Micron's decision to abandon its consumer memory business, exemplified by the closure of its Crucial brand, signifies a broader industry trend of prioritizing lucrative AI and data center markets over individual consumers, fueled by government subsidies and leading to increased hardware unaffordability.
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Micron is taking money from the American
people under bipartisan support, and it
is then [ __ ] those people over by
killing its consumer-facing line of
memory with its mega corporate buyers
getting priority over the forloren
consumers who themselves footed the bill
to pay for their own economic
destruction. What they can also do is
continue processing your daily computing
needs in those data centers while making
the hardware impossible for you to buy
because you can't [ __ ] afford it.
because they bought it all. That's where
I think this is going. The corruption of
the silicon companies is in the open.
Micron is in the news for abandoning
consumers. But this is bigger than that.
The cartel of silicon manufacturers have
continued to rake in record tax breaks,
government subsidies, and taxpayer money
from a populace battered by the
unaffordability of basically anything
and by rising prices. And all of this is
to pass on that money to the
manufacturers's own mega corporate
customer manufacturers all praying to
their god of money AI. So while normal
people are feeling the walls closing in
around them as software as a service
looms from data centers hoovering up all
the affordable hardware signaling the
end of an era for affordable home
computing. All of the eggs are in the AI
basket for Micron which just killed its
direct to consumer RAM to focus on the
bubble of AI. quote, "The AIdriven
growth in the data center has led to a
surge in demand for memory and storage.
Micron has made the difficult decision
to exit the crucial consumer business in
order to improve supply and support for
our larger strategic, more important, no
it doesn't say that part, customers in
faster growing segments." End quote. For
consumers, the end result is higher
prices on already high prices, less
competition in the consumer market, and
critically less pricing suppression
coming from a first-party manufacturer
of the memory itself. One of three that
are relevant in the world, and they've
just killed their store brand, basically
like a supermarket house brand of
memory, which was called Crucial. At
times, this former consumer focused
brand of Crucial meant that there was
more competitive pricing than some of
the customers of Micron who buy Micron
memory and glue it to their own
self-branded heat sinks and sticks
alongside the likes of SKH Highix and of
Samsung. Those three collectively form
basically the entire market for this
supply. This seemingly panicked decision
comes just 8 months into the craziest of
the AI demand. We question whether
Micron is actually killing this for the
stated reason of excessive AI demand
requiring more chip supply as opposed to
retconing a reason and AI washing its
closure of the business unit crucial and
inevitably getting rid of a lot of the
staff who probably work there. But then
if you look at Micron as a whole,
they're actually doing pretty well. So
maybe they're not AI washing a bad
quarter. Micron is actually doing
amazingly as it capitalizes on the
destruction of the consumer market and
works with data centers to suck in all
of the hardware to continue to move
computers and the ownership of them into
the cloud for software as a service
models. Micron stock started the year at $87.33
$87.33
and peaked at $253.30,
a climb of 190% to that point. About two
weeks ago, Micron stocks suddenly
plunged to $21, but that was still up
significantly on the year. As we write
this, the end of trading after its
announcement had it at $234. Again,
that's from 87 on January 1st. For even
more perspective, switching to the
maximum scale shows us that precoid
Micron stock was around $40 to $50. As
for why we're talking about the stock
price, it's because it's the only
[ __ ] language these people
understand. The executives don't know
anything else. To them, this is a job
well done. Even though we're barreling
towards the end of easy ownership of
computers at home, high-end computing in
the home has been democratized by
prices. And that is starting to go away
in a very serious fashion. These greedy
companies with Nvidia CEO Jensen Juan at
the helm while he shoves his hand up the
US government's ass for his next
award-winning puppet show are doing
their best to de-mocratize silicon and
pull it out of the hands of the
consumers to shove it into their data
centers. And just if you don't know,
Micron is a supplier of VRAM that goes
into GPUs as well. We think the endgame
here is that they'll charge you to use
this stuff in the cloud. If you want 128
gigabytes of RAM on a computer to run a
calculation, but you can't afford the
