The Hot Take: Competition is GOOD.
Intel has published a new patent on its XBM memory, which is proposed as a replacement for HBM4, offering much higher bandwidth capabilities. XBM vs HBM: Intel's New Proposed DRAM Solution Extends To 32 GT/s Speeds, While Reducing Costs Through UCIe Links HBM continues to be the standard for AI accelerators, but more recently, we have seen LPDDR memory being used to overcome shortages, prices, and power associated with the standard. Intel's past attempts at DRAM, such as HMC (Hybrid Memory Cube) and MCDRAM, faced various issues and never came to market, but with XBM, Intel is course-correcting its DRAM [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-xbm-memory-takes-aim-at-hbm4-32-gt-s-speeds-lower-costs-through-ucie-links/
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The Hot Take: All I have to say is YES!
A new class-action lawsuit filed in California accuses SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron of coordinating DRAM production to artificially restrict supply and maintain elevated prices for consumer memory products.
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The Hot Take: About time. I've been saying they should have one for a while.
The big story in computing these days is how an ongoing shortage of RAM (dubbed RAMageddon or the RAMpocalypse) has led to massive increases in hardware costs. The conventional explanation of the situation has been that shortages have been driven by the widespread construction of AI data centers. However, a new lawsuit (Garciaguirre et al. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al.) filed against RAM manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, alleges that these companies are exploiting market conditions to artificially inflate prices.
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The Hot Take: I really feel we need an investigation into all these memory manufacturers as I feel they aren't allocating all this ram for Ai like they way they are. History just repeating its self I think.
Amid the unrelenting demand for AI infrastructure, SK Hynix, the worldâs largest supplier of HBM memory used in high-end GPUs, now expects to triple its wafer capacity. You'll just have to wait through two more US presidential elections and then some. All that capacity wonât come online until 2034, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. SK Hynixâs valuation has soared in recent months. The company is one of three major producers of NAND flash and DRAM memory, large quantities of which are required to support the burgeoning AI inference market. Samsung and Micron are the other two major players in this space. This demand has led to skyrocketing memory prices for consumer DRAM and SSDs, some of which have more than tripled in price compared to this time last year. SK Hynix and the other major memory makers meanwhile have seen their revenues explode. Chey's comments come just a week after SK Hynix said that it planned to double its production capacity within the next five years. âOur calculations show that our wafer capacity will double within five years. But honestly once all these facilities are built, it wonât just double, it will triple by around 2034,â Chey told Nikkei. SK is in the process of bringing four additional wafer fabs online, with the first phase reportedly on track to come online as early as 2027. The South Korean memory slinger had previously planned to ramp production of these facilities over the next two decades, but has pulled in its timeline in hopes of satiating AIâs memory addiction. âThere is currently no way to move faster than this,â Chey told the newswire. While much of this capacity will be built on SKâs home turf, the company is exploring its options for overseas manufacturing, with Japan being one of the potential destinations, with Chey calling it an âexcellentâ candidate due to its robust semiconductor supply chains. Unfortunately, the buildout is unlikely to drive down memory prices for consumers any time soon. As we previously reported, memory prices are not expected to peak until later this year at the earliest. Analysts warn that memory prices are more likely to plateau going into 2027 rather than plummeting like weâve seen in past DRAM and NAND boom-bust cycles. These boom-bust cycles have been a fact of life for commodity electronics manufacturers, like SK Hynix and Samsung, for years. Prices typically spike as inventories are drawn down and crater as new capacity is brought online. On the one hand, AI infrastructure demand has helped to stabilize this to some extent. On the other hand, the AI boom kicked off in 2022 at what was arguably the worst possible time. "This demand started in the Valley for the DRAM industry. That makes financially trying to build additional capacity really challenging," TechInsights analyst James Sanders told El Reg late last year. Business is once again booming for memory vendors presenting ample opportunities for labor disputes over competition as well as fab expansions. Unfortunately, thereâs no changing the fact that the fastest anyone can bring a leading edge memory fab online is about three years. ÂŽ
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The Hot Take: Following AMD with releasing DDR4 chips again? We'll have to wait and see. This RAM crunch is getting horrible for sure.
Intel sat down with Tom's Hardware at Computex 2026, and the company says it recognizes the importance of Raptor Lake and DDR4 platforms as the memory crunch continues.
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The Hot Take: Finally CUDIMMs catching on?
