In the latest episode of the Broken Silicon podcast, the author of the Moore’s Law is Dead channel reported that the largest players in the AI market are buying up almost all available silicon wafers. Demand is so high that they receive only 70% of what they ordered, and at inflated prices. One example is OpenAI's Stargate project, which, according to sources, consumes up to 40% of all global DDR5 production. At the same time, the company is actively building its own reserves, which makes purchasing memory even more difficult for other manufacturers.
The problem is exacerbated by the transition of factories to the production of memory types oriented towards data centers, such as HBM, where silicon consumption is higher and the percentage of defects is significantly higher than that of DDR5. This further reduces supply.
There is another factor: companies that manage ordinary data centers, after a long break caused by the pandemic, have begun to update their equipment. All this creates a shortage and pushes prices up.
As a result, gamers and PC enthusiasts will suffer the most, for whom not only memory, but also motherboards are already starting to rise in price. According to the insider, upgrading a computer "will become noticeably more expensive in the near future."