This has got to be some sort of psyop
OpenAI bought 40% of the world’s DRAM.
They bought them as whole wafers (not finished chips!) from SK Hynix and Samsung.
Then they put them in a warehouse
All of that is confirmed, btw. The part below is my speculation:
To me, that reads as if they’re using VC money to drive up RAM prices, hoping that their competitors (who are catching up) can’t buy more RAM.
It’s so anticompetitive it’s unbelievable. And of course, normal buyers are the most fucked over.
So where are the regulators right now? Oh yes, they’ve all been completely gutted by the governments.
I dont even want to build a computer anymore, finally saved up some money and I shouldve just continued spending it on overpriced festivals (crazy how it also used to be a deal and now its just 500$ minimum for ticket and shitty hotel)
I can only hope that the A.I. bubble bursts in time when I need to buy a new computer.
I think it’s a lost cause. Essentially both crypto and AI were big because someone figured out how to offload shit to a GPU efficiently. There’s probably a ton of other appllications for GPUs we haven’t even tapped.
I’ve got this crazy idea where we can use GPUs to render 3D scenes efficiently.
Serial compute isn’t doing the double-every-18-months-in-speed since something like the early 2000s.
Unlike with serial compute, not all problems can be solved, run faster, with parallel compute. But at some point, unless we figure out some sort of new way to play with physics, we pretty much have to move to parallel compute where we can if we want much more performance.
Good luck…
Even when the bubble bursts, they’re going to have an insane amount of computing power just sitting there, it will get sold off in bankruptcy proceedings, and some company will gobble it up and operate at a loss while continuing to secure future supply contracts.
There’s a very real chance that we’re witnessing the slow death of home computing.
The way things shake out it might end up being prohibitively expensive compared to cloud computing, and once that’s the norm they price gouge like Walmart did to destroy small businesses.
Instead of dropping a couple grand for a PC every couple years, we’ll have steady contracts paying for month at a time indefinitely.
Nah. Web devs will create even more bloated web pages to keep home computing in business.
For real though, most people don’t need that much computing power, and we reached the plateau 12 years ago. That’s why we’re seeing crypto and AI grifts happen. They recentralize decentralized systems. The elites are striking back.
You know the saying“information wants to be free; information wants to be expensive”? This is the expensive part where people try to horde knowledge by making it inaccessible to everyday people.
People thought they’d hang onto CDs and DVDs too…
Those GPUs fry themselves in a year or two, and utility prices will put pressure on governments to concept datacenters
Same
Right? Feel bad for anyone that just had a system fry or have been saving up to upgrade.
If the AI bubble bursts most of the western world will be thrown into deep recession again and I hope we don’t get a repeat of 2008 just for cheap RAM or GPUs
It’s already there for most of us. It only a few rich companies getting richer that’s making the line go up.
First it was GPUs because crypto, then this. Wonder what useless thing the tech bros will cover up with in a few years!
Water.
It’s already happening in parallel though, not next.
Article in 2027:
Keyboard prices soared this month, as tech giants pivoted from failed AI projects to employing hordes of monkeys typing randomly. One CEO was quoted as saying, “Just a few trillion more dollars, and I think our random typing model could reproduce the lost contents of the Library of Alexandria.”
I’m off to buy stock in bananas.
What I’m becoming worried about now is all these corporations now realizing that they can simply supply price the average consumer out of owning electronics or any kind of compute. And locking them into renting or leasing access to data center compute and keeping the power of information further consolidated in corporate interests.
Anybody hold onto all their old electronics just in case in spite of the financial/resource “waste”?
No but I do hold onto old electronics because I grew up with my grandparents and they had WW2 wartime rationing mentality about saving everything. Also my grandfather also an incredibly cheap bastards at times too
“You will own nothing and be happy”
That out of context quote takes a lot of shit for something that was supposed to represent a futuristic socialist utopia.
The idea was that 14 years after that article was published, mankind would have such immediate access to services and those services would be free, that people would just sorta stop caring about owning things. For example, since food and necessities would be free, you could go home and print your dinner. If you wanted someone else to cook, you’d get something delivered. But, if you wanted to try something truly novel that most people don’t do anymore in this society, you could rent kitchen equipment and it’d be ready as soon as you need it, and you’d use socialized appliances and utensils. Why? Because your home doesn’t need that clutter. If you wanna cook all the time, you can own whatever you want. But most people will want to use that space for something else, so they’ll just print their meals.
You would have quick and easy access to transport, so why waste the money and space to own a car? You wanna drive? Push a button in your app and a car arrives for free. Or take the free train or bus.
