Live data from Hacker News

Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

idc.com

21–30 of 107 posts

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a millenial all I see is my generation being repulsed by AI slop. Boomers and zoomers though have a large presence of consumption. It was easy to see this with your own family over the holidays.

I think your sample of Millenials is probably more well informed.

Nah, it's fueled by huge misinformation campaigns. It's going to kill art, put us all out of the job, uses 1.5 million gallons per query, pollutes water, will kill the electric grid, etc. These seem to be the most popular uninformed lines of thinking.

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#23

I see this as a competitive opportunity for Apple. If Apple smartphone specs improve while Androids stagnate it could create more iOS users. The promised AI metaverse is still a long way off and in the meantime people still want the best smartphone.

I have no idea how much RAM my phone has. And if you think that somebody buys an iPhone because they compare the specs with Android :)))))

Basically if I have to start comparing iPhone specs to Android phone specs I might aswell just buy an Android. The point of iOS is that you don't have to.

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#24
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not blaming them. It's really frustrating that old people are taken advantage of. We shouldn't need to be so cynical. This isn't the star trek future we were promised. Edit: It's similarly frustrating about the zoomers. Parents are derelict of duty by not defending their kids and preparing them for the world they are in.

> This isn't the star trek future we were promised. It is, though. We're just in the part leading up to WWIII.

Yeah, that bit of the Star Trek Universe is something not many folks know about.

You want to be born into the utopia, not before.

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#25

I see this as a competitive opportunity for Apple. If Apple smartphone specs improve while Androids stagnate it could create more iOS users. The promised AI metaverse is still a long way off and in the meantime people still want the best smartphone.

I have no idea how much RAM my phone has. And if you think that somebody buys an iPhone because they compare the specs with Android :)))))

I agree with you and have agreed with you for a long time. However, I definitely see the writing on the wall. More than one person in my circle have traditionally been Android users and the lack of innovation from both Apple and Android have them comparing devices on specs MUCH more. I include myself in this list on my next upgrade. I'll be looking largely at specs on the next upgrad because honestly there's not much day to day difference in usage between apple and android anymore

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#26
Imagine a future where a resourceful computer will be unobtanium, because AI companies decided to outbid consumers. Your PC will be just powerful enough to work as a terminal, with all the heavy lifting done by cloud compute data centers.

Every functionality be will subscription-based. You'll own nothing and you'll be happy.

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#27
Article completely misses the true cause of the price increase - Sam Altman/OAI made a deal with Samsung and SK Hynix get 40% of their RAM wafer production for the 2026 period. This was economic warfare against OpenAI's competitors, and the competitors along with the data centers responded by buying up every bit of DDR5 in sight. This price increase was engineered.

The deal was inked on October 1, 2025, and rumors of it started swirling in September. Take a look at the RAM price charts. Anyone who attributes this just to "AI growth" has no idea what they're talking about. AI has been growing rapidly for three years and yet this price increase just happened exactly when Altman signed this deal.

https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory/

It's also worth noting that IDC, who published this report, is wholly owned by Blackstone, who is also heavily invested in OpenAI. It would be prudent to be cautious about who you believe.

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#28

Imagine a future where a resourceful computer will be unobtanium, because AI companies decided to outbid consumers. Your PC will be just powerful enough to work as a terminal, with all the heavy lifting done by cloud compute data centers. Every functionality be will subscription-based. You'll own nothing and you'll be happy.

I mean this is one of the risk factors in AI safety that's been communicated for a long time. It's not just computing, but potentially everything. Energy resources, land resources (like those used to grow food for us meat bags), transportation resources. Suddenly humans find themselves outbid by AI as AI has pushed us out of the economy.

The economy says nothing about requiring humans to exist.

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#29

I welcome this. Anything that makes consumer electronics more expensive acts counter to the Baumol Effect. How scarce does memory have to get before it makes health care half as expensive?

Where do you think the IT costs for doctor's workstations are going to be redirected?

I always thought it was more about differences in productivity between sectors. If the Baumol effect made service sector wages increase, would wouldn't ineffencies do the inverse?

Re: Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis

#30
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not blaming them. It's really frustrating that old people are taken advantage of. We shouldn't need to be so cynical. This isn't the star trek future we were promised. Edit: It's similarly frustrating about the zoomers. Parents are derelict of duty by not defending their kids and preparing them for the world they are in.

Sci-fi will never materialize. But the ones passionate about it are so desperate for the faux future that they won't be able to tell when they're being duped. Just wait until the next great collapse, a disaster big enough to force change. Hopefully we'll have the right ideas lying around at the time to restructure our social communication system. Until then, it's slow decline. Embrace it.

Sci-fi has materialized, we're living in it now. The problem is it's the dystopia edition.
Post reply on HN