Having dormant hardware which is intended to be unlockable later is a separate thing, which is rarely seen on consumer hardware. Intel tried it a while ago but

Having dormant hardware which is intended to be unlockable later is a separate thing, which is rarely seen on consumer hardware. Intel tried it a while ago but the backlash was so severe that they gave up and reverted to permanently fusing off the silicon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Upgrade_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Upgrade_Service I believe they still have something similar which allows Xeon processors to be upgraded in the field though. Car manufacturers have been testing the waters too, e.g. installing heated seats in every model and making them a paid software unlock for lower end models that didn't have that option enabled from the factory.