Technology

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[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 45 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

Technically, they are buying manufacturing capacity. Datacenters don't use consumer DDR5 sticks with epic RGB lighting, they use server grade hardware, and are contracting the manufacturers to make stuff for them at high premiums. That means they either aren't making consumer hardware at all - causing shortages - or if they are, they are asking a premium because they could be using the time better making the server stuff.

Kind of like a medieval baker - if the king offers to buy 1000 cakes from you at a ridiculous price, you aren't going to be spending time baking any bread for the peasants to eat.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/data-centers-will-consume-70-percent-of-memory-chips-made-in-2026-supply-shortfall-will-cause-the-chip-shortage-to-spread-to-other-segments

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[–] themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 months ago*

I believe at first AI companies bought the future supply for HBM, which caused ram scarcity since the same companies that make DDR5 are focusing on HBM. Currently a lot of the DDR5 future and current supply is going to Data centers, not leaving much for normal consumers.

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[–] terabyterex@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I agree. i dont think there is a shortage. the ram companies are just using the buying spree to jack up prices and make investors happy. i didnt think about price caps till you mentioned it but ram really is essential to people's livelyhood. i am soap boxing this moving forward :)

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[–] Nouvellalia@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The AI companies are also buying tons of it and just locking it away. They can't use it, they are keeping competitors from using it. If competition with you will cost me $20 billion in revenue, but buying $15 billion worth of RAM stops you from being able to compete, buying the RAM just to destroy it is a no brainer.

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[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Nobody is buying to destroy. They're all starved for compute right now. Hence the dynamic pricing to stop people using at peak times.

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[–] Nouvellalia@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

Not physically destroy, you're right, but they are buying to shelve until obsolescence. Which is as good as destroyed.

They are also starved for compute. Because they cannot get data centers physically built-out fast enough.

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[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 months ago

Yes, I'm sure they can afford to buy tens of billions in servers just to store until obsolescence while they're trying hard to even become profitable lol

OpenAI bought up memory wafers, not ready-made systems from nvidia. That's something they may actually be hoarding to create a bottleneck.

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[–] Rothe@piefed.social 8 points 4 months ago

It is because the involved tech companies have formed a cartel, which isn't allowed in the first place, but in the US pedocratic oligarchy laws doesn't matter for rich people.