This cycle might need more competitors, not only more fabs. It's in the interest of three companies to keep supply constrained to raise prices, and they act as a cartel so until the cartel breaks or a competitor grows large enough to have fabs that can make a dent in the demand we will keep seeing high prices.

For a relevant competitor to show up takes much longer than building a fab (which is already a long enough endeavour).

I'm not that hopeful the price for RAM and other PC parts will come down in any meaningful way for the next 3-5 years.

> It’s not a conspiracy

Why does everyone play the game where everything ought to be assumed above-board until someone painstakingly proves otherwise.

> To date, five manufacturers have pleaded guilty to their involvement in an international price-fixing conspiracy between July 1, 1998, and June 15, 2002, including Hynix, Infineon, Micron Technology, Samsung, and Elpida.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_industry_price_fixing

We are not the courts. The most reasonable and truth based position is operating with a fuzzy impression that most businesses are substantially more dodgy than their carefully manufactured PR releases are meant to portray themselves as.

And in this case, that includes acknowledging that a literal criminal conspiracy in well within the realm of possibility.