manufacturers

We are in 2026, but you will only see part of the World Cup in 4K because of DAZN: TV manufacturers are already rubbing their hands

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You have a 4K TV, you have contracted Movistar Plus, Orange TV or DAZN and you are ready to live the Soccer World Cup 2026 in the best possible quality so as not to miss any details. Well we have bad news for you: almost all the games will arrive on your screen with a 1080i resolution, even if your television platform can broadcast in 4K. The fuse was lit as a result of the message from a user from Movistar Plus on X, in which he asked if he could watch the World Cup in 4K HDR. The initial response from Movistar was “Yes, as long as you have the UHD disc you can watch the games that will be broadcast on DAZN in 4K HDR.” The problem is that, when asked by our colleagues Xataka Mobileboth Movistar Plus and Orange TV have discarded that those matches are going to be broadcast in 4K. The controversy is served. The World Cup signal comes in 1080i: that changes everything DAZN is the one who has the rights to broadcast the 104 matches of the tournament in Spain. The problem is that your DAZN World signal arrives in 1080i resolution, not 4K. Since Movistar Plus and Orange TV only limit themselves to distributing the signal, what they receive is what they give you. Both operators have confirmed it: there will be no 4K on their platforms for the World Cup matches. In Xataka The gap between Samsung and TCL in the television market seemed unbridgeable. Until it stops looking like it This represents a clear setback in terms of resolution and image quality since in Qatar 2022, World Goal It broadcast the 64 matches of the championship in 4K UHD both on Movistar Plus and on its own app. However, all is not lost. In a corner of the reviled DTT we have a glimmer of hope left for those of us who want to see the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada with the best possible quality: La 1 UHD (Ultra High Definition). Yes, on DTT RTVE took over the rights to World Cup broadcast and will offer 33 open matches, including the opening match, the two semi-finals, the third and fourth place and the grand final, in addition to all the matches in which the Spanish National Team participates. These 33 matches will be the only ones that can be seen openly and in 4K in Spain. However, this RTVE signal also has small print for television platforms such as Movistar Plus and Orange TV, since on its grid They carry La 1 HD, but not La 1 UHDso to watch the games in 4K it will be necessary to tune in to the La 1 UHD channel on DTT, not the platform. First impressions of the TCL RM9L with RGB MiniLED: the alternative to OLED for large format screens Only Vodafone TV customers, you just added the RTVE channel in 4K on your grill, and Digi TV They will be able to watch the matches broadcast by the public entity in 4K quality from their platform. In short: if you want the 33 games in 4K, you need DTT (free to air) or Vodafone TV and DigiTV (with subscription). If you want to see the rest, you’ll have to settle for 1080i resolution. All is not lost: your television can save the game This is where something that few people take into account comes into play. when buying a TV: he image processor and its algorithms image enhancement and scaling. No matter how good your TV is, it’s not going to convert a 1080i resolution signal into 4K by magicbut it can improve a lot quality in which you watch the World Cup. Current televisions apply a process called upscaling, in which they take the input signal and upscale it to the panel’s native 4K resolution by adding, through AI and other algorithms, data that was not in the original source. In fact, it is the same process used by 8K TVs to display content that is in 4K. {“videoId”:”x95se90″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”How technology has changed football ⚽️”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”708″} In this way, the processor “generates” an image that emulates 4K quality, improving the sharpness, color and motion processing of the original signal along the way. Therefore, how much the better the processor and the more refined the scaling and enhancement algorithms, the more convincing the result will be, reducing the difference between native content in 1080 and 4K. Amazon Prime Video, for example, has entire teams dedicated to ensuring make your signal look good on every type of screen and in every network condition. In practice, a high-end TV from Sony, Samsung or LG with a powerful processor can improve its quality when a 1080i game is displayed on a 4K panel. There is more detail, less noise, and the movement of the ball loses that artificial texture that poorly scaled signals have. On the other hand, with an entry-level television that does not have a reliable image processor and does not have optimized scaling algorithms, the signal is shown as it arrives: a 1080i expanded to cover the 4K panelbut without providing any improvement to the resulting image. In Xataka | Xiaomi castles in the QD-Mini LED in 2026: five new TVs and makes the leap to 98 inches with a knockdown price Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev) (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news We are in 2026, but you will only see part of the World Cup in 4K because of DAZN: TV manufacturers are already rubbing their hands was originally published in Xataka by Ruben Andres .

