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by maurycyz
95 days ago
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The raw materials are cheap: It's mostly just quartz, which is the most abundant mineral on earth. The problem is actually making chips. The machines use to make modern integrated circuits are some of the most precise equipment in the world, manufacturing structures just tens of atoms across. Getting more factories online might take close to a decade, and that's if anyone wants to pay: The current demand showed up basically overnight as some of the companies (running of investor money with no way to make profit) started a bidding war. Betting billions of dollars on them still being around in 5-10 years is just not a wise decision. |
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Historically dynamic RAM has gone through several boom/bust cycles, oscillating between manufacturers struggling to break-even and cutting production and then a few years later not being able to make enough chips. I remember the late 80s being another time where companies were delaying new product launches because they couldn't get DRAM.