Hello,

This could be really bad.

It seems that 'ai' has hit hard on the data storage products especially SSD's and Flash drives. Prices have literally DOUBLED really fast.
Apparently, it is because of the use of NAND and the need for 'ai' to use lots and lots of storage, beyond anything imaginable until now.
It seems that these products are being purchased for 'ai' data centers and since they need so much, they are taking a lot of the available stock so fast that it makes it harder on regular consumers. They are literally taking these drives out of consumer hands.

For example, a 2TB SSD drive I purchased last year was $160 USD, now it's $320 USD or more. It's not only that size though, even 1TB and lower, and 4TB as well.
It's also happening with the NVME drives which were only about $90 last year and now they can be $200 or more.
The real shame is before this NAND crunch the prices on all these were coming down little by little.

Is this the first really bad downside we are seeing because of 'ai' itself?

 

Nice click bait. The title is doubly misleading. I was expecting a real catastrophe caused by an AI. Instead I get a human made supply chain blip caused by human speculation.

 

I consider that the impact of artificial intelligence will be more harm than benefit for quite a while. The downside will not be obvious until the malware creators have had some time to discover all the damage it can do.
At that point it will seem "more like RIPPING THE LID OFF OF PANDORA'S BOX" than anything else. (For those not aware of the tale of her box, it was a mythical tale about a magical box, filled with all the troubles that had not yet afflicted the world. Until it was opened the world was a perfectly happy place with no troubles of any kind. ).

 

Nice click bait. The title is doubly misleading. I was expecting a real catastrophe caused by an AI. Instead I get a human made supply chain blip caused by human speculation.

Hi,

You obviously do not use much NAND storage. For those of us that do, it's a real problem. Double the price is a very huge jump, and that will also affect many other products too that use that technology.

You should so some reading before you quote speculation. You also need to know the history of NAND pricing over the last year.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll agree with part of what you say if you don't mind paying $200 for a $100 USD device.

 

I consider that the impact of artificial intelligence will be more harm than benefit for quite a while. The downside will not be obvious until the malware creators have had some time to discover all the damage it can do.
At that point it will seem "more like RIPPING THE LID OFF OF PANDORA'S BOX" than anything else. (For those not aware of the tale of her box, it was a mythical tale about a magical box, filled with all the troubles that had not yet afflicted the world. Until it was opened the world was a perfectly happy place with no troubles of any kind. ).

Hi,

I never thought about it forcing prices up by large amounts over a short time.
Before this, the price on these NAND products was slowly going down, and I was looking forward to buying another unit that cost me $160 USD for less in the future. Now it's DOUBLE. That's just nuts, and right now I have no idea how high it will go.

Would it take some regulation? Maybe limit the quantity that can be purchased over some time period.

Maybe some people think we can store data in magic crystal skulls

 

Nice click bait. The title is doubly misleading. I was expecting a real catastrophe caused by an AI. Instead I get a human made supply chain blip caused by human speculation.

Not the first catastrophe, and not the first hyperbole.

ak

 

RAM, SSDs, and GPUs are all affected. This has been true for a while. It has affected the gaming PC industry with RAM costs so high that people have had to resort to underspec'd per-builds rather than building their own.

Power, water, and skilled labor are also affected. People who live in places where data centers are being built in a frenzy are finding themselves paying for the construction through tax incentives and with huge pressure on water and power supplies.

 

I consider that the impact of artificial intelligence will be more harm than benefit for quite a while. The downside will not be obvious until the malware creators have had some time to discover all the damage it can do.

Some friends were precisely discussing this over beers this past weekend.
The consensus was that no technology is intrinsically bad. Technology is only a powerful enabler, that enables the good guys to create wonderful things, but it also enables the bad guys to create some very nasty stuff.

If anyone here desires to contribute to this discussion, please grab some beer, wine, vodka, tequila or your favorite mood-enhancing drink first.

 

….. and with huge pressure on water and power supplies.

My brother works for a large engineering firm that builds industrial complexes. Lately the largest contracts have been for data centers.
He has repeatedly mentioned that the power and water requirements are several times the requirements for traditional industrial infrastructure.
Don’t recall the exact numbers, but mentioned that in one instance the facility was so power-hungry that instead of the regular 13.8 kV feeder, they had to install a 35 kV feeder instead.

 

My brother works for a large engineering firm that builds industrial complexes. Lately the largest contracts have been for data centers.
He has repeatedly mentioned that the power and water requirements are several times the requirements for traditional industrial infrastructure.
Don’t recall the exact numbers, but mentioned that in one instance the facility was so power-hungry that instead of the regular 13.8 kV feeder, they had to install a 35 kV feeder instead.

I do not see any likely benefit to humanity, or any other species, from the proliferation of computer "data centers", whatsoever. AND, while inanimate hardware is not likely to be evil on it's own, certainly providing capability to a system with no moral capabilities is allowing the possibility of a whole lot of wrong actions.

