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Over the past few months, the computing industry has changed in a massive way. On the one hand, we’ve seen the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chip deliver a huge boost in local performance on a laptop (especially for integrated graphics), and on the other hand, the RAM crunch is causing tech prices to skyrocket.
The key factor that ties it all together? The push for AI. As major memory makers shift priorities to allow AI data centers to flourish, with even Micron stating that “DRAM shortages could persist for some time,” it’s become clear that PCs, phones, game consoles, and everything in between will become premium this year. Heck, there’s even a scare that some of Nvidia’s RTX 50 series GPUs are on the way out.
Consumer RAM is being scaled back in favor of power-hungry AI, and even SSD storage seems to be an expensive affair. At the very least, Intel has confirmed to Tom’s Guide that they have “about 9 to 12 months” of laptop stock left before costs start to rise due to memory price increases, and one expert also thinks there’s still some time left.
However, it seems more likely than ever that there will be a shock wave of price hikes in the tech space, and that very much includes future PCs. Remember, that’s all for AI services like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, whether you use them or not.
With all of this in mind, the RAM crunch hints that consumer PCs are a hugely expensive purchase, and they don’t plan to ease any time soon – with predictions around 2028 until the memory shortage normalizes. So what will the computing landscape look like in just a few years?
As Windows Central’s Jez Corden rightly points out, a prediction made by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could be the way the computing industry is headed: ditching local computers for subscription-based cloud computing.
Rent-a-cloud
In an interview with the New York Times, Bezos talks about how AI is the main focus at Amazon. This is not a surprise, seeing that each the company is doubling down on incorporating artificial intelligence into its products, apps, services and more these days.
But the real kicker comes when Bezos mentions a brewery he visited, and this company had to build its own power plant to “improve the efficiency of their factory with electricity.” Since there was no electrical grid, they had to build their own form of electricity.
“At the time, that’s what everybody did. If a hotel wanted electricity, it had its own generator,” Bezos explains. “I looked at it and thought, this is how computing is today; everyone has their own data center.”
Interestingly, he goes on to say, “this isn’t going to last. It doesn’t make sense. You’re going to buy network computers. That’s AWS.”
This won’t last. It doesn’t make sense. You will buy computers off the network. This is AWS.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
This comment was made in 2024, and today it rings truer than ever. Many online services and sites rely on Amazon’s AWS to run (which is why last year’s AWS outage took down Snapchat, Venmo, Ring, Zoom, and more).
So what happens if this solution is ported to local computers? You’ll have all your PC peripherals ready in place, like a mouse, keyboard, and monitor, just without the computer itself—all thanks to an operating system running in the cloud that you can access.
First, this was already in the works. Top cloud gaming services like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Nvidia GeForce Now, and even Amazon Luna have made steady progress over the years, so much so that Microsoft now calls everything Xbox. Even GeForce Now also offers RTX 5080 levels of gaming performance. But even before that, Netflix made streaming movies and shows the norm on physical media.
Now, that’s not to say these services aren’t expensive (the Xbox Game Pass price hike to $30 a month isn’t ideal), but compared to the inflated prices we’ll be paying for PCs due to the RAM crunch, it gives companies reason to start leasing hardware to use for cloud computing.
It’s a scary thought, but one that RAMageddon pushes even further.
Will the first AI bubble burst?
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AI is the priority for most tech companies and billions of dollars are being pumped into data centers to ensure the results are worth the price. But right now, basically all a consumer sees is AI slop and Grok is used to generate sexualized images. Not exactly “next-gen”.
ChatGPT’s Sam Altman said we’re in an AI bubble, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended himself against the “doomer narrative” people have labeled it. The question is, will the bubble burst before we see it? all Are the real benefits of artificial intelligence emerging? It’s hard to say, but either way, the technology will become expensive in the process.
Will it become expensive enough for companies to turn to subscription cloud computing to drive demand for AI or not? I doubt that will happen anytime soon, but Bezos’ comments reveal a shift for the future of computing — one that sees PC hardware becoming so premium that we’d turn to the cloud instead.
Either way, PCs are going to get expensive, so if you’re looking to upgrade, you’ll want to buy now or wait for RAMageddon to explode.
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