Why don't the companies making the mining rigs just use them instead of selling?

[willpower101]

Simple really. Why on earth would any company sell a mining rig when it's that profitable and they could just sit there and mine for a few months with them, make all their money back, then sell the chips??

[UrbanZenMaster]

Probably the manner by which they did the math led them to believe that it's a better use of their time to sell shovels than to dig around for gold.  (It's pretty profitable to sell a dream...)

Maybe they are mining too, more likely than not, they were mining long before selling the equipment, maybe still are, but have too many shovels? (Maybe to support the network?)

Another thought, possibly by providing mining rigs to the public it brings more attention to bitcoin and helps solidify it as a reality in the eye of the general populace...

[quantumflow]

They make more money selling shovels and pics - and they already have the sunk in infrastructure costs that they have to repay.

[Sigmoid]

Simple really. Why on earth would any company sell a mining rig when it's that profitable and they could just sit there and mine for a few months with them, make all their money back, then sell the chips??

This: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=354801.msg3798622#msg3798622

[trumbadera]

Simple really. Why on earth would any company sell a mining rig when it's that profitable and they could just sit there and mine for a few months with them, make all their money back, then sell the chips??

If they wait too long while mining, their chips will be sold for much less because difficulty is still rising.
The only solution to this problem is preorder model and delay delivery