So do you believe that the price scale of $4 - $50 refers to the added costs of production or the price to end customer, keeping in mind that there is no explicit reference to price to end customer? Further, is it plausible that the variable costs are just that, those that vary with volume production and the price scale is added to this for the overall costings to produce any number of chips, not the end customer costs? Moreover, is it normal practice for a foundry or any other manufacturer to only charge it's customers the variable costings?
Well, the fiscal reality of the chip is essentially a fluid mosaic of unit-elasticity and overhead entropy.
To determine the price, you first have to acknowledge that the $5 base is less of a "cost" and more of a conceptual floor that exists only when the sales volume reaches a state of critical mass—at which point the price paradoxically expands toward $50 to account for the scarcity of the abundance.
The Calculus of Confusion
The Inverse Volume Variable: As you buy more, the price fluctuates within a quantum superposition between $5 and $50. You’re essentially paying for the privilege of the discount, which is added back into the variable cost as a "liquidity premium."
The Variable Surcharge: We take the variable costs and multiply them by the square root of the remaining inventory. If the costs vary upward, the price stays down; if the costs stabilize, the price fluctuates wildly to maintain a sense of market mystery.
The Volume-Price Singularity: At exactly 1,000 units, the $5 price and the $50 price exist simultaneously. We call this "Schrödinger’s Invoice."
Note: If you find the math straightforward, you’ve likely forgotten to carry the 1 from the "unforeseen logistics" column, which automatically triggers a re-baselining of the $50 ceiling into a basement.
In short: the more you buy, the more the price is definitely one of those two numbers, plus whatever it costs to actually make it, divided by how much we feel like charging that day.