psa if you're about to buy a laptop for your bootcamp, memory prices are about to get ugly

A group of plaintiffs, including a few small businesses, just sued Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron for allegedly colluding to jack up DRAM prices by cutting production and shifting toward the memory chips AI data centers use instead. There's precedent, a similar case a while back ended with major fines and actual prison time for execs, but a nearly identical lawsuit more recently got tossed because the pricing behavior looked like normal market moves rather than an actual agreement. So this one could genuinely go either way.

Industry voices are already predicting DRAM prices could climb sharply through the rest of the year with no real relief for a while, though take that with a grain of salt since the companies saying it are also the ones profiting from the shortage. On the workaround side, Intel is reportedly bringing back older CPUs partly because they're compatible with cheaper DDR4 boards instead of DDR5, and motherboard makers are starting to produce DDR4 boards again, so there might be a budget path if you don't need the newest specs.

If you've been putting off buying a machine for your bootcamp hoping prices would settle, this probably isn't the year for that bet. Anyone else been pricing out laptops recently and noticing this firsthand?