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Counter argument is that is NVIDIA friendly to their supply chain? I have to think that maybe they are with their massive margins because they can be - their e

by boringg 9mo ago

Counter argument is that is NVIDIA friendly to their supply chain? I have to think that maybe they are with their massive margins because they can be - their end buyer is currently willing to absorb costs at no expense. But I don't know, and that will change as their business changes. Your underlying statement implies that whoever is replacing apple is a better buyer which I don't think is necessarily true.

marcosdumay 9mo ago
If your customers are known to be antagonistic to business partners, the correct answer is to diversify them as much as you can, even at reasonable costs from anything else. That means deprioritizing your largest customer.
- boringg 9mo ago
  Fair I feel like that also speaks to nation+states trade policy. Also theres the devil you know and the devil you dont know.
  - simonh 9mo ago
    Yep, you can be close allies with a nation and have many shared interests, and even a trade deficit with them as we in Britain did, and then they stab you in the back with tariffs.
- tonyedgecombe 9mo ago
  At these scales everyone is antagonistic, it comes with the territory.
  - marcosdumay 9mo ago
    That's what MBA schools teach you. That's also a lie, it's only antagonistic when one of the sides is controlled by a psychopathic asshole, and it being antagonistic is a serious drag for the gains of both sides.
    - tonyedgecombe 9mo ago
      What company at these scales isn’t run by a psychopathic asshole? It also comes with the territory.
Y-bar 9mo ago
> EVGA Terminates Relationship With Nvidia, Leaves GPU Business > According to Han, Nvidia has been difficult to work with for some time now. Like all other GPU board partners, EVGA is only told the price of new products when they're revealed to everyone on stage, making planning difficult when launches occur soon after. Nvidia also has tight control over the pricing of GPUs, limiting what partners can do to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/evga-terminates-relationship-with-nvidia-leaves-gpu-business/1100-6507619/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/evga-terminates-relationsh...
- boringg 9mo ago
  So not favorable to apple as a buyer.
  - Y-bar 9mo ago
    Funnily enough Apple and Nvidia has old beef with one another, this especially led them to sever ties: https://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/07/11/investigation-confirms-apple-macbook-pros-have-nvidia-bad-bump-material/ https://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/07/11/investigation-confir...
philistine 9mo ago
Nvidia is famously a pain to work with. Apple vowed never to use their chips, Microsoft and Sony can't get them to make any GPU for their consoles. The only complete package integrator that manages to make a relationship work with Nvidia is Nintendo.
- randall 9mo ago
  I think that works out tremendously well for Nintendo, especially when you look at the Wii-U vs the Switch. I shot a video at CNET in probably 2011 which was a single touchscreen display (i think it was the APX 2500 prototype iirc?) and it has the precise dimensions to the switch 1. Nintendo was reluctantly a hardware company... they're a game company who can make hardware, but they know they're best when they own the stack.
- 7speter 9mo ago
  > The only complete package integrator that manages to make a relationship work with Nvidia is Nintendo. And thats probably because Nintendo isn’t adding any pressure to neither TSMC nor Nvidia capacity wise; iirc Nintendo uses something like Maxwell or Pascal on really mature processes for Switch chips/socs.
  - Macha 9mo ago
    And also the Switch 1 was just the hardware for a nvidia shield tablet from nVidia’s perspective, without the downside of managing the customer facing side and with the greater volume from Nintendo’s market reach. (Not that it wasn’t more than that for consumers or Nintendo, just talking nvidia here)
- mr_toad 9mo ago
  > Apple vowed never to use their chips I thought that was mainly due to bad thermals. I always got the impression that (like Intel) Nvidia only cared about performance, and damn the power consumption.
  - philistine 9mo ago

by boringg 9mo ago

marcosdumay 9mo ago

If your customers are known to be antagonistic to business partners, the correct answer is to diversify them as much as you can, even at reasonable costs from anything else. That means deprioritizing your largest customer.

boringg 9mo ago
Fair I feel like that also speaks to nation+states trade policy. Also theres the devil you know and the devil you dont know.
- simonh 9mo ago
  Yep, you can be close allies with a nation and have many shared interests, and even a trade deficit with them as we in Britain did, and then they stab you in the back with tariffs.
tonyedgecombe 9mo ago
At these scales everyone is antagonistic, it comes with the territory.
- marcosdumay 9mo ago
  That's what MBA schools teach you. That's also a lie, it's only antagonistic when one of the sides is controlled by a psychopathic asshole, and it being antagonistic is a serious drag for the gains of both sides.
  - tonyedgecombe 9mo ago
    What company at these scales isn’t run by a psychopathic asshole? It also comes with the territory.

Y-bar 9mo ago

> EVGA Terminates Relationship With Nvidia, Leaves GPU Business > According to Han, Nvidia has been difficult to work with for some time now. Like all other GPU board partners, EVGA is only told the price of new products when they're revealed to everyone on stage, making planning difficult when launches occur soon after. Nvidia also has tight control over the pricing of GPUs, limiting what partners can do to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/evga-terminates-relationship-with-nvidia-leaves-gpu-business/1100-6507619/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/evga-terminates-relationsh...

boringg 9mo ago
So not favorable to apple as a buyer.
- Y-bar 9mo ago
  Funnily enough Apple and Nvidia has old beef with one another, this especially led them to sever ties: https://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/07/11/investigation-confirms-apple-macbook-pros-have-nvidia-bad-bump-material/ https://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/07/11/investigation-confir...

philistine 9mo ago

Nvidia is famously a pain to work with. Apple vowed never to use their chips, Microsoft and Sony can't get them to make any GPU for their consoles. The only complete package integrator that manages to make a relationship work with Nvidia is Nintendo.

randall 9mo ago
I think that works out tremendously well for Nintendo, especially when you look at the Wii-U vs the Switch. I shot a video at CNET in probably 2011 which was a single touchscreen display (i think it was the APX 2500 prototype iirc?) and it has the precise dimensions to the switch 1. Nintendo was reluctantly a hardware company... they're a game company who can make hardware, but they know they're best when they own the stack.
7speter 9mo ago
> The only complete package integrator that manages to make a relationship work with Nvidia is Nintendo. And thats probably because Nintendo isn’t adding any pressure to neither TSMC nor Nvidia capacity wise; iirc Nintendo uses something like Maxwell or Pascal on really mature processes for Switch chips/socs.
- Macha 9mo ago
  And also the Switch 1 was just the hardware for a nvidia shield tablet from nVidia’s perspective, without the downside of managing the customer facing side and with the greater volume from Nintendo’s market reach. (Not that it wasn’t more than that for consumers or Nintendo, just talking nvidia here)
mr_toad 9mo ago
> Apple vowed never to use their chips I thought that was mainly due to bad thermals. I always got the impression that (like Intel) Nvidia only cared about performance, and damn the power consumption.
- philistine 9mo ago