> OpenAI’s rapid growth, fueled by the success of ChatGPT and other AI products, led to a landmark agreement in October to purchase 900,000 DRAM wafers per month from Samsung and SK Hynix—amounting to roughly 40% of global supply. This surge in demand, coupled with limited manufacturing capacity, sent prices for memory kits skyrocketing. [0]
They ordered 40% of the global RAM production for 2025/26. It was a non-binding agreement that either side could easily withdraw from but they're essentially trying to buy about half of all the RAM.
If I booked half a hotel's rooms then suddenly said "yeah never mind. Half my friends cancelled and we're not staying", basically any hotel would be coming at me for my money because there's no way they can fill their rooms now and they're losing revenue. But OpenAI can really get the whole world to pivot towards it then say "cool but we don't need your product anymore" and RAM makers are just going to let it go.
Whoever decided that was a good idea needs to be fired and publicly shamed.
Well if that hotel was then able to sell the other half of hotel rooms for 10x the old price. Then the hotel might actually be happy as they can now charge 10x for the other half or slowly lower prices back down over years.
Apparently...
> OpenAI’s rapid growth, fueled by the success of ChatGPT and other AI products, led to a landmark agreement in October to purchase 900,000 DRAM wafers per month from Samsung and SK Hynix—amounting to roughly 40% of global supply. This surge in demand, coupled with limited manufacturing capacity, sent prices for memory kits skyrocketing. [0]
[0]: https://peq42.com/blog/openai-canceling-many-large-purchase-...
They ordered 40% of the global RAM production for 2025/26. It was a non-binding agreement that either side could easily withdraw from but they're essentially trying to buy about half of all the RAM.
Blows my mind that it's non-binding.
If I booked half a hotel's rooms then suddenly said "yeah never mind. Half my friends cancelled and we're not staying", basically any hotel would be coming at me for my money because there's no way they can fill their rooms now and they're losing revenue. But OpenAI can really get the whole world to pivot towards it then say "cool but we don't need your product anymore" and RAM makers are just going to let it go.
Whoever decided that was a good idea needs to be fired and publicly shamed.
Well if that hotel was then able to sell the other half of hotel rooms for 10x the old price. Then the hotel might actually be happy as they can now charge 10x for the other half or slowly lower prices back down over years.
it's used for price gouging by the cartel
if anything, OpenAi might be in on it