Read btcs news from sept 28. They had to lease their own (SPT) equipment. I am not sure about the rationale for it.
eventually, they will probably have to either borrow money or do a preorder to start producing these units in bulk.
This will be quite interesting indeed. I'm not sure how this will work out for SPT by not revealing a price chart with varying prices based on quantity ordered. Doing it the way they are doing it puts them in a negotiation mode with each potential buyer. It would be considerate if they would at least tell us how many SP50's would have to be ordered to be considered a "bulk" order.
It may very well come to pass that they sell very few [If any at all] with the block halving approaching. Potential buyers will be asked to commit to a large deposit [At a minimum] up front without knowing a ship date that's written in stone. Anyone who orders these rigs in bulk [Paying a lot of money up front] should at least have it written in a contract for the price they negotiate to be reduced a certain percentage for each day past the projected ship date to compensate loss of revenue towards ROI before the block halving. However, there could be a gain in revenue because no one really knows what the price of bitcoin will be by the time the blocks halve.