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.
| Eli Lilly and Company | Applied Digital | Hut 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moat rating | wide Eli Lilly's FY2025 10-K states "Intellectual property protection is critical" and that compound patents provide roughly 20-year market exclusivity ("patents in each relevant country last for a period of 20 years"), warning that loss of patent protection causes a "severe and rapid decline in revenues." Backed by an 83.0% gross margin (up from 81.3% in 2024) and a fast-growing, patent-protected incretin franchise (Mounjaro +99%, Zepbound +175% in 2025), the economic moat is wide and durable. Source: LLY FY2025 10-K. | 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. | narrow The FY2025 10-K says 'we believe we have established a defensible competitive advantage through our power-first, innovation-driven strategy', resting on a power-native team, an application-agnostic framework for digital infrastructure design, end-to-end greenfield development capabilities, and the use of ASIC compute builds to rapidly and cost-effectively secure and monetize power. What separates this from no moat is scarce power: the filing says demand for energy capacity continues to outpace supply and that 'grid interconnection bottlenecks have further constrained access to power and digital infrastructure development', and Hut 8 reports 330 MW of utility capacity under construction at River Bend, commercialized in December 2025 through a 15-year triple-net lease supporting 245 MW of IT capacity, plus 1,230 MW of utility capacity under development. The same filing says 'The industries in which we operate are highly competitive and continuously evolving.', warns that these factors 'might not provide the competitive advantage we anticipate, or if they do, such competitive advantage might not endure', cites the River Bend lease (valued at $7.0 billion over the base term) as an example of expecting a significant portion of revenue from a limited number of customers, and says the company has not maintained consistent profitability. That supports narrow at most, not wide. |
| Moat type | intangibles ip Per the LLY FY2025 10-K, the pharma protection "anticipated to be of most relevance" is "patents claiming the active ingredient (the compound patent)," supplemented by regulatory data protection, FDA approvals, and brands — i.e., intangible assets. The 10-K notes that without such protection, products face intense generic and biosimilar price competition that erodes revenue quickly. | 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. | cost scale The 10-K says 'we believe success depends on the ability to secure scarce assets like power, data center equipment, and customers', and places part of its claimed edge in 'our ability to use ASIC compute infrastructure development to rapidly and cost-effectively secure and monetize power'. Its examples: Vega was energized less than a year after acquisition for an all-in cost of about $455,000 per megawatt, which the filing calls 'a fraction of traditional data center costs', and Salt Creek was completed for about $250,000 per MW; Vega also has immediate access to some of the lowest locational wholesale power prices in North America. These are low-redundancy ASIC compute builds, which the 10-K says carry relatively low capital intensity by design. The 'fraction of traditional data center costs' comparison is against a different facility tier, and the filing gives no peer cost comparison and no cost figure for its AI campuses. |
| Leadership | co leader Duopoly with Novo Nordisk: Novo's own FY2025 20-F names "Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly [as] the most significant companies measured by market share" in the global diabetes and GLP-1 markets. Lilly is ascendant — the 20-F concedes Wegovy's years-long US anti-obesity prescription lead "was overtaken by a competing GLP-1 based product in the beginning of 2025" (Lilly's tirzepatide) — but Novo still cites Ozempic as "the leading product by sales," so co-leader is the honest band. Sources: Novo Nordisk FY2025 20-F; LLY FY2025 10-K. | 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). | fast follower The 10-K says 'For example, we signed our first large scale single tenant AI data center lease and commenced construction of the site at our River Bend campus.', offered under the statement that to remain competitive with peers it may need to modify aspects of its business model. River Bend was commercialized in December 2025 through a 15-year triple-net lease supporting 245 MW of IT capacity; Fluidstack is expected to serve as tenant and Google is expected to provide a financial backstop, and initial delivery is targeted for Q2 2027. On speed, the filing says 'Through early engagement with Entergy Louisiana, we assumed key interconnection and development functions typically managed by the utility, such as the development of transmission and distribution infrastructure, materially accelerating originally quoted power delivery timelines.', and that Vega was energized 'less than a year after acquiring it'. It also warns that Hut 8 competes against companies 'that may be more established or have greater financial and other resources and/or expertise'. That describes a newer entrant moving quickly, not an established leader. |
| Pricing power | moderate Mixed. The LLY 10-K shows an 83.0% gross margin (up 1.7pp), evidence of strong list-price power on exclusive branded drugs; but it repeatedly notes 2025 revenue growth was "partially offset by lower realized prices" for both Mounjaro and Zepbound, alongside heavy PBM/formulary rebate pressure and default anti-obesity coverage restrictions (e.g., US self-insured employers "must generally opt in" for obesity-drug coverage). Net pricing power is therefore moderate, not strong. | 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. | weak The 10-K says ASIC compute, run through American Bitcoin, can only be profitable if hardware and electricity costs are below the price of the Bitcoin mined, which makes it a price-taking business. It also says Traditional Cloud and AI Cloud compete with cloud services providers for customers, and that the company has not maintained consistent profitability. River Bend's contracted triple-net lease economics are not in service yet; initial delivery is targeted for Q2 2027. |
| Summary | Lilly's moat rests on patent-protected, FDA-approved branded medicines led by its tirzepatide incretin franchise: per the FY2025 10-K, Mounjaro ($22.97B) and Zepbound ($13.54B) together generated roughly 56% of 2025's $65.2B revenue (up 99% and 175% respectively), while compound patents confer ~20-year market exclusivity and support an 83.0% gross margin. Durable competition only emerges after patents and regulatory data protection lapse, at which point the 10-K warns generics and biosimilars drive a "severe and rapid decline in revenues." | 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. | Per its FY2025 10-K, Hut 8 is a power-first infrastructure developer. It originates powered land and interconnections, uses ASIC compute builds, which the filing says combine relatively low capital intensity with rapid deployment, as a transitional load to monetize sites sooner, and aims to transition suitable power assets to higher-return uses; its River Bend campus was commercialized through a 15-year AI data center lease. The filing claims a defensible advantage but warns it might not provide the advantage anticipated, or might not endure. It says Hut 8 competes for powered land with digital infrastructure developers and large-scale Bitcoin miners, and its first AI campus is still under construction. Its majority-owned Bitcoin miner, American Bitcoin, can only be profitable when mining costs are below the price of the Bitcoin mined, and the filing says it believes American Bitcoin must keep acquiring miners to keep up with a growing global network hashrate. |
| Chain position | Upstream branded-drug originator. Per the FY2025 10-K, US distribution flows through three wholesalers (McKesson, Cencora, Cardinal Health), each accounting for over 10% of consolidated revenue, into consolidated PBMs/payers whose formularies and rebate demands constrain net price; Lilly is also expanding a direct-to-patient channel, LillyDirect. | Developer and landlord of power-advantaged, liquid-cooled AI data-center capacity, leased long-term to CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers. | Power-first developer building AI data center capacity, beginning with River Bend under a 15-year lease (Fluidstack is the expected tenant and Google is expected to provide a financial backstop; initial delivery is targeted for Q2 2027), and runs Bitcoin mining through majority-owned American Bitcoin. |
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| Long-horizon vote | +0.30 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. |