FWIW I have a friend who makes hardware and it's extremely difficult for him to secure memory at any price. Because AI people have locked up so much of the upcoming supply it's often not a question of how much it will cost but of finding someone who will sell you memory at all. If this were price gouging I would expect he'd have no trouble finding allocations at exorbitant prices but that doesn't seem to be the case.

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javier2 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

same here, even when we went to larger hardware producers, they were basically we would sell you, but we cant actually get any RAM at all either.

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senderista 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There are never shortages in a free market, just higher prices.

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kibwen 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You appear to not understand how markets work, free or otherwise. For the purposes of this conversation, consider starting your education here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barriers_to_entry

	▲	senderista 17 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		At a longer timescale than very temporary supply shocks, I believe what I said is correct. The basic point is that if supply contracts, demand must contract as well, which in a free market happens via price increases and in an unfree market happens via shortages (i.e., the inability of buyers to obtain a good at a market-clearing price). If high barriers to entry are relevant in this context (obviously they very much exist in the memory industry!), then please enlighten me how, if you are capable of doing so without unconstructive snark.