logoalt Hacker News

roadbustertoday at 1:46 AM1 replyview on HN

> OpenAI isn’t even bothering to buy finished memory modules

And? Why should they be obligated to pay for all the middleman steps from fab down to module? That includes: wafer-level test, module-level test (DC, AC, parametric), packaging, post-packaging test, and module fabrication. There's nothing illegal or sketchy about saying, "give me the wafers, I'll take care of everything else myself."

> not even allocated to a specific DRAM standard yet

DRAM manufacturers design and fabricate chips to sell into a standardized, commodity market. There's no secret evolutionary step which occurs after the wafers are etched which turns chips into something which adheres to DDR4,5,6,7,8,9

> It’s not even clear if they have decided yet on how or when they will finish them into RAM sticks or HBM

Who cares?


Replies

hamandcheesetoday at 2:02 AM

The implication here is that the primary goal is to corner the market, not to use the supply. If you aren't going to use them anyways then of course it is silly to pay for them to be finished.

Do you think that's fine, or do you think that implication is wrong and OpenAI does actually plan to deploy 40% of the world's DRAM supply?

show 2 replies