>If a taxi company did that every year, they'd be losing a lot of money. Of course new cars and cards are cheaper to operate than old ones, but is that difference enough to offset buying a new one every one to three years?

That's where the analogy breaks. There are massive efficiency gains from new process nodes, which new GPUs use. Efficiency improvements for cars are glacial, aside from "breakthroughs" like hybrid/EV cars.

>offset buying a new one every one to three years?

Isn't that precisely how leasing works? Also, don't companies prefer not to own hardware for tax purposes? I've worked for several places where they leased compute equipment with upgrades coming at the end of each lease.

If your competitor refreshes their cards and you dont, they will win on margin.

You kind of have to.

If there was a new taxi every other year that could handle twice as many fares, they might. That’s not how taxis work but that is how chips work.