Altman says personal computer memory remarks were taken out of context
The OpenAI chief said he favors greater memory production after questioning how scarce supplies are allocated between personal computers and data centers.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has pushed back on criticism of his remarks about memory in personal computers, writing on X that he wants people to have as much as they want. He said his comments had been taken out of context and that he has long advocated making more memory.
His response comes amid rising memory prices as AI data centers buy available supplies. SK Hynix has said the shortage will persist to 2030, while Micron expects the shortage to tighten into 2028.
The dispute followed an appearance on Stripe co-founder John Collison’s Cheeky Pint podcast. While discussing running AI models on personal machines, Altman questioned the allocation of limited DRAM to computers where it is used 5% of the time. He argued that data centers could use the memory more fully during the shortage.
Elon Musk responded with a meme supporting people’s access to RAM. Other X users challenged Altman over the amount of memory OpenAI had secured for its data centers.
Altman also briefly changed his X profile name to “Ram Altman” at a user’s suggestion during an exchange involving a memory-chip meme. Business Insider reported that he later restored his usual name and that OpenAI declined its request for comment.
