Sam Altman is annoyed his DRAM comment was 'taken out of context'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on a recent podcast that "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, and be used 5% of the time."

Altman was talking about people running AI models locally rather than relying on data centers, which allow RAM usage to be maxed out in this "very supply-constrained environment." What many heard and responded to—PC gamers in particular—was resentment directed at those of us who don't run AI companies, but would still like to have and use our own personal computers, as a treat.

In an exchange on X this week, Altman said that his remark was "taken out of context" and that he actually wants "the world to have tons of memory and people to put as much as they want in their computers."

"I have been arguing for the world to ramp up memory production …