Well they definitely can, and do. They have made the decision that the reward isn't worth the risk.
The idea (not aiming at you here, you didn't say this) that senior leadership at AMD is unaware of NVIDIA's lead in this space, and haven't repeatedly considered whether to invest in competing, is absurd. Likewise the idea that anyone outside of AMD understands better than AMD does what it would take in terms of investment _and opportunity cost_, is also absurd.
Senior leadership at AMD isn't dumb. The fact that they're not doing something we want doesn't make them dumb, either. Again, not aiming at you with this little rant :)
They may not be dumb, but they may have narrow vision (which I suppose is still dumb). Bad decisions in top tiers of the largest world companies are not unheard of.
> The idea that senior leadership at AMD is unaware.. Senior leadership at AMD isn't dumb.
Lets try this with another company:
The idea that leadership at Lehmon Brothers is unaware of the fact that they are trading subprime loans is absurd! The leadership isnt dumb
The Idea that leadership at Being is unaware of safety issues with 737 Max is absurd! How could you suggest that anyone outside boesing understands better than they do the risks involved?
The fact that a couple of other companies have had dumb leadership in no way proves that AMD's is dumb. You're essentially claiming that because Lehman and Boeing had dumb leadership, all senior leadership at all companies is dumb (because there's nothing linking AMD to these other companies except that they're all companies). And that is an absurd claim.
The idea that AMD management can't possibly have made any bad decisions is the absurd thing here. It's entirely possible that AMD carefully considered Nvidia's position, carefully considered their strategy, and confidently made the wrong decision. It happens all the time in all sorts of companies.
I think it's very clear with the benefit of hindsight that not investing enough into the software side of deep learning early on was a bad decision. But it was obvious to me even at the time and I said as much to anyone who would listen (e.g. seven years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12258027)
The idea (not aiming at you here, you didn't say this) that senior leadership at AMD is unaware of NVIDIA's lead in this space, and haven't repeatedly considered whether to invest in competing, is absurd. Likewise the idea that anyone outside of AMD understands better than AMD does what it would take in terms of investment _and opportunity cost_, is also absurd.
Senior leadership at AMD isn't dumb. The fact that they're not doing something we want doesn't make them dumb, either. Again, not aiming at you with this little rant :)