Naveen Rao, a neuroscientist turned tech entrepreneur, once tried to compete with Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips tailored for artificial intelligence.At a start-up that was later bought by the semiconductor giant Intel, Mr. Rao worked on chips intended to replace Nvidia’s graphics processing units, which are components adapted for A.I. tasks like machine learning. But while Intel moved slowly, Nvidia swiftly upgraded its products with new A.I. features that countered what he was developing, Mr. Rao said.After leaving Intel and leading a software start-up, MosaicML, Mr. Rao used Nvidia’s chips and evaluated them against those from rivals. He found that Nvidia had differentiated itself beyond the chips by creating a large community of A.I. programmers who consistently invent using the company’s technology.“Everybody builds on Nvidia first,” Mr. Rao said. “If you come out with a new piece of hardware, you’re racing to catch up.”Over more than 10 years, Nvi …
