{"id":332320,"date":"2025-12-23T23:11:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T23:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/332320\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T23:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T23:11:14","slug":"ais-insatiable-hunger-for-ram-is-going-to-play-havoc-with-the-emulation-handheld-industry-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/332320\/","title":{"rendered":"AI’s Insatiable Hunger For RAM Is Going To Play Havoc With The Emulation Handheld Industry In 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AI's<\/a> Image: Retroid<\/a><\/p>\n

In case you missed it, AI is apparently the big new thing in tech \u2013 despite not actually delivering much of worth so far, outside of deep fake scams<\/a>, high energy bills<\/a>, terrible adverts<\/a>, poisoned water<\/a> and some insanely bad hallucinations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The tech world remains utterly obsessed with AI, however, and that’s leading to a situation where the companies that make the GPUs responsible for generating all of this “good stuff” are scrambling to obtain RAM chips to put inside them.<\/p>\n

The situation has gotten so dire that ChatGPT<\/a> maker OpenAI recently declared its intention to purchase around 40% of the global raw, unprocessed DRAM wafer output until 2029<\/a> \u2013 that’s RAM that cannot even be used until it is processed. Even then, it is suspected<\/a> that completed GPUs often sit in warehouses, waiting to be installed in data centres which may not even be built<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the industry has gone completely overboard with the technology, which, at the time of writing, is yielding zero return<\/a> for the vast majority of firms that deploy it (even OpenAI is losing around $12 billion a quarter<\/a>, and that’s one of the largest AI companies on the planet).<\/p>\n

Retroid explains that the reason they ended their RP6 pre-order pricing prematurely is due to RAM shortages. It\u2019s now at the retail price of $230 (still a good deal for SD8 Gen2) on their website. <\/p>\n

I have a feeling 2026 is going to be painful in many tech spaces. https:\/\/t.co\/gfxjT4UmGN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Retro Game Corps (@RetroGameCorps) December 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

The upshot of this “technological revolution”? Well, it’s certainly not accurate chatbots<\/a> \u2013 but we “lucky” consumers are soon going to benefit from RAM being much more expensive, and harder to come by.<\/p>\n

Emulation handheld maker Retroid is the first to signal the alarm, and has recently announced that it is ending Retroid Pocket 6<\/a> pre-order pricing early due to RAM shortages.<\/p>\n

That’s not all; smartphones could return to the days of 4GB of RAM<\/a> due to the shortages, and computers and consoles will also be impacted<\/a>. This means we’ll either see lower on-board RAM or prices will have to go up to maintain current RAM counts. It’s basically a disaster all around, unless, of course, you like watching stupid videos to entertain your child-like brain.<\/a><\/p>\n

So, expect to see an unwelcome trend in 2026 and beyond \u2013 any emulation handheld you purchase is likely to be held back by low RAM or increased pricing<\/a>, all to support a technology you don’t even want.<\/p>\n

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\"Damien<\/p>\n

Damien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media’s sites from an editorial perspective. He’s also the editor of Time Extension<\/a>, the network’s newest site, which \u2013 paradoxically \u2013 is all about gaming’s past glories.<\/p>\n