• Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    It was over 20 years ago Intel said something like you aren’t a real company if you don’t have a fab.

    I think the big companies like Apple are going to vertically integrate more because the RAM shortage isn’t going away. Even after the AI clouds collapse, home users are going to buy more. No one wants their lives on ChatGPT, but everyone wants a better local spell checker and that’s 128GB per person.

    • BrikoX@lemmy.zipM
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      1 month ago

      It’s not really viable. There are effectively 4 fabs that actually manufacture RAM dies (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron and now YMTC). Everyone else is just a vendor that uses underlying die fabricated by these companies to produce finished modules. The supply chain issue is silicon dies, not end products.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        There are effectively 4 fabs that actually manufacture RAM dies

        Companies like Google and Apple are big enough to start their own fabs. Apple is 6 times larger than Intel.

        • BrikoX@lemmy.zipM
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          1 month ago

          Do you really expect companies that can’t afford to do even simple assembly in the US to actually invest in manufacturing fabs that require endless amount of cash flow? It’s not software where you can generate cash from the thin air via service fees.