250% higher price, then good news,
you'll be able to rent it remotely for
just some money every month
forever. We're actually working on a
deep dive into the DRAM cartel right now
because our AI dystopia Kickstarter
style campaign on our store hit our
stretch goal, which means the DRM cartel
coverage will join our series of
upcoming reports on the reckless
expansion of data centers and AI
companies. You can join to support our
campaign and coverage series at
store.games nexus.net net where our
various backer tiers include things like
our censored speech vapor wave smiley
t-shirt, our new retro IO themed drink
coaster packs and some of the tiers with
soft rubberized material and unique
component theming. And all backers will
even get a USB copy of some of our
upcoming videos on a physical 128 GB USB
drive just in case we get Bloombergs
again. Although if we do, we also have
our video unavailable t-shirt. Other
backer rewards include bonus videos, a
small group Q&A session with me in the
highest tier, and a signed mouse mat for
that one. We're still putting together
our deep dive into the memory industry,
so check back for that. For now, head
over to store.gamersac.net to support
our upcoming series that we're launching
in multiple videos over the next 3
months. We're going to have some pretty
heavy commentary towards the end here
today, but we'll start with the basics
and the statement. So, Micron is one of
just three relevant global suppliers for
memory. It's Samsung and SKH Highix in
South Korea and Micron in the United
States. These companies sell their DRAM
and their flash components to other
companies that you might be familiar
with like Corsair, GSkill, Kingston,
Team Group, and so forth. Memory
suppliers have previously been convicted
of price fixing and of fraud. And this
has been attempted again in the time
since, but it goes back as far as
decades ago. Now, these days, they've
fixed that problem by not colluding to
fix prices by instead doing it publicly.
So, it's not it's not like a a private
behind closed doors price fixing
agreement and a handshake between CEOs.
Now, now they just talk about it in
their earnings reports. So other than
these three suppliers, the entire rest
of the memory industry is made up by
less than 6% of other companies as of a
couple years ago and probably even a
lower percent for that other category.
Now before we really tear into this,
let's read the full statement from
Micron. Quote, "Micron Technology, a
leader in innovative memory and storage
solutions, today announced its decision
to exit the crucial consumer business,
including the sale of crucial consumer
branded products at key retailers,
eailers, and distributors worldwide."
End quote. just to jump in for a second
here, but corpo PR spin starting with
we're leaders in innovation and ending
with so we're giving up is I it's what
did Jensen Juan say?
>> Clever. I guess
>> that's it. Now, as we read this next
paragraph from Micron, it's important to
remember that Micron is an Nvidia
supplier. Quote, the AIdriven growth in
the data center has led to a surge in
demand for memory and storage. Micron
has made the difficult decision to exit
the crucial consumer business in order
to improve supply and support for our
larger strategic customers in faster
growing segments. End quote. And this
was a sub quote by Summit Sadana, EVP
and chief business officer at Micron
Technology who again says that the plan
is to focus on faster growing segments.
So first of all, [ __ ] you. And secondly,
at least Micron is clear with their
intentions, which is that Micron doesn't
care about consumers anymore. They only
want to sell to the big companies and
the high growth AI space. Now, you might
be quick to point out that Micron didn't
say anywhere in this press release that
had stopped selling consumer memory
completely. They said they're killing
Crucial, which is their house brand of
memory, the sticks. And the plain
English interpretation of their
statement is that the consumer segment
is not fast growing enough. and quote
strategic customers in faster growing
segments end quote is the focus to us
that doesn't just mean crucial it
indicate anyone in AI and data center
getting priority over even their other
customers to us this signals a draw down
in supply for consumer in general from
Micron and remember a lot of the price
fixing problems and illegality are
solved by not doing it privately and
behind closed doors but instead
announcing it to your competitors and
just to be clear I'm making this point
purely for purposes of illustrating a
literary point on historical context.
And I'm not actually suggesting that
they are actively price fixing or
committing fraud. I am not suggesting
that any of the memory manufacturers are
actively committing fraud. That is not
what I am suggesting. I'm just making a
point about the past where there were
convictions of fraud. But I'm not I'm
not suggesting that's happening now.
