logoalt Hacker News

pixl97yesterday at 8:17 PM1 replyview on HN

In general, no.

It takes billions to tens of billions to setup a fab. It also takes years to get it working. Then when you add in the IP for memory, it pretty much ain't happening.

All the RAM monopoly has to do is wait 3 days before you're producing and drop the price and you're ruined. Meanwhile they've built up a battle chest of hundreds of billions in profits.

China might be the only competition we see come out of this, but only because they are playing the long game and have trillions of US dollars to play the game with.


Replies

SoftTalkeryesterday at 8:29 PM

There are a lot of companies that have billions in cash and are also prodigious buyers of RAM. Companies like Apple, Google, Meta, Nvidia...

Do they want to get into a commodity business like RAM production? Maybe not, but if prices stay high long enough that demand for their products falls off, they might think about it.

I know that I personally and my employer are cutting way back on new technology purchases and squeezing as much as we can out of old equipment due to the cost of RAM and storage now.

show 2 replies