Episode Details

DRAM prices have gone vertical: one 32GB DDR5 kit jumped from $191 to $1,118 in a year, and TrendForce expects contract prices to climb another 90–95% quarter over quarter. The cause isn't broken fabs — it's HBM. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are shifting wafer capacity to high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, and each gigabyte of HBM eats roughly three times the wafer area of standard DRAM. Consumers get what's left, and Intel's chief executive says that's "shorter shrift than AI players." Waiting it out isn't a plan: Samsung expects tight supply through 2028 and Micron's first New York fab won't produce until 2030. So we count down the top ten most ridiculous legal workarounds — from bundle deals and decommissioned servers to RAM flipping, eBay price trackers, e-waste channels, and the one entry that beats them all. Key sources: • TrendForce — https://www.trendforce.com/presscenter/news/20260202-12911.html • TrendForce — https://www.trendforce.com/presscenter/news/20260331-12995.html • Tom's Hardware — https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ddr5/32gb-of-ddr5-6000-ram-now-costs-usd450-ai-induced-shortage-reaches-worst-milestone-yet Episode 5992 — myweirdprompts.com/n/5992 (permanent short link: myweirdprompts.com/685764)