Chinese manufacturers of OLED panels for mobile phones face an enemy they did not expect: memory shortages

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Chinese companies whose business is based to a greater or lesser extent on the manufacture of OLED panels for mobile phones They are suffering. BOE, Visionox, Tianma or TCL CSOT are some of the companies that the shortage of memory chips has placed in a very delicate position. In fact, the market for OLED matrices for smartphones is going through its worst quarter in years, according to DigiTimes Asia. Global shipments fell 12% year-on-year and 20% compared to the previous quarter during the first quarter of 2026, according to data managed by the consulting firm. UBI Research. A priori it might surprise us that the memory market is degrading the business of Chinese manufacturers of small format OLED panels, but if we dig beyond the surface it is easy to understand precisely what is happening. And what is happening is that Android mobile phone manufacturers are buying many fewer organic matrix screens from their Chinese suppliers because they need to offset the increase in memory prices by reducing the cost of the screen. This scenario mainly affects entry- and mid-range Android smartphones, which are the ones that mostly opted for moderately priced OLED matrices manufactured in China. High-end Android terminals and iPhones usually have OLED screens from Samsung Display or LG Display, although Apple also uses BOE for some models. South Korean manufacturers are taking this blow much better The origin of this problem lies in a decision made by SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron Technology, the three companies that control more than 95% of global DRAM productiona year ago. The rise of data centers for artificial intelligence (IA) has skyrocketed the demand for HBM memories (High Bandwidth Memory) that coexist with GPUs. For the three large memory manufacturers, HBM chips leave a greater margin than conventional DRAM memories, which is why they have focused on the production of the former and have largely sacrificed the latter. The most surprising thing is that this situation has triggered an asymmetric problem This strategy has caused the price of DRAM and NAND memories to increase sharply, but the most surprising thing is that this situation has triggered an asymmetric problem. As we have seen, sales of Chinese OLED panel manufacturers have fallen, but Samsung Display and LG Display are taking the hit very well. And they are doing it because their most important customers are Apple and Samsung Electronics. These two mobile phone manufacturers work with wide margins and have agreed long-term supply contracts with Samsung Display and LG Display, which gives them greater room for maneuver. At the moment they have not been forced to cut the cost of their screens. Be that as it may, market shares during the first quarter of 2026 speak for themselves, according to Korea Herald. Samsung Display led the global market for OLED panels for smartphones with a share of 44.4%, up from 42.8% in the same period in 2025. LG Display reached 9%, rising from 7.6%. Both gained quota despite the fact that its absolute shipments also fell. Among Chinese companies the picture was mixed: BOE maintained the largest Chinese share at 16.3%, and Visionox rose to 10.7% from 9.3%. Tianma fell to 9% from 12.1%, and lastly, TCL CSOT fell to 7.8% from 9.8%. Image | Xataka More information | DigiTimes Asia | Korea Herald In Xataka | The US remains committed to stopping China. Now it has targeted the second largest Chinese chip manufacturer

The manufacturers promised them happy with “Ultra” phones up to the top of specs. The RAM crisis has other plans for them

