which is why there is no hoarding of all the computers and RAM for data centers that don’t even exist.

xro

That was also one of my first reactions, but on reflection I don't think it's accurate.

I think they mainly want to hamper their direct compentation.

The damage to the PC market was originally unintended, but as always, those bros try to exploit all new circumstances to their benefit.

So, yes, they might double down on that now.

Thankfully there are still big Interests aligned with a thriving PC market. Nvidia might have abandoned the consumer but not everybody did yet

xro

@blogdiva
However,

This DOES give us a glimpse into a future, where goods are no longer produced for consumers but only for big tech.

Where the consumer and small businesses will no longer have the option to buy what they need, but will have to make due with whatever scraps are left to buy at unreasonable prices.

Bobo_PK 🦄

@blogdiva maybe the long term plan is to kill all smaller hosters and only be left with a oligopolous hosting market.

craignicol

@blogdiva so like OPEC in the 70s then? That went well

your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

@craignicol and by the same OPEC people. literally. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are behind this AI madness. they just wanna make sure they keep on pumping that petrol and methane.

10x Electrical Engineer

@blogdiva I don’t think you are correct. There is both a DRAM shortage and NAND shortage, like what you said, and it’s due to techbros, but it’s not a tech collusion to create PC tech shortage.

The memory companies (Sk hynix, Samsung, Micron, etc) have moved all their production and manufacturing capacity for the next few years for AI related hardware (HBM and eSSDs). Because of this, there’s no production space for consumer-grade memory.

🧵️

10x Electrical Engineer

@blogdiva Companies like OpenAI and Google have bought all the supply for the next couple of years. You can see proof of this from the closure of Crucial’s consumer brand, Micron. They get more profit from AI companies than tech enthusiasts or gamers.

The issue is the AI bubble. It’s a circle jerk of companies just paying each other to keep their shareholders happy, and when a company goes down the US government buys them back in.

Toni Aittoniemi

@blogdiva They want you on shit computers that can’t do anything but act as terminals for their cloud.

A cloud where they control and surveil everything.

Toni Aittoniemi

@johnzajac @johntimaeus @blogdiva It’s still an interesting gamble:

They are trying to convert a consumer economy into an elite economy. (Back to feudalism essentially)

They are betting that they don’t need demand from us any more, but can just keep selling ultra-expensive things to the ultra-rich.

That’s what’s going on IMO.

John

@gimulnautti @johntimaeus @blogdiva

Yeah, they aren't terrible wise, are they?

Jargoggles

@inthehands @blogdiva @flipper
Counterpoint: volcano hungry

js

@blogdiva Except that is not how it works. What happens is that HBM as used in datacenters has a MUCH higher margin than consumer grade DDR RAM. But capacities on wavers are limited. So those memory companies optimize for most money per area of waver. And since the margin for HBM is so much higher, they make almost no regular consumer grade DDR RAM at all anymore. So now the demand for the little DDR RAM that is being produced is vastly higher than what is produced, so there ends up a bidding war over the little DDR RAM that is being made. AI companies are not buying up DDR RAM and not using it - they’re buying the HBM and don’t care about your DDR RAM at all.

I hate the situation right now as much as everybody else, but spreading misinformation about it is not gonna help. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s capitalism and the memory companies having no reason to make DDR RAM with a lower margin.

// Edit: This is also the reason for the increase in SSD prices, because the companies that make memory and the companies that make SSDs are an almost perfect overlap. They just all only produce what is currently by far the highest margin for them.

Violet Madder

@johnzajac @johntimaeus @blogdiva

But see for persons to get compute and produce things, they're going to try to force everybody to go through bare bones terminals to access the cloud.

That way everything we make, everything we say and calculate and draw etc passes through their gates. Total surveillance and control, with them able to cut us off at any time.

Of course this only works when you have a good enough data connection to get a snappy feed from the CPUs, anyplace without fast fiber will just be left floundering. Which is fine by them.

John

@violetmadder @johntimaeus @blogdiva

They're destroying the system that *already does that* to replace it with a system that...does that?

The plausible end result of what's happening is not particularly complicated: the rich will either back down or be destroyed. That's what history tells us. The relative timeline / scale of that consequence is the only thing in question.

Also, the impact of climate change on society's metabolism and hunger for the rich should not be minimized.

Ames

@blogdiva Over to you, China…

Wandering Adventure Party

which is why there is no hoarding of all the computers and RAM for data centers that don’t even exist.