Samsung and SK Hynix. OpenAI made deals to buy almost half of manufactured DRAM in the world. There's speculation that after this was announced, other companies started making their own deals in a panic, further driving demand.

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lucb1e 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> after this was announced, other companies started making their own deals in a panic, further driving demand.

Oh ffs it's like the toilet paper thing. I was amazed how long that continued despite credible sources saying there is no shortage, just insane demand from the loonies that don't believe it would return to normal instantly if they would just stop buying more and more extras because "see, it's out again!"

	▲	zozbot234 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This is almost certainly what's going on right now in the retail market. OTOH it's also a semi-rational response to volatility and uncertainty as to future wholesale prices, due to, e.g. the projected build-out of future AI datacenters. As with any durable good, whenever the price might be expected to rise in the future, people will want to hoard stockpiles and the expected price rise will be brought forward to the present.