Lenovo Stockpiling PC Memory Due To 'Unprecedented' AI Squeeze

Lenovo is stockpiling memory and other critical components to navigate a supply crunch brought on by the boom in AI. From a report: The world's biggest PC maker is holding on to component inventories that are roughly 50% higher than usual, [non-paywalled source] Chief Financial Officer Winston Cheng told Bloomberg TV on Monday. The frenzy to build and fill AI data centers with advanced hardware is raising prices for producers of consumer electronics, but Lenovo also sees opportunity in this to capitalize on its stockpile.

Remember when Apple Memory used to be expensive

[tlhIngan]

I remember the days when it was Apple that screwed over consumers when you wanted more memory. Nowadays even $500 to go from 32GB to 64GB of RAM is cheap.

It's rather ridiculous. And if you bought RAM 2 weeks ago, it's probably doubled in price today.

At this point in time it might be better to just invest in RAM - buying now and then waiting a couple of weeks and selling it.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Wait until you remind yourself of intel and its RDRAM adventure in pentium 4 generation.

Don't do that

[ebunga]

Because in six weeks it will be worth 1/16 of what it is today because of reasons.

Re:

[antdude]

I wonder when Apple will increase their RAM prices.

At least it won't last

[rsilvergun]

But it's going to be a really shitty two or three years. Eventually though the build-out will be done and will be in bailout territory where we're burrowing out Banks who loaned these idiots money to spend $1,000 on a 64 GB ram kit.

"Stockpiling"? Maybe, I guess...

[kenh]

I don't think a 50% bump in the on-hand inventory is real a dramatic increase. If Lenovo used to keep 30 days on memory in-stock and now they have 45 days in-stock, that's not such a big deal in my opinion - when I hear Mfg "stockpiling" parts, they are making significant investments like one supplier I work with, they heard a particular part required for their current product was being discontinued, so they ordered a 12 month supply to carry then until they can engineer a new product with a different part - that is what I think of when I hear someone is "stockpiling" a component.

Re:

[Luckyo]

It's not really, but it adds to the squeeze in the moment, as 50% momentary increased ingestion of specific component type by a large demand generator on the market already squeezed by rapid dislocation of relationship between supply on demand dislocates the point of balance further.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Either way, when the AI bubble bursts there is going to be a lot of cheap, high-end hardware on the used market.

Re:

[thegarbz]

I don't think a 50% bump in the on-hand inventory is real a dramatic increase.

Clearly you've never done inventory management before. Managing extra stock like this consumes a whole lot of internal resources. Also given how many PCs Lenovo ship per quarter and assuming you need 2 memory units per PC we're talking for your 15 day extra (assuming that's what it is), about 6 million additional RAM sticks in inventory.

Re:

[Targon]

Lenovo tends to have one memory bank on the motherboard with a single slot for the rest. So, 16GB RAM laptop has 8 on the motherboard itself with a single 8GB module in the slot. This situation will cause the cost of those motherboards in laptops to go up.

Have we already reached the hoarding phase?

[timeOday]

This might be the best evidence yet of a bubble.

Difference between AI and a tractor

[OrangeTide]

With the widespread introduction of the farm tractor, we saw an increase in productivity and a decrease in the need for labor in the fields, and a general increase in wages among farm workers. And we are at the point where expert systems and AI are assisting the operation of those tractors, harvesters, planters, and other farm equipment.

But when you look at the AI bubble that is driving PC component sales, and holding the US economy like a tightrope over a great chasm of recessions, one must ask: Who benefits and in what way? When someone is trying to convince you to buy into AI. Be it a startup or a major corporation. What ultimately do they want in return?
Money. But would an end-user pay for AI to the degree to support the approximately $38 billion spent on AI data centers this year?
Of course not. While it's hidden behind B2B transactions, the root of it is that the payoff for AI is mainly going to in advertisement and marketing.
These data centers are going to suck up all the components and electricity so that it can cold call you all day long, so that it can analyze your spending or browsing habits, send you convincing emails and texts that you respond to or click on, or simply organize a social media site to keep your child's eyeballs glued to it.
All the data collection and processing is done so that it can ultimately drill down on exactly how to sell you anything, and the owner of that data will be able to sell it 1000 times over.

Conclusion: AI means you will get more spam. Exponentially more spam. I think 100's or 1000's of times more is a realistic guess.

In other news: Lenovo is betting on AI

[allo]

You won't buy expensive memory now if you would still believe in a popping bubble leading to low memory prices again.

Re:

[Junta]

They might not have had a choice. The memory vendors getting sweetheart deals from AI supply chain might require other markets to increase their commitment or get nothing.

So the choices might be either stockpile or not have any supply at all for their mainstream product. It's worth a risk of overpaying for memory when you have no other viable option.

Re:

[allo]

If they could bet on some popping bubble they would not need to stockpile to get something. To stay neutral they could also stick with the current strategy without changing anything, but seemingly they bet on price increases and stockpile for that.

Re:

[Junta]

I'm saying they may not be given the same offers that the suppliers were formerly giving them. If a supplier sees that nVidia will absolutely buy a huge supply of memory, then they will demand a comparable commitment from other customers. They will divert capacity to the customers that are willing to make the biggest and most certain commitments.

So Lenovo may have had to commit to bigger orders, or just be left out of getting enough to keep shipping their systems at all. If supply is constrained *someone

That's nothing

[madbrain]

In the late 80s ram shortage, you could pay a couple hundred dollars just to go from 512KB to 640 KB. Which unfortunately wasn't enough for everybody.

Coincidence ?

[dargaud]

Just last week I ordered a very banal 16Gb memory bank to upgrade a laptop. A few days later I saw that the delivery was for... May 2026 !!! Was the vendor site simply gone to shits or is that related, I have no idea, but I canceled and ordered somewhere else and I'm still waiting.