It has become easier to make ASICs in-house than it used to be, particularly if you're trying to do something relatively straightforward (versus trying to build

It has become easier to make ASICs in-house than it used to be, particularly if you're trying to do something relatively straightforward (versus trying to build a fully featured, backwards-compatible x86-based cpu architecture). The teams which developed Bitcoin mining ASICs were pretty small, for instance (although that's an extreme case of simplicity). You don't need your own foundry.