The influence of AI has greatly hindered the current tech industry, forcing hardware value to skyrocket due to diminishing RAM and memory production. The only few companies that benefit from the demanding growth of AI are the largest RAM manufacturers: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. This situation has allowed the companies to conveniently gain a profitable advantage, which has recently forced the companies in a class action lawsuit.
Reported by Law360 (via VGC), Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are being accused of purposefully influencing the market to its favor by restricting its DDR3 and DDR4 RAM supplies from the general consumers, resulting in higher costs. This has led to the three major companies shifting its prioritized production from DDR3 and DDR4 RAM to HBM, a type of DRAM designed for AI datacenters.
“The DRAM oligopolists have simultaneously cut production, coordinated a pivot to HBM and exit from DDR3 and DDR4, and otherwise decreased and locked up conventional DRAM supply while prices charged up with mind-blowing scale and rapidity”
Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron currently have a significant advantage over the market, giving them stronger influence to raise the value of their products. Even if a business decided to supply the low RAM shortage, it would require a substantial amount of funding and time to even compete against the major RAM manufacturers. The process to even contribute and refresh the RAM shortages has grown impossible outside of the three main sources for RAM.
The practical consequence is that when the three firms restrict supply, no outsider can expand output to undercut them
Sadly, the current hardware expenses have grown to the point of becoming a common norm. According to Computerbase (via Wccftech), Lenovo stated that the prices may never return to the previous prices during early 2025. Any attempt to refresh the large supply-demand gap will minimally affect the hardware prices, forcing customers to continue paying higher tech expenses beyond even 2030.
