Adobe has bought Topaz Labs, a company that makes AI models for enhancing images and video, and will fit them into its creative business. Topaz has existed for more than two decades, last year it even won an Emmy for production technology, and in recent years it has released its own models - Astra for upscaling video resolution and Wonder for retouching photos.

Behind the pretty words about „better and faster experiences" stands a simple calculation. Adobe was already offering some of Topaz's tools in its Creative Cloud package; now it is buying them outright and will build them into the Firefly app and into its other image and video editors. One of Topaz's valuable technologies is precisely the one that lets heavy video models run directly on an ordinary computer, without an expensive graphics processor.

The context is a war for users. For years Adobe has been waging a fierce battle with Canva and with Blackmagic Design, the owner of DaVinci Resolve. The strategy is clear: pack AI into every app and buy up startups so the user has no reason to go to other software. Buying Topaz isn't generosity towards creatives - it's a wall around the ecosystem, so no one escapes to the competition.