Sam Altman renames himself RamAltman after '5% DRAM utilization' remark sparks outrage
新智元 · wechat · 2026-11-07
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on John Collison's Cheeky Pint podcast that everyone hoarding DRAM used only 5% of the time is 'quite bad' for global allocation — cloud utilization is better.
- The comment landed amid a memory price surge: 32GB DDR5 kits went from $70 to nearly $450 in a year; JPMorgan estimates >400% cumulative DRAM price growth from early 2024 to end-2026. Musk chimed in with 'People should also own their RAM!' and the internet erupted into RAM-protection memes.
- On Nov 3 Altman actually renamed his X display name to RamAltman, then clarified he genuinely wants more memory built and hates being taken out of context; his real critique targets DRAM makers too scarred by boom-bust cycles to expand capacity — 'the invisible hand is failing.'
- Context: OpenAI signed LOIs with Samsung and SK Hynix for up to 900K DRAM wafers per month — roughly 40% of global DRAM output — leaving consumers paying record prices for memory.
Related event: Altman's idle DRAM remarks spark backlash as memory prices surge(4 posts)→
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