{"id":557525,"date":"2026-04-01T04:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T04:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/557525\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T04:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T04:28:11","slug":"is-the-ram-ai-pocalypse-finally-over-probably-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/557525\/","title":{"rendered":"Is The RAM AI-pocalypse Finally Over? Probably Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a big week for AI haters. OpenAI\u2019s video platform Sora shut down on March 24 (following a report that it was allegedly losing $1 million every day<\/a>), some DDR5 RAM prices<\/a> are currently down (a development which has been tied to the announcement of Google\u2019s \u201cextreme compression\u201d tech TurboQuant), and an AI Olaf robot just died<\/a> in front of Disneyland Paris visitors\u2014and hey, it\u2019s only Tuesday!<\/p>\n

Yet despite all this, the story that\u2019s seemingly getting the most traction among the anti-AI crowd concerns stock prices. Exciting segue, I know. Over the past month, all of the top players in the RAM manufacturing industry have seen significant decreases in their stock valuations, and many are treating the news as the first real sign that the AI bubble may be set to finally burst.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurns out Sam Altman \u2018buying up\u2019 40% of DRAM wafers was actually him writing Letters of Intent,\u201d wrote YouTuber Hardware Canucks in a post on X<\/a>. \u201cLetters he supposedly had \/ has no intention of converting to actual purchases now. And memory manufacturers are just getting DUMPED on today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valve’s Steam Machine price could be saved thanks to collapsing RAM prices pic.twitter.com\/jwhmVZ9f2X<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Skins.com (@skinscom) March 30, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

For the most part, this is true. As of this writing, Samsung Electronics\u2019 stock price is down 19.68 percent this month, Micron Technology\u2019s is down 20.72 percent, and SK Hynix is down 14.06 percent. But is this truly the beginning of the end for the AI sector, and will RAM prices continue to dip as a result? To properly answer that question, we need to break down every factor at play here.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with Hardware Canucks\u2019 post. The \u201cLetters of Intent\u201d part is multifaceted, but it starts back in September of 2025. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix signed letters of intent with OpenAI, stating that the RAM manufacturers intended to supply the ChatGPT developer with roughly 40 percent of the entire global output of DRAM<\/a> for use in its \u201cStargate Project\u201d data centers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to go over here, but the part that\u2019s seemingly gotten lost in the sauce is that a letter of intent is a precursor to a formal agreement. In short, the DRAM wasn\u2019t actually purchased; OpenAI signed a non-legally-binding document stating that they intended to purchase it. It\u2019s important to note here that this announcement had a huge effect on the stock valuations of RAM manufacturers. For example, from September 5, 2025 to March 5, 2026, SK Hynix\u2019s stock valuation shot up by a whopping 238 percent.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Bloomberg<\/a> reported that OpenAI and Oracle had supposedly cancelled the expansion of the Stargate Project\u2019s datacenters in Abilene, Texas. According to Bloomberg\u2019s report, this was due to OpenAI\u2019s financing woes and its \u201coften-changing demand forecasting.\u201d In a post on X<\/a> on March 9, Oracle (which partnered with OpenAI for the Stargate Project) stated that \u201crecent media activity about the Abilene site are false and incorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent media activity\u00a0about the Abilene site are false and incorrect. First,\u00a0Crusoe and Oracle are operating in lockstep to deliver one of the world’s largest AI Data centers\u00a0in Abilene at record-breaking pace. Two buildings are completely operational and the rest of the campus\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Oracle (@Oracle) March 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out, Bloomberg was right on the money\u2014at least where OpenAI is concerned. Crusoe Energy Systems, the AI infrastructure developers behind the Stargate Project\u2019s construction, confirmed on March 27<\/a> that Microsoft is building a new AI factory in Abilene, Texas, which will be \u201clocated adjacent to Crusoe\u2019s existing Abilene AI factory infrastructure.\u201d According to AP News<\/a>, Microsoft\u2019s new factory is \u201con the same tract of land,\u201d situated \u201cright next to where Crusoe has been building an even larger computing campus for OpenAI and Oracle.\u201d Crusoe is skirting around outright confirming it, but the timing and location more than implies that Microsoft is leasing the space that OpenAI no longer wants (or, rather, the space they can no longer take).<\/p>\n

