The DRAM Cartel | Price Fixing, Anti-Consumer Collusion, & Corporate Conspiracy (Gamers Nexus) [Video]

Gamers Nexus (2.59m subscribers)

March 7, 2026

Video length: 1h 21m 21s

THE DRAM CARTEL: With absurd RAM prices and shortages of desktop memory, we've noticed a lot of parallels between the current AI demand (or "demand") for memory and the DRAM Cartel eras of the industry. This especially feels familiar with reservations of memory not yet manufactured for data centers not yet guaranteed. In this special report and deep-dive documentary, we dig deep through the archives of the internet, magazines, and newspapers to compile a definitive history of the DRAM Cartel, plus its modern parallels to the AI industry. Our documentary covers the memory price-fixing scandal of 1998-2002, additional price fixing conspiracy allegations in 2016-2022, and all the ways in which the memory makers have stabbed each other in the back over the last 60 years. This deep-dive report took our team OVER 255 HOURS of editing, writing, art, and research to put together.

00:00:00 - The DRAM Cartel

00:06:01 - WE NEED YOUR HELP and new mouse mat

00:07:17 - DRAM Industry from the Beginning

00:09:05 - Inventing DRAM

00:11:52 - Co-Opetition

00:18:11 - A New Order and The Big Three

00:21:21 - 1950 to 1970 - Birth of the Industry

00:25:46 - 1971 to 1979 - US Dominance and Japan Enters

00:29:12 - 1980 to 1997 - The Tide Turns and Trade Wars

00:38:43 - Japan's Lost Decade and Dawn of Korean Memory

00:45:27 - 1998 to 2002 - The Cartel Forms

00:51:29 - Fractured Cartel and Cracks Show

00:57:15 - 2002 to 2016 - Cornered

01:08:38 - 2017 to 2025 - IP Theft and US China Trade War

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