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If that sounds a lot like a cartel, well, you wouldn't be the first person to point that out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing_scandal
Something, something history rhymes and mind you that those found guilty got slaps on the wrist and then promoted within the industry.
The CEO can reinvest his yachts to fabs his own.
The fabs wouldn't be ready for years, ram prices will go back down before then.
They need to start hitting them with such steep amounts it hurts shareholders.
That would fix them overnight. ( This is all companies that break law's)
Imagine how much good will and long-term profit any given manufacturer could generate right now just by creating consumer-facing parts at a reasonable price and refusing to cater their supply lines to datacenters. The right move now could buy loyalty for decades. People remember.
Imagine how much good will and long-term profit
They'd generate loads of good will, which would be forgotten in an instant as soon as a something better or cheaper came along. Consumers are fickle.
Yeah but they won't, because good will access loyalty isn't worth 10x profits right now, today.
Some would probably even argue that not extracting maximum profits today would leave them at a disadvantage against their competitors who are investing huge profits back into the business.
To be clear I'm not saying I agree with any of this, I'm just saying don't get your hopes up because at the end of the day they are all businesses.
Not much at all. Consumers are cheap, their requirements vary wildly and they are hard to deal with and buy in small quantities.
It would just be out of stock immediately though
There is too much centralization in the chain. Decades ago there were lots of memory manufacturers. But as the markets matured, and the work became more sophisticated, and big swings happened in the markets, consolidation happened. And many manufacturers just went away.
But yeah, you would think there would be room for that still. I still agree with you.
And many manufacturers just went away.
Because memory got too cheap on thin margins. We locked computer cases and made workstation cases out of thick steel ~2000 because of RAM costs.
I'll keep saying this til I'm blue in the face. I don't want sophisticated RAM. I want modest RAM that's easier to make.
A lot also don't, the low common denominator don't care about anything other then their consumer habits or if it affects them in the here and now.
Unfortunately there aren't a lot of companies manufacturing ram, and the handful that exists are all members of the cartel, and it takes decades to set up a new production. Also the cartel corporations are making much more selling to datacenters than they ever did selling to consumers.
Pretty sure thats actually illegal in the US because you are legally obligated to do what makes the board and investors the most money.
Only if it is publicly traded. A private company can do whatever they want, with some legal exceptions.
The need to act in the best interest of the shareholders, if they are making less immediate profits to make more gains long term they can easily make that argument. Convincing the board not to replace you and hire someone that will ride the bubble til it pops is a different story.
That's up for interpretation. Arguing the AI bubble will burst and that this sets up the company for an excellent position post-pop could be argued to eventually net the most money. But it's a hard sell.
Costco is a public US company that wins customer loyalty by not price gouging
I don't know about that. My time in customer service has taught me that it's actually pretty hard to win customers over.
From my understanding, Valve would need to be hundreds of times more wealthy to be able to even consider manufacturing their own DRAM.
Edit: notably, this article seems to suggest that after significant government investmemt and with an already well-established knowledge and IP base, a fab costs around $15 billion dollars and optimisticly, a decade of construction. Given that Valve is starting from scratch, the price will be much higher. Chinese companies, backed by the Chinese government and using significant amounts of corporate espionage, have been trying to achive this for about 20 years, and are only just starting to catch up, nonetheless one (relatively) small software company.
Maybe Gabe could give up a few of his superyachts
I don't think you understand the size of a company like Samsung or SK Hynix. The number of employees and capital invested in fab is not even close to what Steam could do. How prolific is the Steam Deck compared to a Samsung mobile phone?
And Kotaku should write their own articles instead of ripping off Gamers Nexus
Valve should start making ram 😁
If they start building a factory right this second, they might be able to get their first chips out in 2031.
Would be Something to look forward to.
Just so people understand this story properly:
Kotaku, a 'game journalism' website... is writing an Op-Ed, based on the actual original reporting of a Youtuber.
Gaming Journalism, everyone!
Why the fuck isn't Kotaku maybe the ones doing actual investigative journalism?
Because they're all fucking hacks!
They are a fucking tabloid and undisclosed advertisment machine.
God fucking damnit.
Big tech ran out of ideas and have now begun to legalize their monopolistic takeover at an expedited rate
But wait, I thought capitalism was about solutions, more demand causes more supply. Grade 8 economics was fun.
More RAM manufacturing plants are being built because of the demand, but it'll be years before any of them produce anything.
I mean these companies have the solution. Collude and price gouge for maximum shareholder and executive value. Just how capitalism was designed to do.