Sam Altman, the creator of ChatGPT, said on the Cheeky Pint podcast on October 29, 2026, that it is “quite terrible” for people to have the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computers and being used 5% of the time, arguing those resources would be more valuable in data centers. According to the article, the AI frenzy has fueled a historic global RAM shortage, with hardware manufacturers like NVIDIA and Corsair prioritizing high-margin enterprise orders, leaving scarce and expensive units in retail stores, while even OpenAI struggles to secure hardware. Altman framed his critique around the inefficiency of users running localized AI models, though the article notes his logic extends to gaming hardware, where RAM is essential for PC builds and modern consoles, and that many people buy RAM to upgrade PCs for gaming rather than to run their own AI systems. The article states the AI frenzy has triggered one of the worst crises in the video game industry amid component shortages and hardware scarcity.