Acer CEO says PC prices could fall by 2027, accuses rivals of milking the RAM shortage for profit

[user556]

Gotta laugh at the "forced to charge even higher prices....."

That is how markets work. Demand suddenly exceeding supply will force the price up. In this case, even when a new large supplier enters and ramps at speed, demand is still increasing even faster, forcing the price up even further.

AI is the problem, and the only problem.

 

[Watzupken]

This demand cannot sustain for a prolong period. Let's put it plainly, if RAM prices have gone up 6x, which I think is accurate based on RAM prices I see on online stores such as Amazon, the same cost increase would have been passed on to the hyperscalers, aka, Ai tech bros, who are relentlessly "buying" hardware. When your spanking new and cutting edge Nvidia AI chip contains hundreds of Gigabytes of memory, the cost of buying these goes up exponentially. There is finite money they can borrow or circulate amongst themselves. A substantial chunk of the hundreds of billions of borrowed money is going to the RAM cartel, which eventually will kill demand. It is a self feeding cycle. The Nvidia mantra of "the more you buy, the more you save", does not work anymore. Instead, the more you want to buy, the less you are getting because RAM and NAND are getting more and more expensive.

 

[user556]

I remember predictions of trillions per year in spending forecasts for AI alone. They aren't there yet.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I've done some renovations on similar products and that stuff often goes to recycling centers and if they can't do that, the guys usually buy it from the company for scrap metal prices. The interesting thing about a lot of this equipment is that once it is used it cannot be insured. When working on these facilities insurance is the big problem, even moving them requires insurance and a line of paperwork. so it is often cheaper and easier for some guy to throw it on it trailer and the liability ends the moment it is on the other persons trailer.

There are guys I work with who run refurbishing businesses and they can give them a certificate saying "this has a 3 year warranty on it" and then smaller businesses can take that to their insurance and install stuff there. I see this most often with large back up diesel or natural gas generators but it also happens with some of the larger HVAC equipment. Lots of these cooling things go on to returaunts and the generators often goto automotive work shops or CNC shops.

It's also not uncommon for people to dismantle them and sell them as "used good" parts.

The most disappointing thing about them is that there is usually absolutely nothing wrong with any of the equipment other than the insurance company says no.

No, I haven't seen any of these large scale datacenters dump their equipment yet, but there are people who are worried about it because these are big units and the datacenters use LOTS of them. Lots of generators and lots of cooling towers. Most places usually only have 1 or 2 units and datacenters can have 30 or 40 of each one. The large scale transformers will get bought up electric companies and I really don't know what they do with them after that. I've heard that they either goto small towns that need an upgrade or get used as cheap alternatives for shopping centers and strip malls, but they're also typically property of the local electric company and we're legally not allowed to touch them.

We refer to them as "on the road" but they can be under or in the building, but we have a saying. Everything from the road to the meter is owned by the electric company and everything "from the meter" is our responsibility. I don't have any insight on how some of these new buildings we entire separate grids work. I've been doing this stuff since 2004 and this is completely new territory. I would usually hear from other crew leads what's going on but there are so many NDAs on these jobs that I'm not joking when we often aren't even allowed to talk to each other and have fences around designated work areas. If you need something outside your work area you have to radio to someone and they'll go grab you what you need.

That's some interesting insights.

I hadn't thought about the big portable units. Depending on the future buildout speed and hysteria, I could see them possibly moving to the next AI site, but that really just delays the issue you highlight rather than fix it. It's also possible that some areas use the "temporary" units for most of their lifespan due to lack of local grid capacity, which doesn't solve much but at least uses them up before discarding them.

There is a big backorder for transformers so those will find a home somewhere.

Some are even so extreme that they take our phones and car keys, bus us to the job in windowless vans and then order us lunch. We aren't allowed to have phones or even bring our own lunches.

Whoa! I know some people with those restrictions, but they work in serious cybersecurity roles. Maybe they're worried your going to plug some Chinese tech in somewhere.

 

[yRaz]

Whoa! I know some people with those restrictions, but they work in serious cybersecurity roles. Maybe they're worried your going to plug some Chinese tech in somewhere.

The data center projects were really annoying. We had lots of people quit over the restrictions because we would literally be working in fences in areas with armed guards. "Masons are working in area A, carpenters are in area B, iron workers in area c" there was an incident where I think they were electricians "walked off" the job because the guards were treating them like prisoners and they just weren't having it.


Luckily I think we stopped accepting contracts for Datacenters because only 1 of them was seen through to completion and then there were hundreds of millions tied up in litigation. It's my understanding that lots of companies want nothing to do with these projects because it is so difficult to get paid.

It's actually a really big deal if these projects get canceled because we have projects scheduled years in advanced so if they were expecting us to be on a project for say 3 months, well if it gets cancelled a month into things suddenly you could have a hundred or more guys that need to be put on other projects where the project doesn't necessarily need extra people and the costs of extra labor wasn't built into bid. You could have a project where they estimate it's going to take 80,000 man hours and suddenly a bunch of people get dumbed for 2 or 3 months and suddenly they're paying for 100,000 man hours. It typically only takes a week or two move projects up and find a place for everyone, but that's not really the point. We can also lose lots of talent as everyone gets shuffled around because people can and do get laid off in this stuff and they don't always come back.

Apprentices are first, but the journeyman can and do get the boot. I'm more in a managerial role now so when we get delayed I go and play on my phone in the office all day

 

[Win7user]

Well, if anyone thinks the way I do, when these ridiculous prices come down for just about everything computer related, (RAM especially) I'll buy something. I need 32G of RAM right now, and I'm looking for a new computer, and I have the money, but I'm not selling the farm to make you greedy knuckleheads even more rich! I'll simply do without...

 

[JamesBlond]

All global leaders working together to screw the users to further their objectives

 

[KnightSayNI]

It's as if you didn't read what the other person had to say, but let me help you, they said it wouldn't suddenly happen if Democrats won the majority. Writing bills and getting them through the government takes time, it's not immediate. The Democrats, if they win, will have a lot of other things to concentrate on and RAM prices probably won't be at the top of their list.

They only have one thing to concentrate on, as they have for last 11 years. It's Trump. Because they are lemmings. And dumber than fleas.