 

My brother works for a large engineering firm that builds industrial complexes. Lately the largest contracts have been for data centers.
He has repeatedly mentioned that the power and water requirements are several times the requirements for traditional industrial infrastructure.
Don’t recall the exact numbers, but mentioned that in one instance the facility was so power-hungry that instead of the regular 13.8 kV feeder, they had to install a 35 kV feeder instead.

One likely benefit to this is that it will drive the development of other technologies, possibly in many areas, to address these issues.

For years, CPU performance and memory capacity soared and while prices plummeted in significant part due to the demand of the gaming industry pushing where the customer needs were. The rest of us benefited hugely from this. These data centers are creating demands for water, power, memory, and other things and that creates incentive for folks to develop both conventional and novel ways to address them. New cooling technologies that are much more water efficient (or perhaps not reliant on water at all), new power capabilities (there's a reason that data center operators are actively pushing miniature fission plants), reducing the power consumption of the servers themselves. Progress will almost certainly be made in all of these areas and the rest of us will benefit.

 

While the greater number of the data centers produces profits for the investors, the benefits to society in general are more like "the benefits" of having drug peddlers aroud high schools. With similar results of more addictions.

 

MPGA (Make Prices Great Again)

 

Not the first catastrophe, and not the first hyperbole.

ak

Hi,

Maybe you would want to do some reading before you quote "hyperbole", otherwise it's just "hyperhole" (a bad logical conclusion) ha ha.
If you read around, you'll see that it has changed a lot since late 2025 and I feel it right away because I use a lot of storage myself.
Maybe you buy a 32GB flash drive once in a blue moon, but for me it's a lot more than that and the price increases makes it a lot more difficult not just a little more difficult. I can tolerate a 10 percent increase or even 20 percent, but 100 percent (and climbing) is just unheard of in such a short time.

It does not matter to me really if it is 'ai' or not, but I have read that 'ai' and decreased production are the causes.

If you come to a different conclusion that's fine, but at least explain how you came to that conclusion and maybe even how much technology you have purchased over the last month that depends on NAND storage. At least then I might understand your stance.

 

One likely benefit to this is that it will drive the development of other technologies, possibly in many areas, to address these issues.

For years, CPU performance and memory capacity soared and while prices plummeted in significant part due to the demand of the gaming industry pushing where the customer needs were. The rest of us benefited hugely from this. These data centers are creating demands for water, power, memory, and other things and that creates incentive for folks to develop both conventional and novel ways to address them. New cooling technologies that are much more water efficient (or perhaps not reliant on water at all), new power capabilities (there's a reason that data center operators are actively pushing miniature fission plants), reducing the power consumption of the servers themselves. Progress will almost certainly be made in all of these areas and the rest of us will benefit.

Hi,

You could be right, although that's very optimistic. The way it reads on the web in various reports is that it will take years to turn around.
Supposedly SSD and related technologies are among the few that can actually decrease in price over some period so we have that going for us. I just hope it does not take too long I don't think I can wait years. There's also the unfortunate possibility that the manufacturers that are at the bottom will use the current prices as the norm as we have seen in other marketplaces over the years.

 

I do not see any likely benefit to humanity, or any other species, from the proliferation of computer "data centers", whatsoever. AND, while inanimate hardware is not likely to be evil on it's own, certainly providing capability to a system with no moral capabilities is allowing the possibility of a whole lot of wrong actions.

Hi,

That's a very interesting view. That's almost like what sounds like a logical communism; more likely to be bad than good.

 

My brother works for a large engineering firm that builds industrial complexes. Lately the largest contracts have been for data centers.
He has repeatedly mentioned that the power and water requirements are several times the requirements for traditional industrial infrastructure.
Don’t recall the exact numbers, but mentioned that in one instance the facility was so power-hungry that instead of the regular 13.8 kV feeder, they had to install a 35 kV feeder instead.

Hi,

Wow, that's more than 4 times the power demand (V^2/R quadruples the power for every 2x increase in voltage).

 

Some friends were precisely discussing this over beers this past weekend.
The consensus was that no technology is intrinsically bad. Technology is only a powerful enabler, that enables the good guys to create wonderful things, but it also enables the bad guys to create some very nasty stuff.

If anyone here desires to contribute to this discussion, please grab some beer, wine, vodka, tequila or your favorite mood-enhancing drink first.

Hi,

I think I agree with that, but my main viewpoint is about costs of operation so price increases are very important to me. Little increases not too bad, 100 percent increases very bad, and nobody seems to know when the end of that trend will come.

 

[CYNICMODE]
The most profitable use of AI datacenters will be for generating pornography.
[/CYNICMODE]

 

[CYNICMODE]
The most profitable use of AI datacenters will be for generating pornography.
[/CYNICMODE]

Questionable anecdote:

First thing reproduced with the Gutenberg printing press: The Bible (true)
Second thing: Porn (?)

ak