Altman says RAM in gaming PCs is 'terrible' use as memory prices climb

Open up a gaming PC and the DRAM, the dynamic random-access memory that holds whatever your system is working on right now, is two thin sticks doing very little most of the day. That idle time is exactly what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman objected to this week.

In an interview on the Cheeky Pint podcast, Altman said it is “quite terrible” for everybody to hold a chunk of the world’s limited DRAM supply in their own computer, where it gets used maybe 5% of the time. ¹² His case is about utilization: memory in a data center serves many users all day, so in a supply-constrained market he wants maximum use in the cloud. ² He also conceded the market is not fixing itself, saying “the invisible hand is failing right now.” ²

Here is the workshop version. A bench vise bolted to your garage wall might clamp something twice a month, while a vise in a busy shop runs all day. Altman is saying the world only has so many vises, so they belong in the shop. It is a tidy argument, and it also happens to favor the company asking for the memory.

That company has been lining up supply. OpenAI signed letters of intent with Samsung and SK Hynix to scale production toward 900,000 high-bandwidth DRAM chips per month for its Stargate data center project. ³ High-bandwidth memory is a stacked design that moves data much faster than the sticks in your PC, and it is built for AI accelerators. SK Group said that would be more than double current industry capacity for that type of chip. ³ A separate report put Stargate’s appetite at up to 40% of global DRAM output; that is one outlet’s estimate, so treat it as unconfirmed. ⁴

The pricing damage is already visible. Memory made up about 35% of a laptop’s production cost in July, up from 15-18% a quarter earlier, according to HP. ⁵ Sony has raised PS5 prices twice this year, the Xbox Series X costs 60% more in the US than at its 2020 debut, and Nintendo raised the Switch 2’s price in September. ⁵ Used PS5 Pros have reached $1,399 after the console’s official March price increase, and the RTX 5080 has vanished from Nvidia’s marketplace weeks after the RTX 5090 was all but discontinued. ¹

The chipmakers are cashing in. SK Hynix posted a record quarterly operating profit of 83.3 trillion won (about $62 billion), says more than half its 2027 and 2028 output is already booked, and warns the shortage could last through 2030. ⁵ Samsung’s July-September operating profit was around 107.4 trillion won, its fourth straight record quarter. ⁵ Altman said memory makers, burned by past overbuilding, remain cautious about new factories. ⁵ Intel expects the PC market to shrink 12% this year and 10% in 2027, and sees no easing in memory supply or pricing next year. ⁵

Our read: Altman is right that a stick of RAM does more work in a data center than in a desktop, but that is an argument about whose needs come first, and he is not a neutral party. For builders, the practical takeaway is that the people buying memory by the wafer are not in a hurry to leave, and the factories that could fix this are not being built quickly.

On the bench: if you are planning a build or an upgrade, the evidence points to no relief on RAM prices before 2027, with SK Hynix warning the squeeze could run through 2030. Check what capacity you actually need, watch the price of a kit over a few weeks, and decide whether waiting is worth it for you.

Footnotes

1. IGN, “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Thinks It’s ‘Terrible’ for You to Have RAM in Your Gaming PC”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩²

2. Tom’s Guide, “Sam Altman says your laptop RAM is wasted: Why I think the AI bubble is about to prove him wrong”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. TechCrunch, “OpenAI ropes in Samsung, SK Hynix to source memory chips for Stargate”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩²

4. Tom’s Hardware, “OpenAI’s Stargate project to consume up to 40% of global DRAM output — inks deal with Samsung and SK hynix to the tune of up to 900,000 wafers per month”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩

5. Times of India, “Phones, laptops and consoles get costlier over memory price hike; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to gadget buyers: Having DRAM in your devices is ‘quite terrible’ for the world’s limited supply”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