[sneak]

GPUs aren’t scarce. There is just a lot of demand, so prices have gone up.

Anyone can get GPUs right now and build out what they need; it’s just a matter of paying more for them than the next company. I’ve been looking at building a multi-TB HBM system lately and they’re readily available - they just cost $400k.

[hibikir]

Without realizing it, you are coming close to the economics definition of relative scarcity. If we went by uour definition, basically nothing is scarce, ever, because it's possible to provide it, but the prices are set in a way that is completely unrelated to the cost of production + risk related margin. Instead prices resemble what would be an auction. And it all only works out because demand is elastic, so there are prices that people refuse to pay, because for their use case, they'd lose money.

Housing, collectors items, access to the time of a top of the line doctor... all relatively scarce. And You'd be laughed out pf most rooms if you claimed those things aren't scarce.

[StilesCrisis]

"Shortage" means exactly that. It doesn't mean "there's no GPUs at all." In a gasoline shortage, prices go up and there are lines at the pump, but there are still cars on the road.

[eternauta3k]

The lines at the pump only happened because of rationing rules, which led people to hoard and buy gas when they otherwise wouldn't have.

[fhdkweig]

If you are talking about Russia, hoarding or not, if you burn enough refineries, you will have shortages.

[eternauta3k]

No, the OPEC crisis.

[StilesCrisis]

Sure. Rationing is a common response to shortage in general even though it isn't very effective.

[hackeraccount]

If prices go up there aren't lines. You get lines when demand goes up and supply doesn't or supply goes down and demand doesn't follow. Either way the "fix" is either to raise prices or have lines.

[gspr]

> GPUs aren’t scarce. There is just a lot of demand, so prices have gone up.

What does "scarce" mean to you?

I'd wager that to most reasonable people it means "available in a supply that, measured against demand, is low". Market forces typically react to such a state by pushing prices up. Saying "they're not scarce, they're just expensive" is just silly.

The exception to this would be during e.g. supply chain hiccups (lots of compute sitting there, unable to get to its operational destination) or when other forces artificially push up prices. But that's not what we're seeing here. Compute is much scarcer than it's been for years.

[antonvs]

In economics, scarcity applies to almost all goods and services, because they’re not infinitely available - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity

As such, saying “GPUs are scarce” is an empty statement from a strictly economic perspective - so are all other physical goods. The correct economic phrasing would be “there is a shortage of GPUs” or “GPUs are in high demand”.

Of course, in colloquial English we interpret “GPUs are scarce” as meaning the same thing.

[fhdkweig]

There is the type of scarce when you can't get something for love or money. Look at the gasoline lines in Russia. Those people sit in lines miles long for gas stations that aren't even open. No matter how much money they are willing to spend, they still can't get the gas.

I'm just grateful that I don't need to upgrade my computer for a while, and cross my fingers that I don't have a hardware failure in the next couple of years. I had an unpleasant laptop failure in 2021 that I don't wish to repeat.

[alt227]

The definition of scarce is rare, or insufficient to meet demand. Not just that supply is low in relation to demand, it means that you physically have trouble getting something.

[gspr]

Fine, replace "low" with "too low".