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Being an Ultra is not usually the best, unless you are a mobile phone. For years, manufacturers have been throwing darts at each other, launching models designed by and to demonstrate muscle. There was a manufacturer who threw the first stone, and the rest began to follow him. Today, with the component crisis that AI is causing, are in danger. The beginning of everything. The first “Ultra” mobile phone on the market was the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. The company did a fairly marketing exercise: 108 megapixel camera, 100x zoom… everything in a big way. Was it the best Galaxy to date? Yes. Was it a strategy to set a new industry standard through an even more striking surname? Also. China wakes up. China was quick to react to Samsung’s message. Xiaomi responded with the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultraa phone that debuted 120W fast charging (absolute nonsense a few years ago), 120x zoom to surpass Samsung, and even a transparent finish to show off its hardware. It was the first Chinese mobile phone to fully enter the war: “we are going to put absolutely everything we can into a mobile phone, whether it is useful or not.” And from then on, the party began. Raised to the absurd. The war to launch increasingly powerful Ultra models is beginning to move away from its original objective. Samsung launched a first model with oversized specs, but with a certain commercial purpose. Manufacturers like Vivo launch phones like the 300Ultra They are sold directly in a kit that makes their price practically unattainable, and some of the direct rivals of Samsung and Apple surpass Western brands in price. Chinese manufacturers do not want to sell them, they want to continue demonstrating technological leadership. in check. As pointed out Ice Universethe flagship Ultra is in danger, and some of the big Chinese brands are considering pausing this product line. The Chinese Ultra is not born to sell in volume, and the Pro models or series number (Xiaomi 17simply) are those who are born to sell, even in China. The increase in costs of components such as internal memory or RAM makes launching Ultra models even more complicated, unless the manufacturer wants to raise the price to the absurd. Yes, but. Despite Ice’s predictions, it seems unlikely that the RAM crisis could completely knock down the Ultra models. Manufacturers have been betting for years on a strategy that allows them to reduce costs and continue advancing in their product line: launching exactly the same mobile year after year, but with some additional touches. This allows you to contain costs, recycle parts and reduce R&D spending, while maintaining memory configurations that cannot be reversed. Be that as it may, it seems inevitable that the RAM crisis will completely affect the mobile market, and that in 2027 we will see progress in dribs and drabs. In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2026), we have tested them and here are their analyzes

The demand for AI memories is suffocating mobile manufacturers. The largest Chinese chip producer is going to take advantage of it

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SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) is the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer with a global market share of about 5%. This company is the best asset that Xi Jinping’s Government currently has to sustain China’s technological development. Hua Hong Semiconductor and SMES (Semiconductor Manufacturing Electronics Shaoxing) are also two very important chip manufacturers, but the true spearhead of this gigantic Asian country in this industry is SMIC. This company is partially public and has, as expected, the support of the Chinese Government. In fact, The Administration is investing a lot of money in their chip manufacturers. SMIC and the other Chinese chip producers do not have extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE), which are the most sophisticated that exist, but they do have the Twinscan NXT:2000i deep ultraviolet (UVP) equipment manufactured by the Dutch company ASML. These machines have not been designed to develop integrated circuits comparable to the most advanced ones currently manufactured by TSMC, Intel or Samsung, which is why the competitiveness of Chinese semiconductor manufacturers has suffered. Even so, SMIC has a plan to continue growing despite the impact that US sanctions are having on its business. And, according to SCMPis going to launch it now to take advantage of the bad times that manufacturers of smartphones and other consumer electronics devices are having. In March 2026. The memory supercycle for AI has put mobile phones on the ropes The DRAM memory industry is facing a profound structural transformation. The three largest chip manufacturers of memory on the planet, the South Korean companies SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, and the American Micron Technology, They have reallocated about 70% of its production lines to high-bandwidth memories (HBM) to satisfy the currently insatiable demand of data centers specialized in artificial intelligence (AI). The current situation has triggered the birth of a supercycle in the memory market This situation has triggered the birth of a supercycle in the memory market, which is, simply, a presumably prolonged period of time during which the demand for a certain product far exceeds the offer. This scenario causes prices to skyrocket. In fact, that is what is currently happening with memory chips. And the big losers at the moment are the manufacturers of smartphones and other consumer electronics devices. This circumstance is precisely what SMIC wants to take advantage of to grow. And it plans to do so by trying to capture the entire low- and mid-range chip market that is being neglected. SK Hynix, Micron Technology and Samsung are focusing on the production of HBM integrated circuits because they leave them with a much higher profit margin than other memory technologies. SMIC cannot manufacture chips using cutting-edge photolithography beyond 7nmbut you don’t need them. Its current integration technologies are sufficient to manufacture the microcontrollers and memory chips demanded by mobile phone manufacturers. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | SCMP In Xataka | We can forget about AI without hallucinations for now. NVIDIA CEO explains why

China already has two chip manufacturers with 7nm technology. This is very bad news for the US and its allies.