The essay isn’t about “you won’t be able to own anything,” it’s about “you won’t want to own anything, but you’ll have everything you could ever want or need.”
And we’re really headed in the right direction for this amazing future. Except, you know… Corporations are bleeding us dry instead of supporting us…
That does sound lovely, but like every other utopia it’s a fantasy. It’s got the same fatal issue as every other utopia - people. A person can be good and decent, but people suck. I’d say the modern use of that quote is more accurate to reality than the rose tinted view of its origin.
“To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem.”
The link doesn’t work for me.
Even if the initial intention is positive, I think this degree of dependency on external services is not realistic even if mega corps were not as bad as they are currently.
Thank you. This is the first version I heard so I was confused why it’s bad and people being against it.
Aren’t we already seeing that though?
The vast majority of people who surf the web don’t use a computer to do it. People who do belong to niches. People over a certain age grew up with and still buy computers. People who game still buy computers or consoles. People who stream/create content still use computers and other electronics for that purpose, same with like. Engineers and hobbyists using CAD and other software in creative spaces.
But the smart phone has overtaken the computer as a personal computing device by quite a large margin now. And at every turn companies are trying to make cell phones a den of ad service, slop, and addictive content while stealing any user data that’s not nailed down to increase their revenue and continue the circle.
with being a walled garden i have a feeling we will eventually see phones become genuinely free because you will not have an option to keep your data away from advertisers. AOSP is barely holding on to maintain a safe place for users. when all hardware is locked down we will be stuck.
I’m assuming you mean that phone software will be free, because phones (while they can be heavily subsidized) aren’t free and are getting up to ridiculous prices. I own a phone that retails for $1000. That’s a ridiculous price for a phone. Except that phones now are just very tiny personal computers.
I hope it means the return of old, old hardware and the software that comes along with it. This is why projects like collapseOs are important.
Wouldn’t the chinese or whoever doesn’t chose to do that gain market share?
theyd have to all collorbate to make that happen though, which is really unfeasable on their end. a BUNCH of companies will go under if they cannot sell product. they arent going to willingly take losses for the sake of a different company.
They don’t really have to collaborate though. They’re proving right now that they can price out consumers by just buying all the hardware capacity up and letting the market take care of the little guys. Hardware manufacturers like Micron are obliging.
the ai companies are but that doesnt talk about the hardware specific companies. for example dell, hp and lenovo run a large business laptop leasing business if they do not get their ram, it will sour their relationships with memory manufacturers . they arent all going to be willing to take losses
for example dell, hp and lenovo run a large business laptop leasing business if they do not get their ram, it will sour their relationships with memory manufacturers
Lenovo is stockpiling memory to try to make it through the RAM winter.
Lenovo stockpiles RAM as prices skyrocket, reportedly has enough inventory to last through 2026 — memory stock claimed to be 50% higher than usual to fight pricing shock
Lenovo is playing it smart and buying up as much memory inventory as it can
I don’t think that Lenovo is getting special deals with memory makers either, or they wouldn’t need to stockpile.
Holy cow that’s a very real danger I hadn’t thought of! The industry needs a new trend to reuse all this capacity they built, because AI will likely scale back as many startups fail to reach profit.
Renting your home computer might be the next trend, and it could be gratis at first so people get used to it. Why spy on users when you can actually own their computers?
Username unfortunately checks out
I hope they do, it will just break stuff more and people will be more likely to go with Linux and open source software. My 10 year old computer still is super fast if it’s not bloated.
Linux won’t make bullshit pc part prices cheaper. RAM, SSDs, GPUs are all rising in prices because of the AI bubble, used and new are all being affected. Can’t run Linux if the parts are too expensive to even get in the first place.
Software needs hardware Linux dose nothing but make it easier for them.
My point is that there is existing hardware already out on the secondary market for cheap, and can run most of what anybody needs. All those machines that aren’t up to snuff for Windows 11 standards don’t need to go into the landfill.
How’s your 10 year old computer going to look when it’s 30 years old?
“Please insert more corpo-coin for compute access”
Hope my verification can still works!
A few months from now: Crucial unshutting down
If that happens, prior Crucial consumers (like myself) should boycott because they already showed what they actually care about and it isn’t their loyal customer base. They don’t want us to buy their products? We should happily give them what they want now should they change their mind later.
Anyway yeah, if they come back, they’re officially on my shit list.
You gotta be fucking kidding me, I swore by Crucial RAM and SSDs. Eat shit, Micron.
Same here, the only SSD brand I buy :(
Nnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
These CEOs seem really slow on the uptake. Gonna put all your chips into the AI business just as the bubble is about to burst.
The market can stay irrational far longer than you can stay solvent.
