[Anthropic's distillation battle](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/03/anthropic-distillation-battle-turns-to-dark-web-china-concerns-swell.html) just exposed a structural shift in how hyperscalers monetize AI: when copycat models trained on stolen outputs undercut proprietary systems on cost, the margin advantage of software licensing erodes. That forces a choice—continue renting compute or vertically integrate silicon.

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