With all this in mind, surely this means that OpenAI\u2019s Stargate Project is in some serious trouble, right? It\u2019s not quite that simple, unfortunately. Microsoft and OpenAI signed a multiyear-long partnership deal back in 2019, which, in 2025, Microsoft confirmed<\/a> had been (partially) extended up until 2032. Microsoft is entitled to 20 percent of OpenAI\u2019s revenue until said agreement expires, so it\u2019s very much in the company\u2019s interest to make sure that OpenAI doesn\u2019t kick the bucket. Microsoft hasn\u2019t just moved in next door to its competitor; it\u2019s leased land next to its business partner, and likely eased some of OpenAI\u2019s logistical and financial issues in the process.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s another example of OpenAI\u2019s longstanding habit of writing checks that can\u2019t be cashed. OpenAI reportedly lost roughly $5 billion in 2024<\/a>, somewhere between $8 billion and $12 billion in 2025<\/a>\u00a0and, according to The Information<\/a>, it\u2019s projected to lose $14 billion in 2026. The funny thing is that these losses are just a drop in the bucket because, as of 2025, OpenAI owes almost $100 billion in loans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the matter of Nvidia\u2019s \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d with OpenAI. On September 22, 2025, Nvidia announced<\/a> that it would be investing up to \u201c$100 billion in OpenAI\u201d in installments. Nvidia planned to progressively invest this money to help \u201cOpenAI to build and deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers.\u201d It\u2019s an oddly back-to-front deal, but Nvidia was essentially giving OpenAI money to buy Nvidia\u2019s microchips. But, once again, the deal was simply a \u201cletter of intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nvidia\u2019s deal was technically separate from Samsung and SK Hynix\u2019s deal with OpenAI, just made in the same timeframe. I say \u201cwas\u201d because, after months of speculation, Nvidia\u2019s CEO, Jensen Huang, all but confirmed on March 4 that the deal had fallen through. As reported by Reuters<\/a>, Huang stated during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference that Nvidia\u2019s previous $30 billion investment in OpenAI was likely to be the last time it could \u201cinvest in a consequential company like this.\u201d This is because OpenAI is reportedly set to become a publicly traded company in 2026, which means Nvidia\u2019s \u201cletter of intent\u201d deal will no longer be fulfilled. That means that the $100 billion total investment, and the microchips, are no longer on the table. There\u2019s a good reason OpenAI is often referred to as a \u201cblack hole,\u201d as far as investments are concerned.<\/p>\n

Ok, but now we\u2019re exactly back to where we were four paragraphs ago; why doesn\u2019t this mean that RAM prices are going to fall? By all accounts, OpenAI is set for a make-or-break 2026, and if it breaks, those unfulfilled letters of intent, which already aren\u2019t legally binding anyway, will release hundreds of thousands of RAM modules into the world\u2026right?<\/p>\n

The problem is that OpenAI\u2019s letters of intent aren\u2019t entirely to blame for the dips in stock valuations. While the likes of Bloomberg<\/a> and Fast Company<\/a> note that investors\u2019 AI-bubble-related fears are fueling the downward turn, Google\u2019s TurboQuant announcement and the US-Iran war are also being factored into the dip.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the catch: according to Morgan Stanley\u2019s analyst Joseph Moore (per Investor\u2019s Business Daily<\/a>), all of these factors, from TurboQuant to the AI bubble popping, aren\u2019t indicative of a decrease in RAM demand. It\u2019s just a classic case of buy low, sell high, and many investors are likely selling pre-dip, so they can buy during the dip.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the recent sell-off as a healthy pricing in of durability concerns \u2014 capex, demand destruction, productivity, etc. \u2014 and yet we see the strength as more durable than the market thinks, with memory supply remaining a gating factor for AI,\u201d Moore revealed. \u201cBut our view is that looking for sell signals from prior cycles misses the point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Memory] shortages are intensifying and customers are prepaying for large-volume deals given conviction that these shortages will be sustainable,\u201d Moore continued. \u201cOur take, after talking to industry folks on this today, is that this is an evolutionary development, with basically no surprises for memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Microsoft\/OpenAI datacenter lease in Abilene, Texas, is an example of this in a microcosm. Let\u2019s say OpenAI goes bankrupt next month. What happens then? Do all of the microchips and RAM that have already been purchased, and are already housed within said datacenters, just get thrown into landfills, free for the taking? No. They get purchased by a bigger fish, probably for less than what OpenAI bought them for in the first place, and all these letters of intent will get passed on. As far as the shareholders are concerned, these RAM prices have to be maintained for as long as humanly possible.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t end with OpenAI. Its demise doesn\u2019t mark the final chapter in the AI bubble. The vultures will swarm and pick its carcass clean, and then a new AI overlord will take its place. And then they\u2019ll own all the RAM. There are already half a dozen frontrunners, set to cannibalize its corpse. Anthropic\u2019s Claude, Google\u2019s Gemini, Microsoft\u2019s Copilot\u2014the list, sadly, goes on and on and on.<\/p>\n

Sundar Pichai, the head of Google parent firm Alphabet, stated in an interview with the BBC<\/a> that, should the AI bubble pop, \u201cno company is going to be immune, including us.\u201d To these AI investors, there is too much money and too much risk involved in letting that happen. With that in mind, instead, we\u2019d probably be wiser to consider OpenAI\u2019s potential downfall as a first chapter of sorts. A stepping stone, or, rather, the first in a line of dominoes.<\/p>\n