Thought Leadership
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has described memory in personal computers as poorly utilized amid a global shortage. Elon Musk responded with a meme, while Reddit users criticized Altman’s remarks.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has drawn criticism after suggesting that memory in personal computers is poorly utilized given the global shortage of memory chips. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and its AI division SpaceX Super Intelligence, mocked Altman on X with a meme. The image features Hans Landa, a character from the war film Inglourious Basterds, asking people whether they are hiding DRAM from the cloud.
“The People deserve to have their RAM too!”
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX
Altman: Memory Is Only Used 5 Percent of the Time
Speaking on Cheeky Pint, a podcast hosted by Stripe co-founder John Collison, Altman argued that from a global resource allocation perspective, it was “pretty bad” for some of the limited DRAM supply to sit in personal computers that are used only 5 percent of the time. In a severely supply-constrained market, he suggested that memory should instead be deployed in the cloud, where it could be kept as fully utilized as possible. Altman did not call for banning memory in personal computers or taking it away from consumers.
On Reddit, users criticized his comments, pointing out that consumers are already facing sharply rising prices for memory and computers. Some also noted that the shortage itself has been driven largely by demand from AI companies.
A Long-Running Feud
Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but later clashed over the company’s direction. In 2024, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of abandoning the organization’s original nonprofit mission. In May 2026, a federal jury in California rejected Musk’s $150 billion lawsuit in its entirety. Musk’s companies also operate major AI data centers through SpaceX Super Intelligence, making them significant consumers of memory and graphics processors themselves.
Memory manufacturers expect supply constraints to persist. SK hynix says its DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production capacity is effectively sold out through 2029. According to Gartner, memory prices have more than doubled over the past 12 months.
(Editorial Team)