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SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer, has the capacity to produce 7nm chips from 2023. At the beginning of September of that year this company shook up the integrated circuit industry by demonstrating that it had been able to manufacture these semiconductors despite not having access to UVE photolithography equipment (extreme ultraviolet) produced by the Dutch company ASML. These highly sophisticated machines are necessary to manufacture cutting-edge chipsand ASML cannot sell them to its Chinese customers because the US, which controls some of the patents used by this equipment, prohibits it. Still, in 2023 SMIC and Huawei worked hand in hand to manufacture 7nm ICs without using ASML’s EUU machines. Of course, they used deep ultraviolet (UVP) equipment that this company from the Netherlands also produces. UVP machines are not as advanced as UVE machines, but with proper refinements they can be used to manufacture cutting-edge integrated circuits. And now China has two semiconductor manufacturers capable of producing 7nm chips. As we have just seen, one of them is SMIC, and the other, according to Reutersis Hua Hong Semiconductor, the country’s second largest integrated circuit producer. The shadow of ‘multiple patterning’ is very long Hua Hong Semiconductor’s division specializing in third-party chip manufacturing is called Huali Microelectronics, and, again according to Reutersis preparing to start production of 7nm integrated circuits at its Shanghai plant. The sources that have revealed this information assure that Huawei has collaborated with Huali Microelectronics on this project, which invites us to reach two reasonable conclusions. It is very likely that with the help of Huawei, Huali has developed ‘multiple patterning’ techniques The first is that Huali’s 7nm lithography will most likely play an essential role in GPU production capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) from both Huawei and other Chinese companies. And the second conclusion is actually a plausible hypothesis. And, like SMIC, Huali does not have access to ASML SVU equipment. For this reason, it is very likely that with the help of Huawei it has developed security techniques. multiple patterning to be able to manufacture 7nm chips with the UVP machines in its possession. A priori, UVP machines are suitable for manufacturing semiconductors up to 10 nm. And with EUVs it is possible to exceed 3 nm. However, by refining the processes involved in transferring the pattern to the wafer and turning to multiple patterning It is possible to go beyond these integration technologies. This technique broadly consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. It may have an upward impact on the cost of chips and a downward impact on production capacity, but it works. Either way, Huali Microelectronics is going to face the same challenges that SMIC has dealt with for the last three years: the multiple patterning seriously limits the number of viable chips per wafer that is possible to manufacture. And, therefore, it increases its cost. Still, it is very important for Chinese AI chip designers to have access to two companies capable of producing their designs with advanced photolithography technology. And for Hua Hong Semiconductor it is crucial to have the ability to manufacture, thanks to Huali, cutting-edge integrated circuits and not just 22 nm or larger (this is the most advanced photolithography it had so far). Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters In Xataka | TSMC is already the highest-earning chipmaker on the planet. It has beaten two semiconductor giants

The MacBook Neo is the biggest existential threat to the Windows laptop market. And the manufacturers have no answer

