Here’s the actual TL:DW (it’s not that long, and I did watch it)
Steve describes what’s happened (Micron shuts down Crucial their consumer-facing “store brand”), mocks their stupid press release, and discusses the nuances involved, will they still be selling to all the rebadged memory resellers who use Micron as a supplier? Unclear, their reps and defenders say yes, their PR and the context implies not really, unless those resellers want to get into a bidding war with AI datacenters that they’re not going to win. Steve not-so-subtly implies that this seems awfully sort of kind of like more price fixing from a small group of oligopolist companies who have in fact been convicted in the past of price fixing, while explictly stating that he is, of course, for legal reasons, definitely NOT implying that in any way shape or form. Some much deserved ranting about how shitty and frustrating this situation is is mixed in throughout and he goes over details about exactly how much prices have risen already, pointing out all the different devices that require some form of high speed memory that are going to be affected by this. Some further discussion suggests the possibility this might just be a shot across the bow to let the other memory companies who are totally not colluding with Micron and never would consider doing that to let them know it’s absolutely time to not collude about anything like that because of course they’re all paying very close attention right now. So we’ll have to see what else develops, but basically he’s letting everyone know he’s on it, and he’s paying very close attention too.
I might’ve read between the lines a bit in a few places, I have some of my own strong feelings about what’s going on here, so I apologise if I inadvertently mixed in any of my own interpretation by accident.
I watched it yesterday and only a couple things I have to add.
First is that the bipartisan CHIPS act basically shovelled taxpayer money into Micron’s pockets to increase their manufacturing, but they are reducing their consumer output anyway, so Steve’s point is consumers are not getting anything out of the subsidy they made.
Second is, since any potential increase in production is to cater to their largest data centre customers only, Steve is suggesting that this could be part of a push to move people to subscription-based cloud computing by making personal computing tha you buy and own unaffordable.
Here’s the actual TL:DW (it’s not that long, and I did watch it)
Steve describes what’s happened (Micron shuts down Crucial their consumer-facing “store brand”), mocks their stupid press release, and discusses the nuances involved, will they still be selling to all the rebadged memory resellers who use Micron as a supplier? Unclear, their reps and defenders say yes, their PR and the context implies not really, unless those resellers want to get into a bidding war with AI datacenters that they’re not going to win. Steve not-so-subtly implies that this seems awfully sort of kind of like more price fixing from a small group of oligopolist companies who have in fact been convicted in the past of price fixing, while explictly stating that he is, of course, for legal reasons, definitely NOT implying that in any way shape or form. Some much deserved ranting about how shitty and frustrating this situation is is mixed in throughout and he goes over details about exactly how much prices have risen already, pointing out all the different devices that require some form of high speed memory that are going to be affected by this. Some further discussion suggests the possibility this might just be a shot across the bow to let the other memory companies who are totally not colluding with Micron and never would consider doing that to let them know it’s absolutely time to not collude about anything like that because of course they’re all paying very close attention right now. So we’ll have to see what else develops, but basically he’s letting everyone know he’s on it, and he’s paying very close attention too.
I might’ve read between the lines a bit in a few places, I have some of my own strong feelings about what’s going on here, so I apologise if I inadvertently mixed in any of my own interpretation by accident.
I watched it yesterday and only a couple things I have to add.
First is that the bipartisan CHIPS act basically shovelled taxpayer money into Micron’s pockets to increase their manufacturing, but they are reducing their consumer output anyway, so Steve’s point is consumers are not getting anything out of the subsidy they made.
Second is, since any potential increase in production is to cater to their largest data centre customers only, Steve is suggesting that this could be part of a push to move people to subscription-based cloud computing by making personal computing tha you buy and own unaffordable.
We should all find ways to minimize our taxes. Why should we contribute?
Thanks!