OpenAI chief argues scarce memory serves more users in data centres than desktops

Sam Altman used an appearance on the Cheeky Pint podcast, hosted by Stripe co-founder John Collison, to argue that the world's constrained supply of DRAM is being misallocated to personal computers. The OpenAI chief executive said memory in individual machines is used only 5 per cent of the time, and that "from the point of view of global allocation, it's actually fairly terrible" that everyone holds part of a limited global supply. The remark lands in the middle of the build-out it describes: the corporate demand for memory generated by AI companies, OpenAI among them, is what is driving component prices up across the industry.

Altman's proposed alternative is "maximum utilisation in the cloud" while supply remains tight — a framing that, as the French outlet Frandroid noted, also aligns with OpenAI's interest in selling cloud subscriptions rather than supporting inference on users' own machines. Asked by Collison why soaring prices had not drawn new manufacturers into the market, he said the market's "invisible hand" was currently failing: DRAM producers had for years spent roughly what they earned on fabrication plants and came close to bankruptcy several times, leaving them cautious even as they prepare to earn more than ever. He conceded that most people's intuition runs the other way.

OpenAI is itself among the heaviest buyers. In October 2025 it announced agreements with Samsung and SK hynix under the US Stargate data-centre programme, covering demand that could reach 900,000 DRAM wafers a month. UNIAN reported that Apple has raised prices on some Mac and iPad models and that NVIDIA is again lifting graphics-card prices — a third increase this year, with this one at 20 to 30 per cent. The same outlet reported that ASUS and Meizu have announced exits from the smartphone market.

UNIAN, citing analysts, said the shortage could persist until 2030 and that many brands may leave the market or cut product lines by the end of 2026. The forward figure the sources cite is from TrendForce, the memory-market research firm, which expects contract DRAM prices to rise about 20 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2026, after roughly 80 per cent in the second quarter and 40 per cent in the third.