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Catacrac. This is how the announcement that Apple made with the MacBook Neo. They are modest in specifications, yes, but they have a surprising price/performance ratio if we take into account that it comes from Apple. The company, which seemed like it would never “humiliate itself” with a “cheap” product, has ended up doing just that. And in the process, it has posed an extraordinary threat to Windows laptops with a product that is a missile to the waterline of many manufacturers. A perfect team for many people. We’re all looking for the best product at the best price, and the MacBook Neo is a fantastic balancing act. It is not by far the best laptop one can find, but it is a device with a very reasonable configuration for many people. And it is because many people use the laptop for tasks that do not need more power or features. Apple has also hit the nail on the head with the price: being an Apple product, those 700 euros almost seem like a bargain. A textbook masterstroke. While Windows laptop manufacturers get tangled up in justifying why a laptop It should cost 1,500 euros to do everything you want (not to mention the AI ​​options), Apple has on its hands a product that overturns the perception of value. The MacBook Neo does not seek to win performance races, but rather to be the equipment that any student, administrator or home user buys without looking at another alternative. In 2026, true innovation is not to include an incredible NPU, but to offer a product that solves a need and do so at a price that previously seemed an insult by Apple’s standards. Remembering netbooks. Almost 20 years ago the industry tried to move in this direction with netbooks. These Windows laptops were (very) modest, crude and cheap and generated a lot of expectation, but realities soon arrived. Its limitations were so obvious that they were not worth it, and the concept of the “modest, cheap and functional laptop” was perhaps ahead of its time. Cupertino has arrived on time. Apple seems to have arrived at the right time, because we have been saying for years that mobile chips were already extraordinarily powerful and were wasted both in our smartphones and (especially) in iPads. The MacBook Neo is what netbooks should always be—well, maybe a little expensive for a netbook—with the difference that here the features promise to be much more adequate. Slap for Windows on ARM. The appearance of this team is also a very hard blow for all those teams that have tried to Windows on ARM it made sense. We have seen several throughout these years and everything seemed to indicate that Microsoft and the manufacturers they had a chancebut they have ended up making computers that were basically clones of their variants with Intel/AMD in almost everything. With more autonomy and many AI functionsYes, but with often high prices and with some software limitations because the Windows ecosystem on ARM architecture is not nearly as prepared as Apple’s with macOS, which completed that transition after the launch of the M1 in 2020. There is hope for Microsoft and its users. Manufacturers of Windows equipment will now have to react and come up with competitive options. And they certainly have the potential to do so. Qualcomm has its Snapdragon Meanwhile, NVIDIA already has its SoCs for laptops almost ready —we saw them at CES— so we may be looking at a “second era of netbooks” in which the MacBook Neo competes with Windows/ARM machines on price and features. Of course, it remains to be seen what the real performance, autonomy and reliability of these future devices, including Apple’s, are. Suddenly Apple has a catalog of “affordable” products that puts its competitors in trouble. Beyond the Chromebook. The MacBook Neo could be seen as a “Chromebook killer”, but Google has stopped promoting them and manufacturers no longer lend them either so much attention. In fact, the future of Google laptops It seems to go through Android, not ChromeOS. While the MacBook Neo can certainly be a very reasonable device for students, it is actually an attack on the conventional “home laptop” with which HP, Dell or ASUS have always triumphed. Apple’s prestige plays a lot in its favor here, and it may win over not only young people, but also many other users who saw Apple as an aspirational brand that was too exclusive for their budgets. Memory makes everything more expensive… except the MacBook Neo. Furthermore, this launch moment could not be more cruel for Windows laptop manufacturers. All of them have already been warning that they will have to raise prices due to the RAM memory crisis, but Apple has done just the opposite: instead of presenting more expensive products—well, has also done it—, the firm has uncovered a functional and affordable bet that does not punish consumers. Sacrifices must be made, yes, but they are reasonable, especially in view of events. Apple has shown that you can be “humble” in price without losing your identity, and now it remains to be seen what the response of Windows equipment manufacturers is. Because what is clear is that that answer will come. And it is likely that after all this launch it will end up being very good news for us, the users. In Xataka | Apple made a splash with its cheapest iPhone. And the iPhone 17e is coming to repeat the play

A few years ago, manufacturers fought for the most powerful mobile phone. Now they fight so they don’t go out burning

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Not too long ago, Samsung and Apple were trying to convince us of something: the titanium It was the best material for a high-end mobile phone. As a user of both the latest Galaxy and the previous iPhone, I have to say that I agreed: we were never looking at mobile phones more resistant to shockschips and all kinds of everyday accidents. With the iPhone 17 ProApple backtracked to return to aluminum. With the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultrathe Korean company follows the same path. What is happening? Aluminum is back, and everything indicates that it is here to stay. One of the main advantages that titanium promised over aluminum was to promise greater resistance, something that is being demonstrated the drama of the new iPhone 17 Pro and its premature wear compared to previous models. Despite this, companies are returning to aluminum. There is something that both the new Galaxy S26 Ultra and the iPhone 17 Pro Max share: they both have the largest dissipation systems ever built in their families. A titanic effort (to the point of completely redesigning the chassis in the case of the iPhone) to prevent mobile phones from burning in the hand. And there is a key point in this party: we want more and more powerful phones, but someone has to cool them down. Producing mobile phones in titanium is also more expensive, and given the current component crisiswith the RAM shot and internal memories the same wayone of the few cuts that can be made without affecting the overall phone experience is changing the material used. The question about whether we need more power or not, a few years ago, was answered with a resounding “yes.” But for some time now we are not so clear. With configurations of 12 and 16 GB of RAM, and processors that are more powerful than some desktop chips, our smartphones have been increasing power for years without determining too much. Why do we need these new limits?. AI requires RAM and not so much raw power (at least, in the use given to a phone), mobile games are already bordering on the quality of triple AAA console games, and improvements in camera come more through the redesign of algorithms and not so much through increasingly powerful IPS (image chips). In Xataka | Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, S26+ and S26, first impressions: a broken heart in an unprecedented commitment to AI Image | Xataka

