[Libre-soc-dev] 3d gpu business plan

[Lauri Kasanen]

On Mon, 28 Dec 2020 18:59:19 +0000
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:

> On Monday, December 28, 2020, Lauri Kasanen <cand at gmx.com> wrote:
> > invest in this effort, when the minute the fruit is ready, someone else
> > can reap the rewards" - it does not make sense moneywise.
>
> the silicon industry is unlike anything else.  costs are immense, lead
> times are ridiculous.  this presents two crucial barriers that can be
> exploited in a time-dependent fashion.

Any lead time they need they can do in parallel to our development,
thanks to the open development model. We have no time advantage.

> on top of this is a $10 million NREs just for the chip, that's excluding
> software and driver development costs which, if they don't have access to
> us, they're basically screwed.

The symbiotic argument is okay, but it assumes benevolent competitors.
One looking to crush us won't care that it ends the driver support.

> > It's great that you already have investors with other motivations, but
> > this main question needs a good answer.
>
> i have given several.  the person who will be helping find good VCs knows
> his stuff, has been in this industry since the 80s and is able to explain
> it.
>
> that you do not accept the reasons i have given, well, that's ok.  my
> associate will be the one talking to the VCs, and he gets it.

None of them were good enough, that's what I'm trying to get through.
This is a significant weakness in the business plan, and it needs to be
addressed for it to be attractive to investors.

- Lauri