Altman's "your RAM is wasted" comment triggers viral backlash
OpenAI's CEO said personal computers hoarding DRAM is inefficient and should go to data centers, sparking a mockery storm online.
What to know
- Altman argued that personal RAM sitting idle most of the time is a poor global allocation of a 'supply-constrained' resource and should instead sit in AI data centers.
- The quote landed amid a DRAM/memory price spike that critics say was itself driven by AI data-center demand, making the remark read as self-serving.
- Social media response was overwhelmingly satirical, with users applying Altman's 'inefficient use of limited supply' logic to his own wealth, blood, organs, and oxygen.
- Commentary pieces (Techdirt, Gizmodo) framed the comment as revealing a broader push toward a rental/subscription model for compute rather than ownership.
The dispute Most of the crowd treats the remark as pure self-interested rent-seeking by Altman, while a smaller technical-critique camp focuses specifically on how AI data-center demand caused the DRAM shortage he is citing as justification. · positions read across 481 posts and comments
Mock the logic by applying 'inefficient use of limited supply' to Altman's own money, blood, organs, or existence.
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“I would argue the same about our precious supply of oxygen being used in Sam Altman”
hazardhostile.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
The comment exposes a broader push by tech billionaires toward a rent-everything, own-nothing model.
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“They want to make us have to rent computers from them, powered by electricity rented from them, to use internet rented from them... "You will own nothing and be happy" writ large.”
critandcrit.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
The DRAM shortage Altman cites was itself caused by AI data-center buildout, making his argument self-serving and centralizing.
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“RAM only became limited when they started building data centres at scale for AI. Fuck off, Sam.”
creativemachine.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Sam Altman OpenAI CEOOpenAI AI company led by AltmanCheeky Pint YouTube channel that conducted the interview
Mike Masnick Techdirt founder and author of the analysis piece
How it unfolded 8 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Techdirt analysis reaches Hacker News front page
The Techdirt critique was resubmitted and gained traction on Hacker News, continuing the discussion two days after the original remarks went viral.
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He doesn't miss these things like gaming or edge cases... He's just talking specifically about how local LLM inference is not economical and he is right.Anyone choosing between a cloud provider vs local specifically for an LLM has likely noticed this already.Anyone interpreting this as "Altman wants to take DRAM away from me" or "Altman doesn't…
2 more of the top 3 · 28 posts in this stretch
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「サム・アルトマン氏、RAMに関するコメントに反論：「人々は自分のコンピューターに好きなだけRAMを搭載すべきだ」 /OpenAIのCEOは、X上で自身の名前を「Ram Altman」に変更し、「皆さんにたっぷりのRAMを手に入れてほしい」と述べた。 」： # TheVerge 「OpenAIのCEOであるサム・アルトマン氏は、選挙当夜、PC用RAMの購入に関する自身の立場を擁護した。彼は、別のユーザーのコメントに反応してX上でのユーザー名を「ラム・アルトマン」に変更し、「私は実際に、世界中に大量のメモリがあり、人々が自分のコンピューターに好きなだけメモリを搭載できることを望んでいます。そして、これが文脈から切り離されて取り上げられたのは本当に腹立たしいことです。私は長い間、世界中でメモリ生…
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Yes, and what was that part of the conversation about? Was it about taking away everybody's around and everybody shouldn't have the computers, or was it talking about supply chains?
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Techdirt compares Altman's logic to the AI 'paperclip maximizer'
Mike Masnick's Techdirt piece argued Altman's efficiency argument for centralizing RAM mirrors the AI alignment thought experiment where optimizing a single metric produces harmful outcomes, warning it reflects a push toward renting rather than owning compute.
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RE: https:// mstdn.social/@osnews/117547817 436383294 Somewhere Bill Gates is happy that someone finally said something even worse about RAM than "640K ought to be enough for anyone". (It is disputed whether Gates ever said that or not. Whether he did or not, Altman has gone far beyond "dumb statement" and gone straight to the "let them eat cake"…
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
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As long as they don't use borrowed money to purchase all the supplies, it's fine for me.If most funds are borrowed money, I would say they are just trying to dry up the supply.You won't be able to do this forever, the faucet won't be on forever.
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Sam Altman is a turd in human form. For each and every AI CEO, AI scientist, AI proponent, even AI user: I hope you fall head first in a portapotty. A million times. Every day.
