[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".