That's pretty much an overgrown hobbyist project to them. Chips are usually sold in reels of 1k or 3k. For quantities like 10k chip vendors will just redirect

That's pretty much an overgrown hobbyist project to them. Chips are usually sold in reels of 1k or 3k. For quantities like 10k chip vendors will just redirect you to a distributor like Mouser or Digikey - who will be able to ship an order of 150k to you next-business-day without any issues. The problems start when the chips you want aren't redistributed. You're a rounding error to the manufacturer. Why spend the time and effort assisting a startup with a one-off 10k order when the next email is from a large car manufacturer placing a guaranteed 15M order?