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Fuller quote on cloud utilization circulates via OSNews
OSNews published the extended version of Altman's remarks, including his argument that 'you want maximum utilization in the cloud' given the supply-constrained DRAM market.
“You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you're trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment.”
— Sam Altman -
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Sam Altman wants to take your RAM "From a global allocation perspective, actually, it's quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used 5% of the time," Altman said. "You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you're trying to deal with this very supply-constrained…
2 more of the top 3 · 24 posts in this stretch
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Tech company execs are among the stupidest people on Earth. Another article went around recently where the former CEO of Yahoo couldn't think of three positive words to describe her own child[1]. It's baffling that these people who probably put their pants on the wrong way around 50% of the time get as much airtime as they do. Truly breathtakingly…
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Has anyone actually listened to the Podcast? He wasn't arguing that people shouldn't have local compute. He was refuting the idea that more local compute will somehow be more efficient and help fix the component shortage. In the same podcast he was saying he wants component prices to come down so everyone, including basic consumers, have access to…
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Critics note OpenAI's own bought RAM sits unused in boxes
Commenters pointed out that much of the DRAM OpenAI has already purchased is sitting unbuilt-into-servers, undercutting Altman's 'maximum utilization' argument.
“Nearly all of the RAM that OpenAI has bought is sitting in boxes, unused. The servers it goes into have not been built.”
— jef -
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please support the needy and donate your ram to OpenAI https://www. tomshardware.com/tech-industry /data-centers/openai-ceo-says-its-quite-terrible-for-your-pc-to-have-ram-sam-altman-says-data-centers-offer-better-utilization
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"I think we should shed the idea that AI is a technological artifact with political features [ ...] AI is an ideological project to shift authority and autonomy away from individuals, towards centralized structures of power." Ali Alkhatib, here:
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I mean, it is going to data centers and not personal computers, because him and his peers have entered into multi-year contracts that corner the market. So, if this is actually the best use then presumably the price he’s driven the market up to will give a return on investment that reflects the utility of his use of it. I am skeptical that…
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Gizmodo headline frames it as Altman wanting to own all RAM
Gizmodo published "Sam Altman: All the RAM Should Belong to Me, So I Can Charge People to Use It," crystallizing the backlash into a rent-seeking narrative that spread across Mastodon and Hacker News.
“I should own every house and everyone should rent from me. PS. I stole all the furniture.”
— aral@mastodon.ar.al, Mastodon user · source -
first by The Economic Times, 8d ago · also Inc, Slashdot, Tom's Guide, Windows Central, Kotaku, IGN +2
9 more headlines
- Sam Altman Would Like Your RAM, Please Inc · 8d ago
- Sam Altman Thinks Your PC Is Wasting Precious RAM Slashdot · 8d ago
- Idle Memory: Altman Eyes the RAM Sitting in Your PC Implicator.ai · 8d ago
- Sam Altman says your laptop RAM is a ‘terrible’ allocation of scarce resources: Why I think the AI bubble is about to prove him wrong Tom's Guide · 8d ago
- OpenAI sociopath Sam Altman says it's “terrible” that your PC, Xbox, etc. have RAM that could be used for his AI Windows Central · 8d ago
- Sam Altman Thinks It's Good If You Can't Afford RAM For Your PC Kotaku · 8d ago
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Thinks It's ‘Terrible’ For You to Have RAM in Your Gaming PC IGN · 8d ago
- Sam Altman says it's better for RAM to be in a data center than on your desk The Verge · 8d ago
- Sam Altman is upset at you for hoarding RAM in your own computer Engadget · 8d ago
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first by Yahoo Finance, 8d ago · also Wccftech, TechRadar, Tech4Gamers, TheGamer, Boing Boing, XDA Developers +2
8 more headlines
- Sam Altman Calls PC RAM A “Quite Terrible” Use Of Limited DRAM Supply, Argues Cloud Data Centers Are More Efficient Wccftech · 8d ago
- Sam Altman says it's ‘quite terrible’ that you're using RAM in your PC TechRadar · 8d ago
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says People Having RAM In PCs Instead Of Data Centers Is Terrible Tech4Gamers · 8d ago
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says You Having DRAM Instead Of Data Centers Is “Terrible” TheGamer · 8d ago
- Keeping RAM in personal computers “quite terrible,” says OpenAI's Sam Altman Boing Boing · 8d ago
- Sam Altman says it's “quite terrible” that people use RAM in their PCs for AI during a shortage XDA Developers · 8d ago
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says its “terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM” instead of shoving it all in datacentres FRVR · 8d ago
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls PC RAM a "quite terrible" use of limited DRAM supply VideoCardz.com · 8d ago