15 Chinese car manufacturers are going to produce humanoid robots. They will use the same advantage that made them leaders

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China is not late to humanoid robotics: it arrives with factories, suppliers, engineers and software already amortized, an advantage that is difficult to overcome. The supply chain of an electric car (sensors, motors, batteries, chips, perception algorithms…) overlaps by more than 60% with that of a humanoid robot, according to CITIC Securities estimates. XPeng, one of the most technological manufacturers in the sector, It also ensures that its robot reuses 70% of the same AI software as its cars.. If those numbers are real without many asterisks, the Chinese manufacturers of electric vehicles are not that they are aspirants to robotics, it is that they are clear favorites. The panoramic. Fifteen Chinese car brands have announced humanoid robot programs, according to the analysis firm Kaiyuan Securities. China already manufactures 70% of the components of “classic” industrial robotics, and the jump to humanoids takes advantage of the same factories, the same suppliers and the same talent that have given it leadership in electric vehicles. The parallel with what Tesla is doing with Optimus is inevitable, but China is running it with dozens of companies in parallel, at a speed that no single company can match. Between the lines. The bets diverge as much as the companies: Yes, but. There are dark clouds on the sunny day that is humanoid robotics for China. XPeng’s IRON robot crashed in a shopping mall in Shenzhen a few days ago. The company has been in robotics for six years. Driving on roads and moving through the rooms of each parent are very different problems. Roads have lanes, signs, and fairly predictable physics. The rooms have stairs, dozens of small objects, people moving, doors to open, intricate locations or chargers with a cable on the floor. The manual dexterity and dynamic balance required by a humanoid robot have no equivalent in the control architecture of any car. And the most talented engineers in the sector know it: several former XPeng executivesLi Auto and Huawei have left their companies to found their own robotics startups. When the path seems clear, the best are not afraid to go it alone. The contrast. Unitree, a pure robotics company with no ties to the automotive industry, distributed 5,500 robots in 2025. Agibot is approaching 1 billion yuan in revenue, about 122 million euros. These companies built from the ground up for robotics are already delivering their product while car manufacturers are still in the reorganization phase. The technological overlap between cars and robots is real in sensors and perception software, but it quickly thins out when the robot has to manipulate objects with great precision, maintain balance on uneven terrain, or work alongside humans. That last “frontier”, the 30% that does not transfer, may be where it is decided who dominates the industry. In Xataka | China manufactures 90% of the world’s humanoid robots and the reason is not its industrial policy: it is crossing the street Featured image | Xpeng

The panic of technology companies about running out of chips has broken the RAM market. Manufacturers have said enough

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The RAM market is completely broken. In November of last year we talked about a 300% increasewas the result of the perfect storm caused by AI and data centers. Faced with brutal shortages, large companies are trying to get hold of as much memory as possible, which further destabilizes the market. Now manufacturers are taking matters into their own hands. No hoarders, thank you. In an extensive report published by Nikkei Asiatalk about the big three DRAM manufacturers (Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix) implementing stricter rules for their customers in order to prevent them from hoarding memory. The measures are aimed at ensuring that demand is real, that is, that the chips are not going to end up collecting dust in a warehouse “just in case.” Manufacturers are asking for details about who the chips are for, the quantities and what they will be used for. OpenAI’s dirty deal. We go back to October 1, 2025. OpenAI signed an agreement with Samsung and SK Hynix to a potential demand for 900,000 DRAM wafers per month. The figure is equivalent to 40% of all world production, absurd, but what is striking is the “potential.” As they point out multiple users on Xare securing a critical product for data centers that have not yet been built, with money they do not have. Some analysts called this agreement “The dirty DRAM deal”whose hidden objective seemed to point to a rather dirty move: to create a moat by preventing its competitors from accessing critical technology. Open orders. The AI ​​race is not going to stop because chips rise in price and big technology companies have done what they had to do: everything possible to get chips. At the end of last year, Reuters He said that some companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta had even approached Micron with open orders, that is, they were willing to accept all the memory they could supply, without a price cap. A full-fledged preventive hoarding. Compulsive shopping. AI companies are not the only ones that have tried to secure their chips, PC manufacturers such as Asus, MSI, Dell or HP also began to buy RAM compulsively at the end of 2025 for accumulate inventory before what was coming. Manufacturers are aware of overorders and that is why they are now demanding data on the end customer. The winners. While everyone is fighting to get their chips, Samsung is getting rich. It is not only that has tripled its profitsFurthermore, it is the technological more has appreciated in 2025ahead of Alphabet and TSMC. For its part, SK Hynix has doubled its profitsmainly due to the boom in demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), of which it is a key supplier. In Xataka | There is a lack of RAM memories and Micron is going to spend 1.8 billion dollars to produce more. but not for you Image | Unsplashedited