They’re trying to squeeze the last water out of the rock while hoping to dip out before everyone realizes everything has been squeezed out.
That’s the thing about bubbles, the last moments are very profitable, it’s more like rich people are playing chicken with the market until it busts.
Aww man :(
Lawsuit.
Sue for what dumbass? Them refusing to sell you a thing that you want? Grow the fuck up.
What the fuck is your problem fuckwit? I didn’t shit in your Capri Sun.
Why? I mean, they aren’t compelled to manufacture DIMMs.
Right now, there is a window in time where there are companies willing to pay tons of money for HBM, more than most people and companies are for DIMMs. It’d be crazy for memory manufacturers not to make HBM if they have the capacity to do so, if they’re doing way better by doing so.
What’s there to sue for? Companies shut down product lines and brands all the time.
Tomfoolery
If only that was a legal cause of action…
You can try, but I don’t see how they’ve done anything that makes them liable to a lawsuit. I’m just adding them to my list of companies I won’t do business with when they inevitably come back to consumers after the bubble pops.
Damn I’ve bought a lot of crucial stuff over the years
I assume they’re my current memory kit too since I pretty much always go with them
First it was GPUs, and now it’s RAM.
This seriously sucks. Maybe I’ll have to stick with my mom’s laptop for a little while longer if prices are going to be impacted (which I having a feeling they probably will be unless they already are).
They told us us to buy computers in 2024 in case this happens. Here we are.
That’s OK, I wouldn’t dream of buying American RAM anyway.
Personally, I’m willing to bite the bullet and get Samsung’s but I know not everyone can afford to do that.
I’m a follower and just go with Corsair Vengeance. Hasn’t ever let me down.
I think all my SSDs are Samsung. Nvme are Kingston and so I like to think they have thick Jamaican accents, mon. No issues with any of it and some of that storage is getting real old.
Thing with PC parts is it’s worth paying a bit more for quality. Ends up being much cheaper in the long term.
Samsung doesn’t actually make dimms as far as I know, just the actual ram chips that get soldered onto a dimm and sold by companies like corsair
This should be in nottheonion
Holy shit, really? Crucial? They’ve been a major player for AGES. That’s wild.
I mean, Crucial is just the name that Micron puts on the memory they want to sell to consumers. So this story is basically just, “Micron no longer wants to sell to consumers”.
When the shit hits the fan and they come back to consumers, we should just buy from anyone but them, on principle alone.
So Samsung or SK Hynix. Because there are only 3 real players in the market :/
Anything but crucial.
Well it turns out that Samsung and SK Hynix also sold out to Altman. Literally whose RAM we gonna buy now? There were only 3 major manufacturers in the first place.
I’m pretty fucked then, because I was one of those that was waiting until 2026 to build a new rig.
I read an article yesterday that Samsung’s memory division wasn’t even willing to let Samsung’s own cell phone division lock in any long-term memory buying agreement with them, which the cell phone division hsd been trying to do. Too much money in selling HBM memory for parallel compute to datacenters.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/ai-frenzy-is-driving-new-global-supply-chain-crisis-2025-12-03/
Some 6,000 miles away in California, Paul Coronado said monthly sales at his company, Caramon, which sells recycled low-end memory chips pulled from decommissioned data-center servers, have surged since September. Almost all its products are now bought by Hong Kong-based intermediaries who resell them to Chinese clients, he said.
“We were doing about $500,000 a month,” he said. “Now it’s $800,000 to $900,000.”
I threw away a bunch of large-capacity DDR4 DIMMs last year, figured that they’d be useless in the future. Kind of wish I hadn’t, now. Reusing old DIMMs is probably the only source of supply that can be ramped up in the near term.
In October, SK Hynix said all its chips are sold out for 2026, while Samsung said it had secured customers for its HBM chips to be produced next year. Both firms are expanding capacity to meet AI demand, but new factories for conventional chips won’t come online until 2027 or 2028.
Two or three years until manufacturing capacity will be ramped up.
Dude I have DIMMS that I bought in fucking 1999. Who the fuck throws away RAM???
I have memory thar predates DIMMs and have no plan to throw them away. That guy is crazy
What does Samsung’s memory division think is going to happen to their phone division if they won’t sell them ram, wow.
Imagine the ship of Theseus, but they don’t replace the parts. They just take them off. It will be very cost efficient, until the ship sinks.
Who needs ram in a phone anyway?
Not sure that leopards will be having a glorious meal is the appropriate symbolism but feel free to give me a better one
In this case wouldn’t it be the leopards eating itself?
A nice roasted tail maybe?
I was going in a different direction myself. More in the vane of offering the leopard a second meal
