Because it's expensive. If you have your own ASIC it's a differentiator that's hard for other players to compete with. They'll take this to potential investors

Because it's expensive. If you have your own ASIC it's a differentiator that's hard for other players to compete with. They'll take this to potential investors (or stockholders the "market") and say this is a big expensive thing we have that nobody else has. It's expensive and time-consuming for them to replicate and we also own a lot of IP that they would need. You and I might know it's bullshit. That's not true of the investment market in general.