The 5 biggest global business rivalries to watch, and how their outcomes will shape the future

Magazine·Most Powerful PeopleThe 5 biggest global rivalries to watch, and how their outcomes will shape the futureBy Fortune StaffBy Fortune Staff Huang: Mustafa Yalcin—Anadolu/Getty Images; Su: Nathan Howard—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesPower is precarious: The more of it you possess, the more competitors you attract, gunning for your customers, star employees, and market

We drilled down on five of the biggest rivalries in , across chips, AI, EVs, and finance, and energy

And though these incumbents and rising rivals are fierce, never count out the dark horses who are hungry for a spot at the top

AI chips Jensen HuangCEO, President, and Cofounder, Nvidia — U.S

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang might be forgiven for taking a moment to savor his company’s meteoric rise to the top of the stock market, driven by soaring demand for its high-performance chips that power generative AI

Still, Huang is keeping an eye on the horizon

AMD is positioning itself as a viable alternative, while startups Groq, Cerebras, and SambaNova are betting on custom chips designed to accelerate AI inference

None pose a serious threat to Nvidia’s dominance—yet

Lisa SuCEO and Chair, AMD — U.S

AMD CEO Lisa Su never met her first cousin once removed, Jensen Huang, until both had risen to lead two of the most powerful chipmakers in the world. “There were no family dinners,” Su said in a recent interview. “It is an interesting coincidence.” But the two can’t avoid each other now

With corporate headquarters just miles apart in the same Silicon Valley town, AMD is pushing hard to establish itself as a viable second source for AI chips amid surging demand

The company has secured wins from major players Microsoft and Meta—both eager to diversify their supply chains and reduce dependence on Nvidia’s tightly controlled hardware and software ecosystem. —Sharon Goldman Musk: Win McNamee—Getty Images; Wang: VCG/Getty Images Electric vehicles Elon MuskCEO, Cofounder, and other roles, Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and others — U.S

Elon Musk, the man who brought EVs to the masses, has seen Tesla’s fortunes erode as he gets entangled in social media and

Musk has bet the future on Tesla’s AI and camera-only self-driving system, with a soft robotaxi launch in June and the development of its humanoid robot

Critics argue the company’s self-driving is well behind that of competitors Alphabet’s Waymo and BYD

While Tesla is still the most valuable auto company in the world, it’s not it will keep the top spot

BYD is also the world’s second-largest EV battery manufacturer to date, with its innovative Blade Battery using iron and phosphate to help keep prices low. —Jessica Mathews ALTMAN: JOEL SAGET—AFP/Getty Images; Zuckerberg: Chris Unger—Zuffa LLC Artificial Intelligence Sam AltmanCEO and Cofounder, OpenAI — U.S

Altman’s leadership of OpenAI has made him one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful, and polarizing, figures

Mark ZuckerbergCEO, Chairman, and Founder, Meta — U.S

Altman’s meteoric rise has made him plenty of enemies

Google DeepMind competes with OpenAI to build the most capable AI models, and ChatGPT also poses an existential risk to Google’s dominance of internet

As he closes in on his 20th anniversary as CEO of the country’s biggest bank, Jamie Dimon is the undisputed dean of Wall Street and is poised to go down in history as one of the greatest bankers of all time

In times of crisis, the turn to Dimon as a source of and unvarnished authority

Dimon has also responded to growing competition from the private equity world by having JPM establish private credit facilities of its own—and issuing a warning shot to Apollo and others to stop poaching junior bankers

Marc RowanCEO, Chair, and Cofounder, Apollo Global Management — U.S

Marc Rowan, a onetime corporate lawyer, has emerged in recent years as the dominant figure in the fast-growing world of private equity

Rowan’s private credit charge poses a growing challenge to traditional banks JPMorgan Chase, as Apollo and others become the go-to lending venues for large companies and institutions. —Jeff John Roberts Woods: Andrey Rudakov—Bloomberg/Getty Images; Wirth: Hollie Adams—Bloomberg/Getty Images Energy Darren WoodsCEO and Chairman, Exxon Mobil — U.S

But Woods’ focus on capital discipline, holder returns, and M&A has Exxon back on top of the industry, where it leads shale output in the booming Permian Basin

Its oil discoveries in offshore Guyana are the envy of the energy world

Mike WirthCEO and Chairman, Chevron — U.S

After serving as the energy darling of investors for a few years, Chevron now faces a revitalized Exxon

They’re rivals in the Permian Basin

They just settled a long arbitration rivalry over a dispute in Guyana

They’re even rivals in the burgeoning U.S. lithium

Both stayed focused on fossil fuels and related low-carbon ventures while Europeans BP and Shell struggled to grow green energy

Explore this year's list.