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AI stans: It's just marketed wrong. That's the problem. You're just listening to the wrong people about this. It's not this big evil thing Sam Altman, King of AI: No one should have any RAM but me
2 more of the top 3 · 238 posts in this stretch
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“I should own every house and everyone should rent from me. PS. I stole all the furniture.” https://www. tomshardware.com/tech-industry /data-centers/openai-ceo-says-its-quite-terrible-for-your-pc-to-have-ram-sam-altman-says-data-centers-offer-better-utilization # BigTech # rentiers # AI
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Sam Altman complains that RAM in YOUR computer is WASTED, should be in the Cloud instead 'Quite TERRIBLE to have everybody have a bunch of world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer'
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Bluesky erupts with satirical 'inefficient use' replies
Hundreds of Bluesky users mocked Altman's framing by applying the same 'inefficient use of limited supply' logic to his own money, blood, organs, and oxygen, and to broader anti-landlord/anti-rentier sentiment.
“I would argue the same about our precious supply of oxygen being used in Sam Altman…”
— hazardhostile.bsky.social -
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes people owning RAM for their own PCs is a waste and instead should be saved for data centers "It’s quite terrible to have everyone have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer."
2 more of the top 3 · 109 posts in this stretch
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https://www. tomshardware.com/tech-industry /data-centers/openai-ceo-says-its-quite-terrible-for-your-pc-to-have-ram-sam-altman-says-data-centers-offer-better-utilization
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BREAKING: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says having RAM in personal computers is an inefficient use of the world’s limited DRAM supply, arguing it would be better allocated to data centers, per Tom’s Hardware
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Viral X posts amplify Altman's quote to millions
Large accounts (@pubity, @charlieINTEL, @MorePerfectUS) posted the quote with the fuller context about DRAM being 'used 5% of the time,' generating tens of thousands of likes and thousands of comments within hours.
“It’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAMs sitting in their own computer, and being used 5% of the time.”
— Sam Altman -
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes people owning RAM is wasteful, and that it belongs in data centers instead. "From a global allocation perspective, actually, it’s quite terrible to have everyone have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer."
2 more of the top 3 · 7 posts in this stretch
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Weirdly, underutilization of hardware was never a problem before. In fact, wastefulness is so ingrained in programming culture that the previous hype - blockchain - was about an explicit race over who could waste the most computing power on nonsensical calculations.Also, I'd be very surprised if the current rush to build datacenters everywhere is…
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Two statements can be true and he stated one of them. Sam is not wrong.1. Local inference can cause a large under-utilization of resources from users that do not run local inference hardware at capacity over the hardwares lifespan. This is under-utilization and under-utilization is not optimal from an economics perspective.2. The concentration of…
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Tom's Hardware surfaces Altman's 'terrible' RAM comment
Tom's Hardware reported that in a podcast interview Altman said it's 'quite terrible' for people to keep RAM in personal PCs instead of pooling it in data centers, citing better utilization.
“OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a podcast interview that "it's quite terrible" for people to have RAM in their own PCs when it could go into AI data centers.”
— Andrew E. Freedman / Tom's Hardware -
first by Tom's Hardware, 9d ago · also The Times of India, IGN
3 more headlines
- Phones, laptops and consoles get costlier over memory price hike; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to gadget buyers: Having DRAM in your devices is 'quite terrible' for the world's limited supply The Times of India · 9d ago
- According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, 'It's Quite Terrible' For People to Have RAM In Their Own Computers IGN · 9d ago
- OpenAI CEO says it's 'quite terrible' for your PC to have RAM — Sam Altman says data centers offer better utilization Mastodon · 8d ago
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2 outlets OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says it's 'quite terrible' to have RAM inside PCs when data centers need it
first by Yahoo Tech, 8d ago · also Polygon
1 more headline
- OpenAI Billionaire: PCs are ‘terrible’ when data centers need more memory Polygon.com · 8d ago
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In a sense, I think everyone knew it was coming. Historically speaking, in US at least, there initially may be a notable number of upstarts, but those numbers quickly dwindle to form oligopolies. That is how we end up with 3 million cereal types, but 2-3 companies controlling them. The same repeats throughout most industries with an annoying…
2 more of the top 3 · 5 posts in this stretch
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This goes beyond that. For many of us computers are a free time activity/hobby. "You can't enjoy your life because I need all the DRAM for my tech bro fascist view of what the future should be."
