Sam Altman argued that hoarding limited DRAM in personal PCs is inefficient compared to maximizing its use in cloud data centers, amid an ongoing global RAM shortage driven by long-term deals with companies like Samsung, SK Hynix, and OpenAI's Stargate project.
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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Asked about supply chain shortages, like the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/839353/pc-ram-shortage-pricing-spike-news">ongoing RAM shortage</a>, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview that it's "terrible" to have RAM in personal PCs instead of data centers. During his appearance on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMsUcCYNKqY&t=1747s"><em>Cheeky Pint</em></a> podcast, where he also <a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1023054/altman-cheeky-pint-ai-math-interview">commented on AI's impact on math</a>, Altman said:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">"A lot of people want local inference. And somehow, they assume that the problem is solved now because we are going to have open-source models, we're going to be able to run them on our computers, and so we're not going to need all the stuff in the data center.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But from a global allocation perspective, actually, it's quite terrible to have everybo …</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1023820/sam-altman-ram-shortage-cloud-servers">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
# Sam Altman says it’s better for RAM to be in a data center than on your desk
Source: [https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1023820/sam-altman-ram-shortage-cloud-servers](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1023820/sam-altman-ram-shortage-cloud-servers)
[](https://www.theverge.com/authors/stevie-bonifield)
Stevie Bonifield
is a news writer covering all things consumer tech\. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI\.
Asked about supply chain shortages, like the[ongoing RAM shortage](https://www.theverge.com/news/839353/pc-ram-shortage-pricing-spike-news), OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview that it’s “terrible” to have RAM in personal PCs instead of data centers\. During his appearance on the[*Cheeky Pint*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMsUcCYNKqY&t=1747s)podcast, where he also[commented on AI’s impact on math](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1023054/altman-cheeky-pint-ai-math-interview), Altman said:
> “A lot of people want local inference\. And somehow, they assume that the problem is solved now because we are going to have open\-source models, we’re going to be able to run them on our computers, and so we’re not going to need all the stuff in the data center\. But from a global allocation perspective, actually, it’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used five percent of the time\. You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you’re trying to deal with this very supply constrained environment\. And somehow everyone’s— many people’s intuition is the opposite of that\.”
Whether Altman meant your gaming PC or developers working with something like the[Surface RTX Spark Dev Box](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1006915/microsoft-surface-rtx-spark-dev-box-preorder)or the new[touchscreen MacBook Pro](https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/1019554/apple-touchscreen-macbook-pro-and-tell), the outcome is the same\. Right now, memory companies Samsung and[SK Hynix](https://news.skhynix.com/en/q3-2026-business-results/)have long term deals with cloud service operators and projects like[OpenAI’s Stargate](https://www.theverge.com/news/789687/openai-samsung-stargate-chips)that have reserved much of the world’s RAM output over the next few years\. And the billions they’re willing to lay out for chips is why the laptops, phones, and other tech you use are[getting more expensive](https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/993005/smartphone-price-hikes-apple-iphone-18-pro)right now\.
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- Stevie Bonifield
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said it's "quite terrible" for consumers to have RAM sitting idle in home PCs, arguing data centers offer better memory utilization — a claim that drew widespread backlash from hardware enthusiasts and forum commenters.
Sam Altman argues that running AI models locally is an inefficient use of scarce global DRAM resources and that cloud-based, high-utilization data centers are a better allocation. The post adds a skeptical TL;DR framing the remark as a vendor pitch for renting over owning.
Sam Altman argues that local inference is an inefficient allocation of resources in a constrained environment: equipping everyone's computer with large amounts of scarce DRAM that is only used about 5% of the time is far less effective than keeping cloud resources at high utilization.
Gergely Orosz criticizes Sam Altman for complaining that individuals buying RAM for local AI inference on their PCs is competing with OpenAI's need to buy more hardware to sell inference at high margins, calling the take 'barking up the wrong tree'.