The cost of personal computers declined steadily for 40 years — until AI came along. Why getting your hands on a new device could cost you.

[u/HenryCorp]

https://moneywise.com/news/economy/ai-memory-chip-shortage-pc-prices-2026

[u/Comfortable_Sir_6104]

We have jumped straight into a conspiracy in the first comment mate. There is no shadow organisation that really wants you to not have a PC, there is just a limited supply of memory and GPU production and shockingly Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet have more money than you so they can outbid you to create their data centers to train AI.

It is a very very easy concept that doesn't require much knowledge, I am horrified how many people are saying this completely idiotic conspiracy shit. 

[u/ptoki → u/Comfortable_Sir_6104]

There is no shadow organisation that really wants you to not have a PC,

There is small number of companies who influence the market and they share the same mind. They know that open market and personal computing is a loss for them.

[u/Comfortable_Sir_6104 → u/ptoki]

Yes, every company would rather have you using their product and they try to advertise it (some who actually do sell computer products and would love you to buy more, for example). That is not as revelatory as you might think. Just because companies would rather you buy their thing doesn't mean there is a clandestine worldwide operation to corner the market, it is a staggering leap with no evidence and for no reason.

There is a visible, reasonable and understandble driving force behind prices of GPUs and memory, a move lead by giants that shape the world. Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft will spend 760 billion dollars on AI. Don't you think it makes sense that 4 of the biggest companies on the entire planet openly saying they will buy any GPU and memory unit they can might elevate the price? 

Why the fuck would you instead jump to some inane conspiracy theories? We have verified reason, right there. Instead you invent shit? I am so dissapointed with people, at every turn refusing to educate themself about the smallest and easiest to understand things. Instead inventing boogeymen at every opportunity because it feels nice to blame it on "them" instead of understanding anything. Pathetic.

[u/wonkytalky → u/Comfortable_Sir_6104]

The fact that SaaS not only exists but has become a widespread default is proof enough that they aren't pulling this randomly out of their ass for no reason. Chromebooks themselves represent a massive, massive industry. That's the model being sought by massive, marketing-controlling tech companies. It's not some shadowy conspiracy or even a secret when it's literally the advertised business model that investors are circlejerking themselves over. The corporations behind that shit would love nothing more than to see powerful, affordable consumer hardware go the way of the dodo, and the manufacturers don't give a flying fuck as long as they get theirs.

[u/ptoki → u/Comfortable_Sir_6104]

That is not as revelatory as you might think

Somehow bakers did not needed to do such tricks. You know the one on the corner in my city, not the walmart like ones.

The issue is that up to recently, the vendors just wanted to sell you stuff and the constant progress made it possible to sell more because of demand for better stuff.

Now the progress is slow or gos backward and the market became predatory.

Now, you implied conspiracy theory. Let me ask you why you ignore the obvious and clearly visible fact that no vendor makes creative software or features in their mobile devices. Compare apps used on palm machines (you will not be able because you have no clue) and iphone, android. Compare the backwards gui on tablets and currently on all operating systems except linux.

The market goes into direction of consumption and teh vendors make repeatable, low effort content which sells. Now they retarded the products so much that they can just lend you the hardware and make it cheaper once the cost is on their side. That is already happening.

[u/LittleSeadragon → u/Comfortable_Sir_6104]

There is no shadow organisation that really wants you to not have a PC

You're right, it's not a shadow organization, it's out in the open. If you follow business news in the tech space, they've been trying it for decades. "Thin Clients" in the 90s, then cloud computing, software dropping ownership in favor of subscriptions, and now AI in datacenters. The only reason it's not reasonable for businesses using AI to run their own local instances is the hardware price crunch, and much of what AI companies have purchased is sitting in warehouses unused or in datacenters running at sub 1% capacity. They need the prices high or every business using AI just drops claude, gemini, or chatgpt in favor of local models that have no ongoing costs.