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The look on his face looks a lot like Elizabeth Holmes in You Can See Everything
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Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by TheGamer, 4d ago · also IGN, The Verge
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first by HN Frontpage, 5d ago · also Times of India, Techdirt
1 more headline
- Sam Altman sees a better use for your PC's RAM, and it has upset many Americans Times of India · 3d ago
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2 outlets ‘Terrible’ to have RAM sitting in PCs: Sam Altman’s controversial take amid global memory crisis
first by The Indian Express, 6d ago · also Indian Express
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first by NY Post, 8d ago · also New York Post
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first by dev.ua, 9d ago · also HN Frontpage
1 more headline
- Sam Altman Thinks You're Wasting DRAM HN Frontpage · 9d ago
and 10 smaller pieces
What people are saying 12 voices from 5 sites · best of 481 · verbatim
- Is Altman's 'maximum utilization in the cloud' argument consistent with reports that much of OpenAI's own purchased RAM/hardware sits unused?
- Would pooling personal RAM into data centers actually be technically or economically feasible, or is it a rhetorical point about cloud compute business models?
- Nov 3
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Sam Altman's argument about RAM utilization is reasonable on a first pass, but misses several key points:1. people aren't using (GPU) RAM [1] for just running LLMs (in the local model sense), they are using it for other things... games, system displays, other models (Text-to-Speech, Speech Recognition, etc.);2. being able to run models locally…
- Nov 1
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These fucking assholes drive up the cost of so many basic things that are central to people's lives, and then claim that, because of the shortage and expense THEY CREATED, we should just let the oligarchs have it all and sharecrop from them in perpetuity. Fuck these people. Every one of them. https:// gizmodo.com/sam-altman-all-the…
- Oct 31
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Ok, so *today* what Altman says is generally true. Now in the future, if you can find a model that runs on 8GB VRAM that is useful for production (other than a decision model), then I would assert conditions drastically change, and likely he would change his stance as well (because something else would be be true). Though, I highly, highly doubt…
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Downvoting me doesn't help. Folks who have not used Sonnet 5.5 (High) Not Medium or Low have no idea what AI is capable of. I am myself shit scared. Sonnet 5.5 (High) which uses 3x more tokens than Sonnet 5.5 (Medium) is a beast, you tell something and it will even figure out some impact linked to your grand mother's grave cost and benefits as…
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Sounds like a weird form of tech communism to me. If these jackass ceos were telling us it's better off if we let companies send us our weekly allowance of food every month, or allowance of shared electricity everyone would freak out since it's literally as communist as you can get. These people just want to do away with personal computing all…
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Sam Altman says it's better for RAM to be in a data center than in your PC. These people don't want you to own powerful computers anymore, they want you to rent them
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Nonsense, spin up a fab and hammer out as much DRAM as the market demands. This gets to the whole rental paradigm , we just have fancy terminals without a lot of horsepower and everything is handled server side - permanently connected , permanently racking up compute time/ram time whatever is billable. Rather than have a small powerful mini…
- Oct 30
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3. Some applications are going to work just fine with smaller models on local hardware. If people still have machines with the memory to run those models laying around, that will cost OpenAI business. Also, once RAM suppliers catch up and Moore's law resumes operation, the capability of local hardware is going to steadily improve. Were it not for…
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Sam Altman says its bad that everyone's personal computers are using the world's limited supply of memory chips. "It’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAMs sitting in their own computer, and being used 5% of the time. Like, you
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Sam wants your RAM https://www. tomshardware.com/tech-industry /data-centers/openai-ceo-says-its-quite-terrible-for-your-pc-to-have-ram-sam-altman-says-data-centers-offer-better-utilization
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Sam Altman having all of that money in personal bank accounts is an inefficient use of the world's limited fiscal reserves. It would be better allocated to the working class. Time to seize his assets and make him an example, IMO.
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next having electricity at home is inefficient .. just donate water and energy to Data centers