this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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[–] sundray@lemmus.org 333 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Keep in mind, many of these same DRAM makers were once caught up in one of the largest illegal business cartels ever discovered by the U.S. government over 25 years ago. Just a fun fact to store in your brain.

😡

[–] DevDave@piefed.social 138 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Oh wow, reading the wiki you linked, looks like that one exec really learned their lesson \s

On 5 April 2006, Sun Woo Lee, Senior Manager of DRAM at Samsung Electronics, entered into a plea bargain with the US Government for his involvement in the price fixing conspiracy.[5] Following the plea agreement he was sentenced to 8 months in prison and fined US$250,000.[6] Lee was subsequently promoted to President of Samsung Germany in 2009, and then President of Samsung Europe in 2014

edit/update: Oh, wow so Sun Woo Lee actually really lucked out as Korea focused more on making an example of the Samsung heir apparent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Jae-yong

8 months in prison sucks, I totally concede that. Yet literally the deal they made looks like they were asked "Would you take the fall and go to prison for 8 months and then get paid millions per year afterward?"

[–] Denvil@piefed.world 114 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Going to jail as a poor person means you lose your job

Going to jail as a rich person apparently gets you a promotion

Interesting

[–] DevDave@piefed.social 47 points 2 weeks ago

Doesn't the mob and other syndicates do something like that as well? Gotta do some time and not snitch to move up in the ranks.

[–] urushitan@kakera.kintsugi.moe 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That means that he managed to keep the fine small enough that Samsung made significantly more money off the price fixing than they ever lost from the fine. Hasn’t changed

https://www.axios.com/google-facebook-fines-profits--134d3567-1052-4d9d-aa70-dc7c25ed4ebf.html

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

Cost of doing business really

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Not just lose your job, but your entire career as the prison record will come up in your background check and the news will also be on the internet forever, the prison / slavery industry is a well oiled machine

[–] morto@piefed.social 7 points 2 weeks ago

"They gave their freedom for this company!" - Some corrupt executive somewhere

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 54 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

None of the fines for these things are enough. It should be, like, the company is nationalized. The leadership is sentenced to years of community service and barred from working in the industry for life.

[–] AHamSandwich@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Fucking corporate America. I was fired for having a disability, specifically and intentionally by my boss and her manager. Neither has any direct accountability - both were terminated as a result of the findings of a federal and state investigation, but the company will pay for the damages. They both failed upward, getting higher positions at other companies, while I've struggled to find employment, something already difficult due to the stigma of my age, disability, and gender, but now with word of my termination having spread through the quite small pool of people who work in my field.

[–] zip@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

Uuugh, fuck that! I am so deeply sorry. I'm disabled and of an age and gender that get heavily discriminated against, too...so I feel you. I've been there. It's so awful and makes you feel like shit. I sincerely hope things get better for you ASAP! Here's some Internet hugs, if you want them: 🫂

[–] justaman123@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Probably only gotta do that once for things to really change

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 11 points 2 weeks ago

You gotta give a booster shot every once in a while to remind them.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

coupled with the fact that the cartels refuse to expand production; this tells me they're realistic about the moment - it's not going to be a decade of future humongous peak RAM consumption, because otherwise they'd be blisteringly stupid (to lose out on those potential increased sales)... https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/memory-makers-have-no-plans-to-increase-production-despite-crushing-ram-shortages-modest-2026-increase-predicted-as-dram-makers-hedge-their-ai-bets

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

They see the AI bubble for what it is, just like the rest of us, and they don't want to be holding warehouses full of shovels when the gold stops coming.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

entirely agree. if there were overproduction it would cause the prices to crash, can't have that.

[–] ennof@feddit.org 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)
[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

yeah this is kind of the pattern with ram price fluctuations.

Ram demand goes up.

Ram prices go up.

Ram makers say they'll increase capacity.

Nothing happens, they may open new factories but close older lines, or they may start to open another fab but then for whatever reason it doesn't work.

Ram prices go up.

[–] ennof@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

The decision to build the new Boise fab in question (to start production in 2027) was made in September 2022. ChatGPT was made available to the public in November 2022. The new fab is likely not a response to significantly increased demand at the time but an investment made in expectation of increased demand (GPT-4 could already be tested in 2020, maybe they foresaw the LLM hype). They make DRAM. Isn't it likely that prices are going to drop once production starts at the new fab?

https://investors.micron.com/news-releases/news-release-details/micron-invest-15-billion-new-idaho-fab-bringing-leading-edge

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Isn’t it likely that prices are going to drop once production starts at the new fab?

depends on the market; one of the things I've seen repeatedly is new fabs opening to produce newer processes - replacing older fabs with larger nodes that then are shut down.

sometimes it's advantageous to keep the old lines going and eek every bit of market share out of them, sometimes it's prohibitive to keep older processes open.

but to respond to your query: in this market? in these crazy times? I'd be striking while the iron is hot and getting the maximum I could from every dram chip because the valuations of the hyperscalers and the surrounding ecosystem - open AI, anthropic, meta, google, nvidia etc., will continue to gobble it up until the bubble blows up in their faces.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Micron Locks In Historically High Memory Prices For Five Years

https://m.slashdot.org/story/455824

ho lee fuggin sheeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiit

Even massive efforts to build new chip fabs aren’t much help, he said, because the increasing complexity of new memory types means it takes longer to build factories – and when they come online there still won’t be enough capacity to build both the high-bandwidth memory needed for AI and other types of NAND and DRAM.

[–] ennof@feddit.org 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Well, shit. So much for that. Is that even legal?

AI should be illegal if this is the consequence. fuuuuUUUUuu