In short
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned it was “fucking annoying” that his feedback about pc reminiscence have been taken out of context, after Elon Musk mocked them.
Altman had mentioned it was “fairly horrible” for the world’s restricted provide of DRAM to take a seat in residence computer systems which are used 5% of the time.
He briefly renamed himself “Ram Altman” on X, saying he desires folks to have the ability to put as a lot reminiscence of their computer systems as they need.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has hit again at criticism of his feedback about pc reminiscence, saying they have been taken out of context and that he has lengthy argued for the world to make extra of it.
“I truly do need the world to have tons of reminiscence and folks to place as a lot as they need of their computer systems, and it’s fucking annoying that this was taken out of context,” Altman tweeted early Wednesday. “I’ve been arguing for the world to ramp up reminiscence manufacturing for a very long time.”
however solely as a result of…i truly do need the world to have tons of reminiscence and folks to place as a lot as they need of their computer systems, and it’s fucking annoying that this was taken out of context.
i’ve been arguing for the world to ramp up reminiscence manufacturing for a very long time.
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 4, 2026
The put up got here as Altman leaned into the backlash. Replying to customers joking about his remarks, he mentioned he “lol’d” at one meme and, when one other requested him to rename his X account “Ram Altman,” replied “okay yeah,” briefly altering his show identify earlier than explaining he had solely executed so as a result of he needed folks to have loads of reminiscence.
Altman’s authentic feedback got here in an interview with YouTube channel Cheeky Pint, the place he mentioned shortages of reminiscence and different parts attributable to the AI growth. “From like a worldwide allocation perspective, truly, it is fairly horrible to have all people have a bunch of the world’s restricted provide of DRAM sitting in their very own pc and getting used 5% of the time,” he mentioned. “You need most utilization in a cloud should you’re making an attempt to cope with this very supply-constrained surroundings.”
In the identical interview, Altman additionally blamed reminiscence makers for being gradual to broaden manufacturing, and mentioned he can be “very unhappy” if costs for chips and different parts didn’t fall.
The remarks drew widespread criticism, together with from Elon Musk, who mocked Altman on Sunday with a meme of the Inglourious Basterds character Hans Landa asking, “You’re withholding DRAM from the cloud, are you not?” “The folks should have their RAM too!” Musk wrote.
The worldwide RAM scarcity
The spat comes amid a worldwide reminiscence scarcity pushed by demand from AI knowledge facilities. SK hynix, one of many world’s largest reminiscence makers, warned final week that demand for reminiscence would outstrip provide by way of 2030.
Contract costs for 16GB DDR5 reminiscence chips rose from $8.70 in October 2025 to $48 in September 2026, a rise of greater than 550%, in line with Tom’s {Hardware}. On an earnings name this week, Chen Ching-wen, CEO of reminiscence maker Staff Group, mentioned there was “no downward worth development in anyway,” and warned that some patrons may face a state of affairs the place “even cash cannot purchase items.”
The crunch has already pushed up costs for shopper units. In April, Meta raised the worth of its Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets by $50 to $100, weeks after Sony elevated PlayStation 5 costs.
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