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Comment by jordanb | Hacker News Reader

At some point it's going to make sense to buy a computer without ram once the lack of ram pushes demand down for all other components.

Maybe this won't last that long given the RAM shortage is apparently a corner attempt by Sam Altman.

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From what I've read, he's tied up RAM manufacturers through 2029. That's a lot of quartely earnings reports for many firms in the economy where they watch consumer spend come to a screeching halt.

One has to hope OpenAI goes bankrupt and they flood the market with used RAM sticks at bargain bin price.

Don’t worry, they’ve cozied up for a nice fat bailout if that happens.

As with all Ponzi schemes OpenAI will eventually go bankrupt, yet it continues to receive money from the unwary. I wonder how the research division at Disney feels about what their bosses have done...

But it should happen earlier due what is happening with the RAM, as it sounds quite illegal, like anticompetitive hoarding, cornering the market, raising rivals' costs, consumer welfare harm, and so on.

They bought unfinished components and have no ability to finish them. They're now waste just sitting on shelves and by the time we could do this and get them into production lines, they'll be obsoletd by DDR6.

Yeah, that is my main worry - that whatever they ordered is actually unusable for normal people once they go bankrupt, so there is not only nothing to auction of to the creditors, but also nothing to alleviate the shortage in the short term.

Now I'm curious: does this situation classify as force-majeure for a major firms? "Hey, you know, actually our entire consumer base just disappeared overnight. Crazy, huh?". And will various governments have to intervene to save them when/if that happens.

Not taking into account that they all be busy handing money to openAI, at least someone somewhere has to notice that something is very wrong.

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