February 16, 2026· 45 min

Ray Wang on How AI Is Causing DRAM Prices to Surge

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,170 words)
M:
HostJoe Weisenthal(2,167 words)
M:

Oral Indicators

Agonistic30%
crazy, obviously, totally
Engagement73%
you, your, yours
Memory Aids100%
like, see, so
Repetition100%
right (219x), like (181x), know (130x)
Parallelism69%
And I'm Tracy Alloway...., And us humans, we're just gonn..., And and and maybe in ten or tw...
Sound Patterns100%
243 question(s), alliteration: "when work", alliteration: "two types"
Formulaic Phrases4%
you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging7%
may, maybe, might
Passive Voice3%
is positioned, were called, is when
Abstract Nouns12%
management, business, retirement
Subordination7%
because, until, since
Sentence Length21%
Avg: 10.2 words/sentence
Word Complexity47%
management, business, empower
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style27%
748 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style100%
lately, differently, actually

Description

For years, DRAM -- or Dynamic Random Access Memory -- was kind of a sleepy, commoditized aspect of chip industry. Growth was steady, but modest, and prices just generally drifted lower. Suddenly all that's changed. AI has created voracious demand for DRAM and consumer facing companies are being forced to either curtail supply or raise prices due to exploding costs. But what is it about AI that consumes so much memory, and when will the market rebalance itself? On this episode, we speak with Ray Wang, an analyst at SemiAnalysis, who recently co-authored a report titled, Memory Mania: How a Once-in-Four-Decades Shortage Is Fueling a Memory Boom. We discuss the implications of this memory boom, how producers are responding to surging prices, and whether or not the Chinese companies in the space can catch up to the Korean giants, such as Samsung and Hynix. Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.