Okay. All right. Let's move on. Here's
the rest of the spin. quote, "Thanks to
a passionate community of consumers, the
Crucial brand has become synonymous with
technical leadership, quality, and
reliability of leading edge memory and
storage products. We'd like to thank our
millions of customers, hundreds of
partners, and all of the Micron team
members who have supported the crucial
journey over the last 29 years. This
decision reflects Micron's commitment to
its what the [ __ ] Okay. This decision
reflects Micron's commitment to its
ongoing portfolio transformation and the
resulting alignment of its business to
secular profitable growth vectors in
memory and storage. By concentrating on
core enterprise and commercial segments,
Micron aims to improve long-term
business performance and create value
for strategic customers as well as
stakeholders. End quote. So once again,
as if to dismiss the three spin doctors
that we've seen on Reddit, uh Micron
clearly states that it is concentrating
on enterprise and business. The rest of
the statement reads, quote, Micron
intends to reduce impact on team
members. Just be clear, not eliminate,
they say reduce impact on team members
due to this business decision through
redeployment opportunities into existing
open positions within the company. End
quote. Now, we already covered a lot of
what's happening in the DRAM industry
and in system memory with our RAM what
the [ __ ] video. So, again, if you've
been wondering what's been going on with
RAM, specifically the [ __ ] then we'll
link that video below. The quick recap
is that in some instances within a span
of just about 14 days, we saw kits of
memory skyrocket in price by
double-digit percentages. In a span of
about 30 to 60 days, several kits of
consumer memory launched upwards in
price by 150 to 200%. that has continued
to go up in the couple weeks since our
report. Checking Crucial's 32 GB or 2x6
GB kit of DDR5 6000 CL36 memory, we
found this price trend chart from PC
Parter. About 120 days ago, this kit was
$85 at Best Buy and B&H Photo. By
October 20th, that had climbed to $122
and retailer Adorama lost supply. By
November 3rd, it increased to $182, so
114% from a reference point. As of
today, it's $274.
This RAM was $85 just 120 days ago.
That's a 222% increase in price in 120
days. Or in other words, an average of 1.85%
1.85%
per day increase. This 128 GB kit was
$300 and is now $964
at Best Buy and B&H, an increase of
220%. Or if you prefer, a 3.2x increase.
This is something a home workstation
user might have relied upon for things
like CAD engineering, Blender, video
production, 3D modeling, game
development, whatever. Now, it's moving
away from solo operative affordability,
and back into the realm of only
corporate buyers. And it's not alone.
This kit of 128 GB DDR5600 was $420 and
is now the result of smoking it at
$1,000 on Newegg. And on the affordable
consumer side, this kit of 32 GB DDR5
5600 CL46, basically some of the worst
memory you could buy, was $83 and is now $261,
$261,
or an increase of $214%. This Crucial
Pro OC DDR56000 seal 36 kit was $90 and
is now $300, up 230%. This kit was $43
and is now $118, thoroughly screwing the
consumer of lower-end budget parts. And
that's without getting into laptops so
dim memory where crucial is a prevalent
and had been an important force. These
companies are [ __ ] over normal
people. It's been happening for a while
now. Yes, but not like this. Now it's in
the open. The corruption of the silicon
companies is in the open. In our
opinions, not only is our technocracy
wrought with what we think is open
corruption and conspiracy against
consumers to consolidate and move this
computing power into data centers and
so-called AI, but also open with the
United States government. This story
started about Micron, but it's sort of
about everybody in the industry. Nvidia
reportedly gave $10 million to the Trump
ballroom around the time it was in
discussions about its export control
GPUs. That's without getting into its
nearly $4 million in lobbying such as
for AI lawmaking which again AI is where
Micron is focusing. Intel CEO got cucked
by the president when he was publicly
mocked and ridiculed and just days later
sold 10% of the company to the United
States government as if through some
kind of public humiliation fetish. AMD
CEO Lisa Sue has joined other tech
billionaires like Gates Zuckerberg and
OpenAI Sam Alman and frequently joining
US government meetings to make decisions
that we think [ __ ] over the little guy
next. Micron is just the next step in
all of this. They write their press
