[jason0597]

When AMD or NVIDIA sell GPUs to scalpers, and those scalpers resell the GPUs and keep the profit, there's outrage about it. Nobody ever says to "build more GPUs" to fix the problem.

When houses and new developments get snatched up by investors and landlords as buy-to-lets (or even by Blackrock and pension funds), there is little outrage and calls for restricting who can buy them. The same argument is rehashed over and over and over again. Just build more houses!

I feel that there is a disconnect between these two schools of thought. I personally believe that, while indeed more houses should be built, we should also have a serious discussion about whether houses should be sold en-masse to very wealthy investors

[Atheros]

Building more GPUs requires billions of dollars of investment and many years to build a new fab. Building more houses requires only several hundred thousand dollars to form a new construction company and train some workers. So it's not a good analogy. It is physically possible to just build more housing in high-demand markets.

Separately, GPU scalping is (was) only happening because of cryptocurrency booms which everyone knew were temporary. Not many people are naive enough to scream for AMD or NVIDIA to spend billions of dollars on new fabs because of a temporary trend. The housing supply issues, on the other hand, have been brewing for decades and are not temporary.

[seper8]

> Building more houses requires only several hundred thousand dollars to form a new construction company and train some workers.

Hahahah look at this guy!

Bet you never tried to get a permit for home construction? Shit can take YEARS in most states/countries. Even worse if you dare suggest to make apartment complexes. N I M B Y

[namlem]

One, chipmakers are indeed building new factories to increase production of chips, so your entire premise is incorrect. Two, the people criticizing the scalpers are wrong. NVIDIA and AMD were simply generous enough to not raise the price of their products even though they could have, demand was high enough to justify it. Scalping GPUs is fair game. Three, the number of houses being bought by investment firms is negligible. It's not having a significant effect on prices. It's the land use restrictions that make building housing difficult or impossible that are the problem. Particularly those that restrict multifamily housing.

[denimnerd42]

huh.. everyone knows scalpers business model will die when they can build more GPUs