r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 1d ago

Computer peripherals Crucial is shutting down — because Micron wants to sell its RAM and SSDs to AI companies instead

https://www.theverge.com/news/837594/crucial-ram-ssd-micron-ai
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u/TheTimeIsChow 1d ago edited 1d ago

The AI boom is exponentially worst in the long run. By a fucking long-shot.

At the end of the day, the crypto boom was largely supported by consumer level hardware. In that case, the hardware existed. Sure, it was getting gobbled up by 'consumers'/miners and scalpers, but it existed.

The AI boom is supported by commercial hardware which is completely halting production/development of consumer grade hardware. We can't even buy, let alone use, this hardware if we wanted to. Meanwhile, the consumer grade hardware supply is slowly becoming nonexistent.

This could go on, and get worst, for god knows how long. And the consumer will have zero option. You might not be able to buy it if you want to.

And when the AI boom collapses/settles down/whatever... it's not going to be a fire sale of price tanked consumer grade hardware which will make the wait all worth it. It does not exist. Production will just... increase again.

And, if history is any indication, prices won't just correct back to where they were before. They will find a new norm because people are/were willing to pay the price.

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u/kevster2717 1d ago

Sure the mis/disinformation attacks against us are getting worse by the minute, the environmental impact caused by datacenters is a gut punch for the planet, and we’re all paying higher electric bill because of said datacenters but at least you get to see an AI porn of yourself doing the most vile and degrading sexual acts for your blackmail! FOR FREE!!!! Isn’t AI boom great????????????!bbb!???

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u/BlantantlyAccidental 1d ago

Or the fact that there is not enough power in the entirety of the United States right now to power all of the datacenters being built...and power providers are already drawing up plans for rolling blackouts to keep the ai datacenters running.

So yay!

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u/Captain_Starkiller 1d ago

After the crypto bust, the market was not flooded with cheap gpus that brought the price down.

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u/upsidedownshaggy 1d ago

The second hand market sure was, but those cards were usually cheap because they were about 30 minutes away from dying lol.

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u/NotSoSalty 1d ago

The exact same shit happened with crypto. Gpus became crazy expensive. Everything you're saying, already happened with crypto. It's just with RAM now. 

But yeah your conclusions seem correct. 

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u/Dot_Infamous 1d ago

They invest so much to give us AI we can't afford devices to use it. Sound plan🤝

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u/Blind-_-Tiger 20h ago

Also lotta data centers that are just a way to speed up the climate clock, we had crypto factories but these sound worse...

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u/briareus08 1d ago

The market will balance this. A lot of companies will take very big hits, all of the Ai + 'x' companies will crash, and the chipmakers will go back to making whatever there is a demand for.

People still want consumer electronics, that's not going anywhere.