[jubilanti]

Car rentals are a great comparison, but not for the reason you think. Cars depreciate value similarly to GPUs. The depriciation lifecycle timeframe is actually similar between hyperscaler GPUs and mainstream corporate car rental companies ike Hertz. They sell their cars after 2-3 years or 20-40k miles. There is a huge market for used cars. Hertz runs their used car sales out of their rental retail offices and a lot of overhead is shared. So take the difference in cost to buy new in bulk from the manufacturer from the retail sales price for a 2-3 year old car. As long as Hertz can make more money renting it out in that time, that's revenue positive.

Same with GPUs. There is also a huge market for used GPUs from 1-2 generations ago. The A100 is a six year old chip at this point and is still running strong, especially for inference. Like cars, chips can be refurbished and repaired. A hyperscaler or even mid level player here isn't going to hold onto chips for their entire usable lifespan.