That was why OpenAI went after the wafers, not the finished products. By buying up the supply of the raw materials they bottleneck everybody, even unrelated fields. It's the kind of move that requires a true asshole to pull off, knowing it will give your company an advantage but screw up life for literally billions of people at the same time.
Went after the right component too. RAM manufacturers love an opportunity to create as much scarcity as possible.
> By buying up the supply
We actually don't know for certain whether these agreements are binding. If OpenAI gets in a credit crunch we'll soon find out.