release in just the right way where a
few corporate bootlickers can defend
them on Reddit by saying technically
they're only exiting the crucial memory
business and not consumer as a whole,
but their motives are clear and they're
not really hiding them. We bring up the
government because Micron has facilities
in the United States and they are
frequently name dropped on White House
press releases. In June of 2025, the
White House boasted of Micron's $200
billion of planned investment into fabs
and R&D such as in Idaho where Micron
says it's investing billions in domestic
R&D. Micron said it's working on a mega
fab in New York. Further stating it
intends to produce 40% of its DRAM in
the United States. Micron chairman,
president and CEO Sanjay Merotra stated,
quote, "We are grateful for the support
from President Trump, Secretary Lutnik,
and our federal, state, and local
partners who have been instrumental in
advocating domestic semiconductor
manufacturing." End quote. And in the
year of 2025, the PDA displayed between
Micron and the US government would
probably require an ID to view in 25
states. In fact, that Micron press
release included quotes from CEOs Saka
Nadella of Microsoft and Jensen Juan of
Nvidia, with the only difference being
who's shoved their head up the ass of
the government versus who has their hand
up it. All of this might be because
Micron took $275 million in additional
funding from the United States
government, part of the Chips Act
dispersements that were promised under
Biden and have continued to go out under
Trump. In its latest 10K form, Micron
said it had received up to $6.4 4
billion dollar in CHIPS act grants
across two administrations. Micron even
gets local and state tax breaks
reportedly worth up to $2 billion on
construction materials and property in
New York alone while normal people
struggle to pay property taxes on their
homes. Micron spends millions of dollars
on lobbying, including more than $4
million in 2022 during the Biden
administration and $3 million in 2025
during the second Trump administration.
This year, Micron lobbyed for higher
manufacturing tax credits, which passed
as a part of a federal spending bill and
increased an investment tax credit on
advanced semiconductor manufacturing
from 25% to 35%. Micron CEO was gleeful
given the huge jump. Micron actually has
paid tribute to the government a lot
recently in exchange for tax breaks.
Micron donated a million dollars to the
presidential inauguration committee in
January and gave an undisclosed sum of
money for the new $300 million White
House ballroom. Now, on the day when
Micron killed Crucial, Micron CEO met
with the Secretary of Commerce to talk
about presumably the American AI tech
stack. Micron's exchange of government
favors has spanned both the Biden and
the Trump administrations. The point is,
it doesn't matter which of these
presidents you hate the least or which
one you think is the sleepiest. At the
end of the day, Micron is taking money
from the American people under
bipartisan support and it is then
[ __ ] those people over by killing its
consumer-facing line of memory while
also, we think, failing to pay its fair
share. These subsidies from the
government to build fabs and do R&D come
from taxpayer money. Look, if only out
of the proportionality of the impact and
not because these mega corporations
rarely pay their fair share anyway. This
money is being taken from the taxed
people of the United States, passed
through the US government and into one
of a triop of mega corporations that
controls an industry. It then is passing
on that consolidated power into the
hands of the even fewer with its mega
corporate buyers getting priority over
the forloren consumers who themselves
footed the bill to pay for their own
economic destruction. Micron is just a
microcosm here for what's happening
right now which is a reverse Robin Hood.
These companies are taking from the many
and they're giving to the even fewer to
then take from the many again and
circulate that money in a giant [ __ ]
circle like we talked about on the GMCA
channel. All of this is without even
getting into SSD prices. For those who
don't know, the fabs responsible for
manufacturing the silicon found in
memory sticks often are the fabs that
manufacture flash for use in solid state
storage devices which are in anything
that can retain nonvolatile data like
your phone or your computer. So, it's no
surprise that this industry is next.
Crucial's SSDs have started to reflect
pricing changes already. The T705 two
terbyte drive was $200 and just after
the announcement it skyrocketed to $265.
