alt Hacker NewsThe actual lead times on similarly-capable GPU systems are so long, by the time your order is executed, you're already losing money. Even assuming perfect utilization, and perfect after-market conditions—you won't be making any money on the hardware anyway.
Buy v. rent calculus is only viable if there's no asymmetry between the two. Oftentimes, what you can rent you cannot buy, and vice-versa, what you can buy—you could never rent. Even if you _could_ buy an actual TPU, you wouldn't be able to run it anyway, as it's all built around sophisticated networking and switching topologies[1]. The same goes for GPU deployments of comparable scale: what made you think that you could buy and run GPU's at scale?
It's a fantasy.
Replies
Is your answer to "where can I buy a TPU" that you can't buy a GPU either? That's a new one.
First of all I don't understand how that's an answer. Second of all it's laughably wrong - I can name 5 firms (outside of FAANG) off the top of my head with >1k Blackwell devices and they're making very good money (have you ever heard of quantfi....). Third of all, how is TPU going to conquer absolutely anything when (as you admit) you couldn't run one even if you could buy one?
Right. Your argument doesn't really follow. Since I cannot buy a TPU, which you agree with, then a single viable option is really only a GPU, which I _can_ buy.
So, according to that, GPUs aren't really going anywhere unless there's a new player in a town who will compete with the Nvidia and sell at lower prices.