable competitive advantage. | Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) is a Taiwanese specialty foundry and TSMC affiliate. It runs 8-inch fabs in Taiwan and Singapore on nodes from 0.5 microns to 0.11 microns. Power management made up 77% of wafer revenue in Q2 2026, large display drivers 12% and small display drivers 7%, per the Q2 2026 management report. Q2 2026 revenue was NT$14,245 million, up 13.7% QoQ and 21.8% YoY, on shipments of 713 thousand 8-inch wafers. TrendForce (2026-01-27) estimates monthly capacity at roughly 280,000 to 290,000 wafers, with about 130,000 to 140,000 allocated to power devices. TrendForce's 2Q26 ranking (2026-09-09) credits VIS's growth to 'advance procurement and rising orders for AI peripheral ICs and smartphone PMIC/power products'. The mix is moving toward power: large display drivers fell from 18% of wafer revenue in Q2 2025 to 12% in Q2 2026. VIS is building its first 12-inch fab in Singapore through VSMC, a joint venture with NXP. TrendForce (2026-05-07) describes VSMC's capacity as 'supported by partial process technology licensing from TSMC' and not yet online. The verdict is no moat. VIS is a profitable specialty foundry benefiting from tight 8-inch power capacity, but its lock-in rests on its own description, its global share is small, and Chinese foundries compete on price in power and display-driver wafers. |
| Chain position | AI-native security platform — an adopter and reseller of AI rather than a supplier of AI infrastructure. | Developer and landlord of power-advantaged, liquid-cooled AI data-center capacity, leased long-term to CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers. | Upstream 8-inch specialty foundry for power-management, power-device and display-driver IC companies; power management was 77% of Q2 2026 wafer revenue. |
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| Long-horizon vote | +0.13 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. | -0.20 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. | +0.01 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. |