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WTF Just Happened? | The Corrupt Memory Industry & Micron [GN]
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this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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Technology
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Can we get a TL:DW for people that don’t want to watch a video?
I think a lot of people left out the fact that these companies have been accepting public funds for R&D and expansion, and now they're no longer using those funds to sell consumer products, but rather dumping them into the insatiable maw that is AI.
Socialize the costs. Privatize the profits.
Here's the actual TL:DW (it's not that long, and I did watch it)
Steve describes what's happened (Micron shuts down Crucial their consumer-facing "store brand"), mocks their stupid press release, and discusses the nuances involved, will they still be selling to all the rebadged memory resellers who use Micron as a supplier? Unclear, their reps and defenders say yes, their PR and the context implies not really, unless those resellers want to get into a bidding war with AI datacenters that they're not going to win. Steve not-so-subtly implies that this seems awfully sort of kind of like more price fixing from a small group of oligopolist companies who have in fact been convicted in the past of price fixing, while explictly stating that he is, of course, for legal reasons, definitely NOT implying that in any way shape or form. Some much deserved ranting about how shitty and frustrating this situation is is mixed in throughout and he goes over details about exactly how much prices have risen already, pointing out all the different devices that require some form of high speed memory that are going to be affected by this. Some further discussion suggests the possibility this might just be a shot across the bow to let the other memory companies who are totally not colluding with Micron and never would consider doing that to let them know it's absolutely time to not collude about anything like that because of course they're all paying very close attention right now. So we'll have to see what else develops, but basically he's letting everyone know he's on it, and he's paying very close attention too.
I might've read between the lines a bit in a few places, I have some of my own strong feelings about what's going on here, so I apologise if I inadvertently mixed in any of my own interpretation by accident.
I watched it yesterday and only a couple things I have to add.
First is that the bipartisan CHIPS act basically shovelled taxpayer money into Micron's pockets to increase their manufacturing, but they are reducing their consumer output anyway, so Steve's point is consumers are not getting anything out of the subsidy they made.
Second is, since any potential increase in production is to cater to their largest data centre customers only, Steve is suggesting that this could be part of a push to move people to subscription-based cloud computing by making personal computing tha you buy and own unaffordable.
We should all find ways to minimize our taxes. Why should we contribute?
Thanks!
Better: can we get mods to ban low effort posts
Are you actually claiming that I should be providing a video summary? Like, that's in my wheelhouse, but I'm not on the clock, so apologies that you had to click the link.
I'm saying don't post to videos.
Posting articles with embedded videos is OK. But just pasting a god damn video link is low effort, and not welcome. It's poor lemmyquite
I'm sorry. Are you a mod here? You're just bitching that you didn't get exactly what you wanted served on a platter.
imagine 4 things that could be posted:
do you have a sufficient grasp of how the internet works to understand that the effort involved in posting a link is exactly the same in all 4 cases?
You can always click on the transcript on YouTube if you'd prefer to read. If you then need it summarized, that's one of the things LLMs are actually (mostly) useful for.
Unless the YouTuber provides the transcript themselves, they're basically auto-generated captions that aren't accurate. And you still gotta have YT open to read it.
You made the dreadful mistake of saying something positive about LLMs. We shall now proceed to downvote you accordingly.
That's why our instance has no downvote mechanism!
TL:DW;
Mr. Nexus still thinks its news that, under capitalism, production of luxury goods will always be sold to the highest bidder and not "the masses"
I didn't watch it either. But its about Micron no longer selling consumer ram in favor of the AI industry customer.
Who tries to give a TL:DW for a video they didn't even watch? So weird
https://piefed.ca/comment/2532727
Oh wow, I got all the important parts didn't I?
Crazy....
No, and your hostility is out of place. Do you have something against GN?
So there's three companies that make almost all the DRAM and they're now all ramping down production of consumer RAM.
They've also done price fixing in the past.
I don't think much math needs to be done.
I respect that Steve was able to control himself and only make a 25 minute video on this.
You can only use so many "fucks" before a video is demonetized. Running any longer would have come up against that wall.
Thanks! So literally a nothing burger.
I hate YouTube clickbait.
Well I mean the 3 DRAM manufacturers that matter all made the decision to ramp down consumer RAM manufacturing. OpenAI alone is buying up 40% of all global DRAM production.
Given all the financial fuckery going on with OpenAI and the AI and hardware industries in general, I'm pretty sure this is intentional price fixing.
So just another day in capitalist society. Nothing to write home about imo.
Just accepting how fucked things are does not advance change. Others being concerned about it benefits you, so I'm not sure what you're complaining about.
It's just that society has much bigger problems than the price of ram sticks.
Like the price of housing, the price of food, transportation..
I don't find this even worth mentioning, that's just it.
So, you're going with the slippery slope: There are so many other problems, why worry about a new one?
I'm homeless and struggle to afford food, so I'm aware of the larger issues in play. The problem here is that we're adding a new one atop societal decay. Handwaving each new fuckup away is how we succumb to a future without agency.
Now is the time to be shouting from the rooftops, not giving up.
Nothing in modern society works without computers, so everything will get a bit more expensive with DRAM and NAND chips multiplying in price. Hell, wages may go down at low margin businesses dependent on computing.
It's not apocalyptic by any means, but it's just more salt in many wounds.
For us gamers, RAM is a once every 5 or 10 years expense. If you buy it more often, you're just wasting money most likely. Businesses may buy a lot of new computers every year, or they might use cloud compute services that will also get more expensive.
I have a rule that I will double RAM with each generation. I had 8GB of DDR2, then 16GB of DDR3. You can guess where I went with DDR4.
Looks like I'm not getting 64GB this year.
Got 64GB DDR5 earlier this year. I went to check the price of the kit recently and it's up to $800. Shit's insane.
What timings?
6000 MT/s 28-36-36-96
Looks like a nice kit. I was holding out for 6400 before everything fell apart. G.Skill has been solid for me in the past.
Also part of the 32 GB DDR4 club here; I'm considering waiting for DDR6 and 128 GB lol
Have fun with the wait!
Micron took millions in tax payer dollars from the CHIPS Act to build fabs. To then turn around and shut down their consumer market is kind of fucked. That's a little more than a nothing burger.