'RAMageddon': is the era of cheap phones and laptops over? (The Guardian, 5/6)

[highplainsdem]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/06/ramageddon-cheap-phones-laptops-macbooks-ps5s-ai-chips

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Huge investments into AI have led to a huge expansion of server farms, enormous banks of computers filled with large amounts of high-end memory chips. That has sucked up not only the world’s current supply, but its production capacity for several years, creating a dramatic shortage of memory and driving up the cost of other electronics.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the supply of flash storage chips used in SSDs (solid state drives) has been constrained as manufacturers have switched to producing higher-margin memory chips for AI. The supply of lower-end processors has also taken a hit as manufacturers have switched production to high-end chips to meet the demand for AI-related work.

Since the margins on cheaper laptops, phones and other electronics are smaller, they are likely to be the ones facing the largest increases in price. Some analysts say memory accounts for 30% of the cost of a budget smartphone and 23% of an entry-level laptop, which means many budget models may no longer be viable to make.

“This sharp increase removes vendors’ ability to absorb costs, making low-margin entry-level laptops non-viable. Ultimately, we expect the sub-$500 (£370) entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at research firm Gartner.

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Oh, but look at what generative AI has given us! Nearly infinite AI slop, dumbed-down students and workers, instant deepfake porn, vulnerable code that developers are increasingly having a hard time understanding, a financial bubble that could be worse than the dot-com and mortgage bubbles when it pops, and hallucinating weapons systems that could start and finish a world war in minutes.

[Initech]

1. Hey MAGA, was it worth giving fuck head a second chance?