Nvidia makes shovels. They stand to make a lot of money no matter what AI works out (possibly more than anyone else), all that without having to do any AI themselves.
Making shovels for the AI crowd is also a lot safer than making them for the bit miners.
Kinda and kinda not. They have done well so far but they could conceivably be beat by a dedicated chip. They need make sure they keep up with the research so they build what the community wants.
Except Nvidia publishes some of the best (and most) machine learning papers when compared to other companies or universities
Its research is heavily focussed on showcasing new applications for Nvidia hardware.