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Sad News! AI's RAM Hunger Finds a New Victim in the Orange Pi Neo Linux Handheld (itsfoss.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 81 points 5 months ago (4 children)

The RAM and SSD pricing situation is not unique to this project. AI data center demand has sent DDR5 prices through the roof over the past few months

...and I strongly believe that most of it is just foul play.

The AI companies are misusing their shitloads of venture capital to play with prices and manipulate the stock market.

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  • [–] 28 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    It is absolutely foul play.

    OpenAI made secret deals with DRAM manufacturers, not for memory chips but for finished wafers straight out of the Fab. Then announced them both on the same day, meaning they had a one fell swoop purchased 50+% of the world's memory supply for 2026.

    OpenAI does not (as far as anyone knows) have the machinery to process these wafers, to slice them up and package them into memory chips.

    Which means the only purpose of this move was to kill the global DRAM supply and drive up prices for the competition.

    Personally I wish regulators would take a hard look at this deal.

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  • [–] 24 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    I remember reading a few days ago that OpenAI basically ordered 3 times as much RAM as they could use this year. There are also data centers fully equipped but not turned on as the local power grid could not handle the added demand.

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  • [–] 18 points 5 months ago

    That power grid thing is what will ultimately pop the bubble.

    The lack of last mile fiber is what popped the dot com bubble.

    Turns out, spending a fuckload of money on unusable infrastructure is a bad thing.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    There's some classic oligopoly/game theory stuff about these sort of tactics. Should be a breach of competition law. Competition law is a joke. Free market for thee not for me.

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