this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
344 points (97.0% liked)
Technology
87649 readers
3117 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I wouldn't say "never," but it's very likely that RAM prices will not return to pre-AI (read: bullshit) levels. Many markets do this; hike up to crazy levels during a boom, come back down 80%, rinse and repeat.
The only thing that might put a stop to it is competition or the unicorn business that focuses upon everyday consumers and not purely profit (lol). I'm hopeful China is able to be a spoiler to this current tech hegemony, given general US hegemony is basically over, but the home computing market is probably fucked in the meantime.
As awful as that sounds, I bet that's what will happen.
That's what I'm guessing. The consumer market is a multi-billion dollar industry. If Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynex are too big for it now, that's them leaving money on the table for others. Smaller companies will kick up, like those in China, and they'll gladly take the money left for them. It'll just take a while for them to get there.
The thing is, are they really leaving money on the table? Higher prices means less customers, yes, but also higher profits per unit. We don't actually know right now how many people would be willing to pay these new prices: if it costs twice as much but half the customers are still fine buying it, then profit stayed the same. And with no choice, I suspect much more than half are going to pay double.
Of course, the people who wouldn't do that are a potential market, but they are also a much lower profit margin. Comparably, that's probably not that much for these people.
There's a whole segment who are going unserved because of those high prices. Gamers across the board and enthusiasts, the entire consumer market, because RAM is too expensive. Someone else figures out how to make RAM at scale and undercut the fake inflation of the cartel could make billions easily. That's money sitting on the table.