In a recent interview, Valve says that when buying PC memory from the few big companies that produce the stuff globally, it basically has no choice but to take the price offered each month because to try to negotiate would likely lead to the DRAM makers cutting them off completely.
Valve’s Steam Machine is in the process of launching. But while the mini-PC running SteamOS seems like a cool evolution of the Steam Deck idea, the $1,000+ price tag is hard for many to swallow. A big reason why Valve has to charge $1,050 for the base version of the Steam Machine is that the small collection of companies that produce DRAM, which is an important part of most computers, phones, and consoles, are greatly limiting what folks who aren’t affiliated with AI hyperscalers can even purchase and are changing prices monthly. Valve can’t even get a contract with any of the DRAM makers, the company claimed during a recent interview with Gamers Nexus.
“Look, there’s no contracts,” said a Valve employee. “There’s nothing. Like, those guys…they are…they give us a price every month or something and they say ‘You can buy that many’ and it’s yes or no. And if we say no, then they never talk to us again.”
Because of the limited supply and pricing options, some Steam Machines will ship with one stick of 16GB RAM while others will ship with two sticks of 8GB RAM, which isn’t ideal, though Valve explained that in their testing, it didn’t cause any noticeable differences in performance.
This situation, which some online suggest sounds a lot like an organized crime ring extorting victims, makes it hard for Valve and other tech companies to build up stock or accurately budget months or even years in advance. But DRAM makers like Micron and Samsung seemingly don’t care, because all of these companies have become laser-focused on producing and providing PC memory to AI hyperscalers and datacenters, as those clients are buying massive amounts, months in advance, and that’s just a much more profitable business plan. Some of the DRAM makers are just straight-up done making consumer memory products entirely.
Keep in mind, many of these same DRAM makers were once caught up in one of the largest illegal business cartels ever discovered by the U.S. government over 25 years ago. Just a fun fact to store in your brain.
As pointed out by Gamers Nexus, even a company like Gskill, which is focused almost entirely on making RAM for consumers, is struggling to buy the parts it needs because it’s not a big enough player in the space anymore compared to OpenAI. So it’s not shocking that Valve can’t negotiate for better rates or more DRAM.
And this situation shows no signs of getting better as companies continue to invest heavily in AI and datacenters. So be prepared to pay more and more for computers and consoles for the foreseeable future. And don’t count on DRAM makers in China saving us all from this horrible situation.
