Back in the early days of computers the hardware was expensive and the software was frequently free. Software was viewed as just a component of the hardware it was shipped with. When a company purchased a computer it's the hardware that was considered the acquired asset.
Eventually software became priced separately. So when a company purchased a computer system it viewed hardware and software as separate items and as different kinds of assets (tangible/intangible).
Nowadays, the tectonic migration of software to the cloud brings us to the other end of the scale -- software is expensive and hardware has effectively become free.
Software has eaten the hardware.
