Hyperscalers and social media companies hired tech talent to keep folks from starting their own companies and keep other companies from hiring them.

memory companies are known to price fix as well, so i could really see either possibility tbh

and why not both?

just a theory! The end result was too make it difficult for me and you to run llms on our systems, and you need porwerfull system to run them. But some months ago, those powerfull systems where affordable for end consumers. Now, good luck buying let's say 128gb ddr5.