G.Skill demos the capabilities of its DDR5 memory by pushing the Trident Z5 CK "CUDIMM" kit to 9200 MT/s at just 1.1V. G.SKILL Showcases DDR5-9200 1.1V 16GBx2 High-Speed CU-DIMM Memory Kit on MSI Z890 GODLIKE Motherboard Press Release: G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd, the worldâs leading brand of performance overclock memory, is showcasing an ultra-high-speed DDR5 CU-DIMM 32GB (16GBx2) memory kit operating at an impressive DDR5-9200 CL74-74-74-148 speed with only 1.1V DRAM voltage, validated on the flagship MSI MEG Z890 GODLIKE motherboard platform. Exceptional DDR5 speed at Ultra-Low Voltage As memory performance continues to advance, balancing high frequency and operation voltage has become increasingly important. Demonstrating [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/g-skill-pushes-trident-z5-ck-cudimm-ddr5-memory-to-9200-mtps-at-just-1-1v/
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The Hot Take: They're getting bad.
Nvidia finance chief Collette Kress says rivals moaning about memory prices should have ordered the stuff ages ago.
Kress has blamed other firms for being caught short in the ongoing memory squeeze. She said Nvidia saw the price surge coming and acted before everyone started clutching their pearls.
In an interview with Tae Kim, Kress said her firm ordered memory in advance because it understood prices were about to go north. That is not the sort of line which will calm customers now paying more for DRAM.
The surge in memory prices has been driven by huge demand from AI chip companies. It has reshaped the industry, handing workers at SK hynix chunky bonuses while Samsung staff have been protesting.
AI GPUs have created chaos in high-bandwidth memory and DDR memory markets. These chips are greedy little beasts, and the supply chain is not enjoying the feeding frenzy.
Estimates suggest demand for Nvidiaâs Rubin AI platform alone could exceed the combined memory needs of the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple and Samsung. Jobâs Mob is expected to need 2.9 billion gigabytes of LPDDR memory in 2027, while Samsung may need 2.7 billion gigabytes.
Rubin AI chips could need as much as six billion gigabytes of LPDDR memory in 2027. That is the kind of number which makes procurement departments stare sadly at spreadsheets.
AI GPUs need DDR memory as well as HBM. Since both are made using the same machines, increased HBM demand pushes manufacturers to shift capacity away from DDR.
That capacity shift creates shortages in DDR too. Chinese firms are now believed to be eyeing the gap as a chance to become more important players in the memory market.
Nvidia has managed to stay ahead of the supply mess. Kress said the company had foreseen the disruption and lined up supply before the scramble began.
Discussing other firms complaining about high prices, Kress said many companies âare sitting here going, oh my gosh, the memory price went up⌠Nvidia knew that was going to happen. It was something everybody should have, at least we did, ordered a long time ago.â
That is a fairly blunt way of saying Nvidia thinks the rest of the industry failed its homework. It is probably true, though it is easier to say when your company is minting cash from the AI gold rush.
Kress said Nvidia was not simply buying chips off the shelf. It has been working directly with memory suppliers to design and build what it needs.
âTheyâre designing it with us. And then they go, now how much supply do we need? And weâre not just doing it with one. Weâre doing it with all three memory suppliers. We say, hereâs what weâre building. And then weâve got to get them all in line and working with us. I donât see another company doing that.â
The memory shortage is now another AI tax on the rest of the tech world. Nvidia gets first-class treatment because its GPUs are driving the boom which caused the mess in the first place.
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The Hot Take: Well was the shortage planned to hasten this?
Chinese memory has apparently started making its way to global vendors, as Corsair's DDR5 modules have been spotted with CXMT DRAM. CXMT Takes Charge of The Global DDR5 Memory Supply Chain As Taiwanese & US Firms Lock In DRAM Supply Towards AI There has been a lot of talk going around CXMT and YMTC flooding the global markets with DRAM and NAND chips, as the AI supercycle has created a tight supply chain around commodity memory and SSDs. There were already reports that the major PC manufacturers have started exploring the integration of Chinese memory into their products due to [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/chinese-memory-enters-global-markets-corsair-ddr5-modules-spotted-with-cxmt-dram/
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The Hot Take: If this all is true they have a winner on their hands.
Intel's Z-Angle Memory (ZAM) is approaching completion as it races towards taking a bite at the AI boom while challenging HBM as a viable alternative. Intel's ZAM Challenges HBM As A Big Memory Innovation In the High-Bandwidth, High-Capacity Segment Offering 2x The Speed of HBM4 Z-Angle Memory or ZAM has been stirring up a lot of talk in the memory segment. The upcoming memory standard is being developed by Intel and SoftBank & aims to offer a low-power, high-density replacement to HBM. Now, new details have been shared that provide more insight into ZAM memory. For starters, the new memory [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-zam-memory-threatens-hbms-ai-throne-with-2x-the-bandwidth-of-hbm4/
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The Hot Take: If this can even compete with HBM4 then intel has a HUGE win.
Intel and SoftBank, through their joint venture Saimemory, are working on a new memory architecture aimed at addressing bandwidth limitations in AI accelerators.
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