The other element is being cornered by suppliers. If you only have one or two suppliers who can produce a component, you are exposing yourself to risk. Those one or two suppliers can let you develop a design that relies on their technology, then greatly increase the price when you are ready to go to production. Elon Musk calls this "going Russian": http://www.esquire.com/features/americans-2012/elon-musk-int...