Ask HN: Why don't GPU/TPU manufacturers commoditize their RAM complement
Wouldn't say nvidia sell more GPU's if RAM prices were lowered? What prevents them from buying up IP / RAM fab labs and commoditizing the blueprints for its manufacture? Perhaps to the public at large, or perhaps just relicensing it for very low prices to entities in friendly nations?
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Nvidia's business is cored on selling hardware to price insensitive customers. Those customers are price insensitive because the value created with Nvidia's GPU's is a non-fractional multiple of their capital cost and the capital cost of the GPU's is a fraction of the capital cost of the overall infrastructure.
And this is really important: if you maintain your margins, higher prices mean more net revenue. 30% of $2500 is less than 30% of $3000 while logistic and marketing and development costs are the same.
The retail market is price sensitive but is not the core of Nvidia's business. Large price insensitive customers are what drives development direction and what goes into retail is condensed from the exhaust fumes.
As a customer for RAM fabs, Nvidia drives the direction of RAM development without capital expenditure on infrastructure and R&D. It also mitigates the investment risks from political changes and disruption caused by technological breakthrough (the inertia of obsolescent RAM fabs driving design decisions).
Or to put it more simply, the age where near-leading-edge GPU hardware was readily accessible to consumers are past. The leading edge is increasingly military-industrial scale...with all that implies. Good luck.