Dylan Patel breaks down why GPU cluster costs are spiking 30% due to memory shortages, not chip prices. Hyperscalers expect to spend 30-40% of their 2026 capital budget on memory alone, benefiting SK Hynix and Samsung while squeezing semiconductor margins.
Chapters
From the data points, what I'm seeing, I think the thing is actually getting worse in terms of the pricing as well as the cost that really go into the hyperscalers' CapEx as well as like the consumers. So the pricing is definitely going up and the cost for the consumers and the hyperscaler spending for kind of the cost to build out is definitely going up significantly. So starting with, I believe the compute, right? I think this year we have the calculation for 2026 CapEx. I think 30, 40% of the CapEx will all go into memory. And that's just pretty insane, right? Because you all talk about like all the other things like GPUs, all other infrastructure stuff, all including together and memory itself already 30, 40%. And if you look at the outlook for companies like Hynix and Samsung, right, they might be the top 5 most profitable companies, This year, at least in the semiconductor space. So I think all these things together just tells you like how important memory is and how bad this shortage is in memory.