This is why there should be laws regarding RAM prices. A couple of companies buying the entire supply shouldn't be allowed.
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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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.
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.
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 :)
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.
Nobody is buying to destroy. They're all starved for compute right now. Hence the dynamic pricing to stop people using at peak times.
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.
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.
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.
Was the dotcom bubble also this dumb? I find that hard to imagine
The dotcom bubble was very dumb but I don't remember it taking the rest of civilization down with it. Some idiots who jumped on a bandwagon they didn't understand got venture capital for saying a buzzword, they bought expensive office chairs and then lost their shirts, but it didn't quadruple the price of a cheeseburger.
It was incredibly stupid but more like NFT stupid where people thought that in the future everybody would go to beer.com for their beer or bread.com for their bread or whatever.
Insane amounts were spent for no reason, but nobody blocked entire hardware markets or threatened nature in society to the extent that we're seeing now.
The.com crash was hubris. This is a bunch of exceptionally wealthy people wanting to wreck the entire world and pick up the pieces.
Huh, the 32gb of DDR3 I found in the dumpster might actually be worth something now
Bruh, 2026 ai crash please
So my jokes about my old ddr3 memory sitting in a box being worth a nice used car is becoming reality?
Jokes on you, the cars are more expensive now as well.
😭
I should start digging through my old hardware to find stuff to sell.
Same here. Luckily I was too lazy to get rid of it, yet. Now I can actually get some money out of it. Not sure to be happy about it, though.
Need a way to take HBM and adapt it to DRAM modules... so we have a fast path to getting consumer RAM...
... that and we need consumer mobos to be able to run RDIMM modules.
AMD already proved they have HBM memory driving capabilties.. Some years ago they did a special edition R9 card with HBM memory on die as a "compact" GPU option.
I'd imagine the overproduction of HBM wafers will not take long for them to start running DDR5 wafers in their stead when the implosion comes. Currently theres a pent up demand for cheap DDR so the memorycos will ride this out.
are ya cooked son?
No joke, I recycled a bunch of this last year.
At our local makerspace, we have a drawer thats labeled "memories" with just random RAM chips for the last 20 years. Its probably worth some $$ now.
I've still got a pile of DDR2 around, mostly 512MB-1GB sticks in the slower speeds. The better stuff got used, some of it is still in use.
The real money is the 2x16GB 2400MHz DDR4 sticks I have sitting on a shelf. Not long ago I figured it wasn't worth trying to sell some old, slower DDR4 memory but now it's apparently worth something. On the other hand, I might need it myself if one of the old DDR2/DDR3 era systems kicks the can.
Ddr2 is still alive in 2026
"Of course, today’s PCs don’t use DDR2, so we’re likely to see the impact of these price increases landing in areas like embedded systems, networking equipment, industrial controllers, automotive electronics, and other long-lived devices that were designed around it and are too costly to requalify on newer memory generations like DDR4 and five."
A couple years ago I bought a PC that came with a 32 GB stick. I had the option of paying an exorbitant amount to the manufacturer for an additional 32 GB. I declined and then spent about $10-$15 less than the manufacturer wanted for that extra 32 GB and purchased a full 64 GB from somewhere else. Long story short, where is the best place to resell 32 GB of DDR5?
Probably a jewelry
Long story short, where is the best place to resell 32 GB of DDR5?
contact your local hospital and I'm sure they could surgically insert it up your ass with little to no risk of damaging the value of your investment.
Seems needlessly aggressive
surgical procedures generally are.
Get a room you two.
DDR2 is still rocking till this day?? I thought company completely abandoned these
Very little large capacity ddr2 was ever produced, so if people start wanting to put 16GB+ in old machines, the supply dries up quick. There are still enough 1g sticks around no one wants.
Beggers cant be chosers i suppose?
Actually is solid state drives faster than ddr2? Swap might actually be faster?