sorry, i will quote what I asked previously. I am not a businessman nor a game-theorist but I would assume the HF guys are pretty clever, no?

Wouldn't the hardware supplier be smart enough to squeeze every last cent out of the selling price of chips to maximize profit from the middle man? (ie. do a quick discounted cashflow of possible BTC mined via some mumbo-jumbo simulations) Unless you are assuming that the hardware providers are naive enough to sell chips at cost + profit margin as if they are any other hardware makers...