Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has long been the artificial intelligence (AI) chip leader. The company recognized the potential of its graphics processing units (GPUs) to power this technology before most people were even talking about AI -- and at that time, Nvidia made AI its focus.

This turned out very well for Nvidia, as the company has continued innovating and remained well ahead of competitors. And major rivals aren't lightweights. They are tech powerhouses such as Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom, as well as certain Nvidia customers that are making some of their own chips -- such as Amazon.

But the rivals I'll talk about here aren't these technology giants. Instead, they are younger, up-and-coming players focused specifically on making AI more efficient. They are names that aren't yet publicly traded -- from Cerebras to European players Euclyd and Optalysys. And now these rivals have just made key moves. Should Nvidia shareholders worry? Let's find out.

So, first, a quick note about Nvidia's work in the AI market so far. The company, as mentioned, is the leader, selling GPUs that power crucial AI tasks such as the training of models, and increasingly today, the inference process -- this is the model's "thinking" steps that help it make decisions and take action.

Nvidia's chips, along with its complete suite of AI products and services, have delivered explosive growth over the past few years. In the latest full year, Nvidia announced a 65% increase in revenue to more than $215 billion -- and analysts expect this to continue, with a forecast for 72% growth for the current year.

Nvidia supplies systems to all of the big tech players leading in this AI revolution, from Amazon to Meta Platforms, as well as research labs like OpenAI.

Now, let's consider the key moves made by up-and-coming players. The biggest news is an announcement by Cerebras -- this player recently filed to go public, a move that may supercharge its ability to grow and compete with Nvidia. Cerebras' technology involves a chip that's 58 times bigger than those of Nvidia -- and the company says this size gives it more memory bandwidth than Nvidia chips, and as a result, Cerebras' chips can inference at tremendous speeds.

Importantly, Cerebras announced deals with OpenAI and Amazon Web Services (AWS) this year. The OpenAI deal, worth more than $20 billion, involves 750 megawatts of Cerebras compute. And the deal with AWS offers Cerebras' chips global distribution.