Everyone blames the manufacturers for the lack of memory. Micron says real bottleneck lies elsewhere

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For months, memory shortage It has established itself in the technological debate as one of those phenomena that do not seem to need too many explanations. If RAM is missing and prices risethe immediate conclusion is that someone is privileging AI and leaving the consumer aside. That idea has resonated strongly, especially after visible decisions that have affected the domestic channel and have reinforced the feeling of abandonment. But when you get down to how memory is manufactured and kept stable today, the diagnosis becomes less obvious: the bottleneck doesn’t seem as obvious as it seems. A controversial decision. In this climate of widespread suspicion, Micron has become a preferred target, shared with other large manufacturers, but for a very specific and recent decision: the announcement of the end of Crucial consumer products. The company recently announced that will stop selling RAM memory and storage under that historic brand, with shipments expected through February 2026. For many users, that move was interpreted as a direct consumer recall just when memory is short. Micron justified that decision by noting that AI-driven growth in data centers has skyrocketed demand and that Crucial’s exit seeks to improve supply and support to its strategic customers in higher-growth segments. The market has changed size. From Micron’s perspective, the problem is not a renunciation of consumption, but an abrupt change in the scale of the market. Christopher Moore, vice president of marketing for the client and mobile business, He said in an interview with Wccftech that the company continues to have a relevant presence in PCs and mobile devices, while serving data centers. What has altered the balance is the growth of the data center business, driven by AI, which has gone from representing around 30% of the market to approaching, according to its figures, 50% or even 60%. That leap, he defends, has left the entire industry without sufficient margin. Variety also creates scarcity. For Micron, the bottleneck is not so much the lack of factories as how the existing ones are used. Moore explains that producing memory is not about making a single type of chip seamlessly, but rather about switching between multiple densities and configurations depending on what customers ask for. Each change, for example going from 12 GB to 16 GB modules or from 16 GB to 24 GB, forces lines to be readjusted and reduces the total output volume. In a context of skyrocketing demand, this variety, which was previously acceptable, becomes a direct brake on production. Micron’s new Idaho factory under construction Faced with the temptation to think that new factories will solve the problem, the manufacturer asks for patience. Moore explains that expanding memory capacity is not an immediate process, because it requires not only building facilities, but equipping them, validating them and certifying each product with customers. The company laid the first stone three years ago in its ID1 plant in IdahoUnited States, whose entry into operation is scheduled for mid-2027. Even so, it warns that there will be no significant impact on supply until the entire qualification process is complete, which it places in 2028. Crucial is gone, the channel is not. Moore assures that, although Crucial has disappeared from the consumer showcase, the company continues to provide memory to major PC and mobile device brands through channels less visible to the end user. This OEM channel, in which Micron supplies memory directly to integrators and manufacturers, concentrates a very relevant part of the market and ends up being incorporated into commercial designs and equipment. From their point of view, the consumer continues to receive Micron memory, even if it no longer does so under a recognizable label. With this panorama, the lack of memory ceases to be a problem of isolated decisions and is revealed as the result of several overlapping tensions. AI-driven demand for data centers that has changed the scale of the market, operational limits on production and long lead times to expand capacity explain why supply will remain tight for years. Micron places the relief horizon no earlier than 2028 and, until then, the consumer will live with fewer options and pressured prices. The bottleneck, the company insists, is not only in who buys the memory, but in how it is manufactured. Images | Micron In Xataka | The situation with RAM prices is so desperate that there are already those who build their own memory at home

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