Specifically, desktop RAM is slabs of silicon, placed into little packages, soldered onto circuit boards in DIMM form or similar, to be plugged into a motherboard slot for RAM.
The AI demand is for the silicon itself, using advanced packaging techniques to put them on the same package as the complex GPUs with very high bandwidth. So these same pieces of silicon are not even being put into DIMMs, so that if they fall out of use they’ll be pretty much intertwined with chips in form factors that a consumer can’t easily make use of.
There’s not really an easy way to bring that memory back into the consumer market, even after the AI bubble bursts.
Specifically, desktop RAM is slabs of silicon, placed into little packages, soldered onto circuit boards in DIMM form or similar, to be plugged into a motherboard slot for RAM.
The AI demand is for the silicon itself, using advanced packaging techniques to put them on the same package as the complex GPUs with very high bandwidth. So these same pieces of silicon are not even being put into DIMMs, so that if they fall out of use they’ll be pretty much intertwined with chips in form factors that a consumer can’t easily make use of.
There’s not really an easy way to bring that memory back into the consumer market, even after the AI bubble bursts.