The T500 was more widely available and
was $150 on Newegg, but is now $190 on
Newegg and $250 at Best Buy. Although
some SSD prices are still stable, like
first party supplier Samsung's 1 TB90
Pro price or its 9100 Pro price, some of
the companies buying supply are
increasing prices. MSI's 1 TB M480 went
up from 65 to $90, an increase of 38% in
120 days. In case that was a fluke,
Western Digital's SN81002 TBTE drive has
started to show a climb in price, now
$250 from $220
ago. Teams G50 has gone up to $200 on
Newegg, up from $106 3 months ago. The
PNY CS9002 TB SSD, that's highly ranked
on Newegg, is now $153, up from $100
three months ago, a 53% increase. The
memory industry has been described as a
quote cartel by prosecutors and by the
justice system decades ago. And that's
interesting because the government has
made clear what it thinks should happen
to cartels. But there's one kind of
cartel that doesn't get bombed from
orbit. Corporate. And in our opinions,
they're still acting like a cartel.
That's what we think for this particular
kind of cartel. It seems the bipartisan
decision is to shovel as much money into
it as possible. That money may have come
from taxpayers using unmaintained
infrastructure and struggling to pay for
healthcare. But as long as stock line go
up, everything is according to plan. And
frustratingly, these facts have pretty
much always been true throughout the
entire existence of a taxpayer funded
economy. It's not news. But what feels
particularly bad about this one is the
fact that in the very least for normal
people, it felt like it was money being
given to a company that would at least
sell its [ __ ] to consumers and hopefully
help create a competitive market in the
system that we have. And now they're
saying they don't care about that
anymore for at least their own division.
Memory is in everything. In a recent
report from South Korean publication SE
Daily, one line of Samsung phones was
cited as having its memory cost
doubling, which will be passed on to
consumers. You don't even have to build
gaming computers to notice the memory
pricing impact. The memory industry's
changes will be felt by everybody.
Micron abandoning consumers is just the
literal manifestation of what's already
happened silently. Anyone who buys a
phone, a refrigerator, a car, a
smartwatch, a smart lock, a computer, a
laptop, a tablet, any of these things
that have memory in it, you will be
affected in some way by the price. This
will be universal for basically anyone
who buys modern electronics. All of
these things will be affected by the
memory industry as it abuses its
consolidated power to chase the elucory
promise of a two-lettered intelligence.
There's no high note to end on here.
There's no positive side to this.
There's no optimistic outcome of what
Micron and these other companies are
actively doing and we think conspiring
to do. Uh Micron is the first of many to
signal its abandonment of normal people.
This isn't just about consumers now.
Like this is stuff that everybody needs
in their daily life. If you're living in
any kind of modern society where you
might need to interact at some point
with an electronic device and if you're
someone who uses electronics, this is
going to affect you and it will do so
increasingly. We are at the point I
think where it's beyond simply just
moving software like Adobe Photoshop to
a cloud-based system so you can't buy it
anymore. you have to use a license
indefinitely and now moving everything
into those systems. They call it AI
today and today that's what they're
chasing. It's LLMs and whatever the [ __ ]
they think that's going to do at the end
of the road for when AI becomes
profitable for these companies. But if
that doesn't work out or in the event it
actually does and they want to
substitute more revenue in there, then
software as a service remains a viable
option for data centers. That's what
they're set up to do. So they might
process a search query on chat GPT today
or a request for chat GPT erotica from
Sam Alman himself in the future. But
what they can also do is continue
processing your daily computing needs in
those data centers while making the
hardware impossible for you to buy
because you can't [ __ ] afford it
because they bought it all. That's where
I think this is going and it is
infuriating to see. There's no positive
I can take away from this. I think the
only lever consumers have that they can
pull is to stop buying.
But it doesn't work that way. Like
organizing a boycott is difficult,
rarely has successes, and people still
need this stuff to live. So it's not
always an option. It's not that simple.
Especially considering the greedy data
centers are happy to buy whatever you don't.
don't.
They don't care. All the money is
imaginary anyway. It's all investor
money. It flows in a circle. So, it's
going to be there for them whether or
not it's there for you. That's all we
have to say about this one. You can
support us on the store. Go to
store.gamersac.net if you want to
support our AI dystopia series of
coverage coming up. Subscribe for more.
Thanks for watching. Sorry to deliver
the news. This is [ __ ] All right,
we'll see you. We'll see you all next time.
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