[Industry] Nvidia - It would be a pity if something were to happen to your pending GPU order...

[Hallvor]

A report published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday surfaces an accusation that Nvidia might be willing to delay data center GPU orders if it becomes aware of a customer looking for greener pastures. Thus, rival AI chipmaker Groq says that fearful customers are secretive about acquiring or designing AI acceleration technology for fear of retaliatory shipment delays. This stands in contrast to Nvidia's own statements on the matter, with the company saying that it is trying to allocate supply fairly and to offer customers alternative access to compute while they wait for their shipments.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-compone ... socialflow

[Dr Cheeto Cornchip]

I never really understood the need to compete in such underhanded ways. I mean, as an individual, once you've got enough money to live the rest of your life and never work again, why bother?

The original idea behind competitive markets was that competition between "firms" would lead to better products and lower prices. The idea here being that when two or more firms try to sell to the same market they would need to compete for customer money by producing better products at lower prices. The winner of that competition was supposed to be the firm that produced the best product at the lowest price, not the firm that simply used its weight to bully potentially better products out of the market.

The initial idea, as it was proposed by Adam Smith, is flawed because it surmises that firms would all play fair. Perhaps Adam Smith's figuring was that there was no need to play unfairly because once one reached the level where they could bully better products out of the market they wouldn't bother because they had already made enough money to live comfortably and never work again. Plus they, themselves, would stand to benefit from better products. I guess he didn't count on egos getting in the way thereby preventing people from making smart choices.

[Dr Cheeto Cornchip]

Not to go about beating a dead horse here, but I just have to say that I find this being Nvidia particularly confusing. I think it was maybe a month or two ago when I caught an article on Tom's Hardware summarizing and interview with Jensen Huang in which Mr. Huang admitted that if he could go back and have a second chance he would not have founded Nvidia.

That seemed odd to a lot of people being as how successful Nvidia seems to be, but the issue at hand, as Mr. Huang put it, was that it was just too much work. Maybe I'm misinterpreting here, but I believe he said he essentially had to give up his entire life so he could work on the company. Looking back, it seems, he'd rather have kept his life.

That's why I find this move by Nvidia so confusing. If that's really how Jensen Huang feels then why not cut your losses and quit now? You still have plenty of life left to live. You have so much money you can have any leather jacket on earth. You've proven your industrial prowess to the world. Why bother with all the bullshit when you could have your life back?

[sunrat]

It's known as "late stage capitalism"

[Hallvor]

It's known as "late stage capitalism"

I believe the term was coined by Werner Sombart; I remember coming across him when working on my degree in history.

[CwF]

In that everybody uses nvidia point release debacle thread I hinted at my prediction:
Nvidia will exit the consumer add in card after-market.
Coincidentally and unrelated, Intel will expand into that market, maybe.
AMD will continue its course as the market fades.
Time frame 5 years.

[Dr Cheeto Cornchip]

Nvidia will exit the consumer add in card after-market.

Good probability here. I suspect Nvidia tried to acquire ARM because they realize that the future of graphics processors will be integrated graphics. This puts AMD and Intel in a better position than Nvidia seeing as how Nvidia doesn't have a whole lot to offer on the CPU side of the integrated SoC.

I imagine discreet graphics will live on for some years to come, but will likely see dwindling significance as the majority of users buy computers with integrated graphics. Previous leaks on the matter suggest that AMD's next gen Zen5 APU offering will include an integrated GPU with up to 40 compute units and performance to rival an RTX 4070 discreet laptop GPU.

I imagine integrated graphics will only continue to advance, rendering discreet options obsolete.