Artificial intelligence has become the primary focus of the tech sector, yet the demand for hardware needed to train and maintain these complex systems has already fueled a historic global shortage of RAM.
While inventory shortages directly hit everyday consumers, even tech giants with billions invested in AI infrastructure are struggling to secure enough hardware for their data centers. The creator of ChatGPT, meanwhile, has a very controversial take regarding this issue.
Sam Altman, el hombre del momento y la nueva figura de Microsoft Sam Altman Laments that People Are Using RAM to Play Games
Though artificial intelligence has developed over decades, OpenAI accelerated its mainstream adoption with the release of ChatGPT, a versatile tool for text generation, image creation, and interactive conversation.
That launch ignited a massive industry-wide AI frenzy, driving Microsoft and competing tech giants to pour billions into building data centers.
Because these AI systems require colossal amounts of RAM, major hardware manufacturers like NVIDIA and Corsair are prioritizing high-margin enterprise orders. As such, there’s a scarcity of these items in retail stores and the few units available are expensive.
The supply crunch has gone from bad to worse and even OpenAI itself is struggling to secure hardware. During an appearance on the Cheeky Pint podcast on October 29, 2026, Sam Altman addressed the hardware crisis alongside broader technological trends.
During the interview, the OpenAI CEO voiced disapproval of how high-performance RAM has been used for consumer PCs for work or gaming, suggesting those resources would be much more valuable if used in data centers.
“From a global allocation perspective, actually, it’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used 5% of the time,” Altman said.
While Altman framed his critique around the inefficiency of users running localized AI models on their own computers, his logic extends directly to the gaming hardware market, where RAM is essential for both PC builds and modern consoles.
AI Is Causing One of the Worst Crises in the Video Game Industry
It’s easy to see why Altman has this perspective as OpenAi’s goal is to have as many hyperscale data centers as possible to develop their AI models, which is becoming harder the longer the hardware crisis continues.
“You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you’re trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment. And somehow many people’s intuition is the opposite of that,” he said.
The problem is that executives fall into the trap of believing people buy RAM to run their own AI systems, when in reality many buy RAM units to upgrade their PCs for gaming. One must not forget that almost every consumer electronics product uses these components.
The truth is that the AI frenzy has triggered one of the worst crises in the video game industry. Component shortages and hardware scarcity have driven massive price increases for the PlayStation 5 and other consoles in recent years, and Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen platforms are expected to cost over $1,000.
What do you think about Sam Altman’s statements? Share your thoughts in the comments below.