9 ms·

It is insanely stupid that '4B' with a B, is 'too small' of an operating space.

chii 7mo ago
The absolute value is irrelevant - it's the opportunity cost that determines this. It doesn't matter if the consumer market is 4T, if the AI market is 60T!
- zmgsabst 7mo ago
  “I wouldn’t pick up $20 if there was $100 on the ground!” Most people would pick up both. These economic proclamations don’t seem to make sense, when applied to different contexts — which suggests what you’re saying might be folk wisdom rather than sound theory (and greatly over simplifying the problem). You’re also discounting ecosystem effects — gaming GPUs driving demand for datacenter and workstation GPUs as hobbyist experimentation turns into industrial usage. We don’t know what would happen if nVidia stopped suppressing the GPU market, because it’s never been tried — nVidia has always viciously undercut their own grassroots.
  - reppap 7mo ago
    The problem is that Nvidia cannot make infinite amounts of chips so they actually can't pick up both.
  - armadyl 7mo ago
    > “I wouldn’t pick up $20 if there was $100 on the ground!” Most people would pick up both. No, it’s more like there’s a massive pile of both $20s and $100s on the ground. You wouldn’t waste time running between the two, you’d focus on the $100s
    - ChoGGi 7mo ago
      If I have a garbage bag, I'm shoving everything in there.
  - saaaaaam 7mo ago
    You’re standing on a traffic island in the middle of a busy road. The lights change allowing you to cross. On one side there is a $20 note, on the other there is a $100 note. Which side do you go to first?
  - chii 7mo ago
    > Most people would pick up both. if you're within reach of both, then it's not a choice, and there's no opportunity cost in picking just one - you'd be taking both. If not within reach of both but just one, and you picking one up means someone else might pick up the other, then which would you choose? The other is then by definition, the opportunity cost.
    - zmgsabst 7mo ago
      nVidia is sitting on a huge pile of cash, ie, they’re not constrained by resources — hence the framing as a choice.
      - chii 7mo ago
        cash cannot buy more fabs. ASML machines are the constraint, plus TSMC's capacity is a constraint. Not to mention that nvidia's cash pile isn't magic - they should not overpay for capacity; they're better off returning cash to investors in that case.
  - delaminator 7mo ago
    If you were carrying heavy shopping in both arms would you stop to pick up a quarter? A dollar?
    - ChoGGi 7mo ago
      I wouldn't pick up either even with empty hands. No idea where they've been. Maybe a fiver, a twenty sure. At that point I'd put down my bags and grab both.
- mitthrowaway2 7mo ago
  One strategic reason is to remove oxygen from competitors. Otherwise someone will scoop up the gaming market and put the proceeds into developing technology to compete with NVIDIA in the more lucrative AI space.
  - zihotki 7mo ago
    I wonder who is going to fill the gaming market if AI market focused companies would simply outbid them during manufacturing? All available and not yet available manufacture is pivoting to AI market

chii 7mo ago

The absolute value is irrelevant - it's the opportunity cost that determines this. It doesn't matter if the consumer market is 4T, if the AI market is 60T!

zmgsabst 7mo ago
“I wouldn’t pick up $20 if there was $100 on the ground!” Most people would pick up both. These economic proclamations don’t seem to make sense, when applied to different contexts — which suggests what you’re saying might be folk wisdom rather than sound theory (and greatly over simplifying the problem). You’re also discounting ecosystem effects — gaming GPUs driving demand for datacenter and workstation GPUs as hobbyist experimentation turns into industrial usage. We don’t know what would happen if nVidia stopped suppressing the GPU market, because it’s never been tried — nVidia has always viciously undercut their own grassroots.
- reppap 7mo ago
  The problem is that Nvidia cannot make infinite amounts of chips so they actually can't pick up both.
- armadyl 7mo ago
  > “I wouldn’t pick up $20 if there was $100 on the ground!” Most people would pick up both. No, it’s more like there’s a massive pile of both $20s and $100s on the ground. You wouldn’t waste time running between the two, you’d focus on the $100s
  - ChoGGi 7mo ago
    If I have a garbage bag, I'm shoving everything in there.
- saaaaaam 7mo ago
  You’re standing on a traffic island in the middle of a busy road. The lights change allowing you to cross. On one side there is a $20 note, on the other there is a $100 note. Which side do you go to first?
- chii 7mo ago
  > Most people would pick up both. if you're within reach of both, then it's not a choice, and there's no opportunity cost in picking just one - you'd be taking both. If not within reach of both but just one, and you picking one up means someone else might pick up the other, then which would you choose? The other is then by definition, the opportunity cost.
  - zmgsabst 7mo ago
    nVidia is sitting on a huge pile of cash, ie, they’re not constrained by resources — hence the framing as a choice.
    - chii 7mo ago
      cash cannot buy more fabs. ASML machines are the constraint, plus TSMC's capacity is a constraint. Not to mention that nvidia's cash pile isn't magic - they should not overpay for capacity; they're better off returning cash to investors in that case.
- delaminator 7mo ago
  If you were carrying heavy shopping in both arms would you stop to pick up a quarter? A dollar?
  - ChoGGi 7mo ago
    I wouldn't pick up either even with empty hands. No idea where they've been. Maybe a fiver, a twenty sure. At that point I'd put down my bags and grab both.
mitthrowaway2 7mo ago
One strategic reason is to remove oxygen from competitors. Otherwise someone will scoop up the gaming market and put the proceeds into developing technology to compete with NVIDIA in the more lucrative AI space.
- zihotki 7mo ago
  I wonder who is going to fill the gaming market if AI market focused companies would simply outbid them during manufacturing? All available and not yet available manufacture is pivoting to AI market