For sure; I mean, mine (a fairly modern, drum washer/dryer thing) cost like $2000 and the extremely basic functionality suggests the chip/SoC should be $20 or less.
But, I assume any company doing that in any kind of serious volume has some strategy for monetizing the "washing machine with chip excised" (?).
Also, my bike is VanMoof and they just went bankrupt, and it seems like "having inventory of almost-finished hipster e-bikes — EXCEPT those 1 or 2 key parts" was part of their fatal situation.
So I can imagine scenarios where you buy washing machines to extract chips to lose less money than you would otherwise.
But, I assume any company doing that in any kind of serious volume has some strategy for monetizing the "washing machine with chip excised" (?).
Also, my bike is VanMoof and they just went bankrupt, and it seems like "having inventory of almost-finished hipster e-bikes — EXCEPT those 1 or 2 key parts" was part of their fatal situation.
So I can imagine scenarios where you buy washing machines to extract chips to lose less money than you would otherwise.