Thread

1. ocd · 1790861971 · focus · HN ↗

   I'm not a business guy, but I think I would be very worried if I created any opening (even on the very long term) for competition to justify itself being built up to meet demand (or national security requirements of other countries) on an industry I mostly control, because I prioritized extremely high prices for a few years that might have the effect of changing the arithmetic for potential competitors that wouldn't have done it before.

   It makes me consider whether there would be retaliation in later years against the US intellectual property system in countries other than China. While RAM is a tangible product, the areas it serves aren't really.

   1. Tuna-Fish · 1790863383 · focus · HN ↗

      They are not prioritizing extremely high prices. TSMC has a similar waiting list, so does ever other tool manufacturer. Memory capacity is being increased approximately as fast as it can be.

      1. alephnerd · 1790864000 · focus · HN ↗

         There's no point bringing this up.

         Whenever anyone does, there are dozens of posts acting conspiratorial on HN.

         1. martin8412 · 1790864388 · focus · HN ↗

            It has honestly gotten frustrating to even read anything on the internet these days. It’s just conspiracies upon conspiracies all the time, and it’s constantly in your face.

            If only they were good conspiracies with some weight to them, but no, they fall apart if you have a rudimentary understanding of the subject.

            1. foltik · 1790865999 · focus · HN ↗

               <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;DRAM_industry_price_fixing" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;DRAM_industry_price_fixing

               1. martin8412 · 1790876698 · focus · HN ↗

                  Which was caused by the exact problem they’re trying to avoid by not going on a spending spree to increase manufacturing capacity.

                  They had built way too much capacity during the 90s and were losing money on every chip because they couldn’t run the fabs at full capacity. That’s why they colluded to increase the price to save their collective hides.

                  A new competitor wouldn’t be able to enter the market and lower the prices without also losing money. That’s not the case today, the Chinese are trying hard to do just that.

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