[DerpObvious]

I don't know that this automatically follows: lots of companies produce equipment for other companies to use on making profit in markets they themselves don't work in.

It's entirely possible for a company to want to manufacture ASICs/boards and not want to run a server farm and deal with that level of IT for bitcoin mining.

[marvin]

I think the intersection between such hardware companies and companies with enough domain knowledge of Bitcoin to make a bitcoin ASIC, is zero.

The most plausible explanation I've heard is that these hardware companies need deposits to pay the development costs, then plan to run the chips themselves. Anyone who doesn't use such a strategy, is not expecting their customers to break even on their investment.