Micron says it is “helping” consumers by not selling them RAM

Micron is closing its Crucial brand, the division of the company that sells RAM and storage products directly to consumers. The company is shifting its focus to the boom in Artificial Intelligence. Yes, the same situation that is causing the price of memory to skyrocket around the world.

And consumers are, to use a technical term, furious.

In the case of Micron, it is one of the “big three” companies that manufacture the vast majority of the planet’s memory. Which complicates the situation even more.

During a recent interview with Wccftech, a Micron vice president attempted to downplay the situation, explaining that the company is still technically providing RAM and other memory products to consumers. And it’s doing so by selling them to PC makers.

“Our point of view is that we are trying to help consumers around the world,” said Christopher Moore, vice president of Marketing for Micron’s Consumer and Mobile Devices Business Unit.

Trying to explain

The idea that Micron hasn’t completely abandoned consumers, as it still supplies at least some PC makers, was something that was heard during CES last week. And this idea was not convincing, as several companies refused to disclose the prices of their upcoming products.

The fear is that rising memory prices would eliminate their profit margins before launch and, as a result, companies would have to make an increase. Not without reason, Many of the new hardware announced did not come with a price forecast for launch.

Data center customers are responsible for skyrocketing RAM prices. In short, the rapid and massive expansion of the AI ​​industry is consuming most of the current and projected supply of chips. The good old law of supply and demand is still in force, and this has considerably increased the prices of notebooks and desktops.

Not to mention the massive price increases (and shortages) of consumer DDR5 memory. Not without reason, a modder created 32 GB DDR5 modules from notebook memory and saved a lot of money.

With the closure of the Crucial brand, scheduled for the end of January, Micron ends nearly 30 years of selling to consumers for PC assembly, repair and upgrades. Basically, the company is following the money.

The problem is that none of Micron’s competitors — Samsung and SK Hynix — have closed their consumer memory and storage product lines.

Until when?

During CES, to the question “What are we going to do about the memory crisis?” the response was a big, disappointing shrug. Then, he asked if it was expected to end. Estimates have ranged from 2027 to 2032, as today’s developing data centers will continue to consume chips into the next decade.

Micron’s Moore is a bit more optimistic, citing a new Micron factory that will be completed in 2027. Additionally, in just a few days, Micron plans to begin construction on a facility in New York that will be the largest semiconductor factory in the US.

However, considering that a new factory takes three to four years to build and adapt (in the worst case), It will still be a long time before the expansion of production capacity begins to alleviate the current supply crisis.

And that is, of course, if the AI ​​macroeconomic bubble doesn’t burst. If this happens, then prices must fall and other problems must occur, however, there will certainly be a problem of greater supply than demand. The exact opposite of what happens today.

For some, the bursting of the AI ​​bubble could become a hope.

Fonte: Wccftech.