Nvidia loves the RAM crisis

Storage is hard to find. Graphics cards are hard to find. RAM is extremely hard to find, even if you’re a PC manufacturing giant. And all thanks to the construction of the “AI” data center. But Nvidia, or at least its highly visible CEO Jensen Huang, couldn’t be happier about it.

“I love constraints,” Huang said at a recent conference. “In a world of constraints, we have no choice but to choose the best. »

Huang’s “no choice” means an inevitable purchase from Nvidia, for the GPUs that are crucial to said data centers. For context, Huang was asked about memory and electricity constraints in the “token economy” at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom conference, referring to the output capacity of “AI” and not the more traditional definition of the term.

Huang went on to say:

If data centers, if space, power and infrastructure are limited, you’re not going to randomly put something there just to try it out. You’re going to put something in that you’re sure will deliver the tokens per watt that you know for sure will allow you to from the moment you secure the capacity, we’ll be able to set up an entire factory for you. We’re the only company in the world that can come into your business and help you build an entire AI factory.

Huang went on to highlight Nvidia’s ability to help data center builders optimize their deployment plans and resources. It was the last part of this transcribed response (emphasis mine) that raised eyebrows:

You know, everything from copper to multilayer ceramic capacitors, everything is secure. This is one reason why Nvidia’s balance sheet strength is so strategic. Today, a strong balance sheet is not only useful, but strategic. You look at the amount of revenue that we’re investing, just look back and consider the supply chain capacity that we’ve had to secure or that they have to believe in. You know, if you set up a factory, a factory, a DRAM factory, and I come in and say, “You know what? Go ahead and set up the DRAM factory because I’m going to use it,” that goes a long way. Might as well take that to the bank, as many of them did. I think the fact that everything is rare is fantastic for us.

To be fair, the CEO is talking about much more specific topics than the RAM crisis that’s affecting the entire electronics industry, from the biggest PC makers to cash-strapped home builders. But it’s hard to be impartial as Nvidia rides the “AI” bubble to become the biggest and most powerful company on the planet.

PC Gamer notes in its report that Nvidia has a current valuation of around $4.5 trillion. Nvidia reported revenue of $130.5 billion in 2025, up more than 100% from an already strong 2024, with the lion’s share coming from data center customers.

Nvidia

If it seems like we don’t talk much about Nvidia’s graphics cards, the products the company is best known for among regular users around the world… well, yes. At the Consumer Electronics Show, Nvidia had very little to say to consumers, shoving what little news it had that didn’t relate to industrial applications into a secondary announcement – which didn’t include any new cards for the first time in years, instead focusing on DLSS improvements.

Nvidia has reportedly reduced production of its RTX 5000 series and may have canceled a mid-cycle refresh of “Super” cards, all to focus more effectively on the enterprise market where it does business. Even workstations, which previously made up a tiny but profitable part of the market, are getting more love than gaming PCs.

What’s really frustrating is that even though Nvidia seems to ignore gamers, gamers still buy Nvidia cards. The company has a near-total stranglehold on the consumer graphics market, with a 94% share of desktops and laptops with discrete graphics cards powered by Nvidia hardware. In the last year alone, the same report saw the share of Nvidia’s main rival, AMD, fall from 15 percent to 5 percent, with Intel retaining a small share of just 1 percent.

While the future of consumer hardware appears to be in flux, even in an existential crisis, Nvidia and Huang continue to go from strength to strength. If there was anyone in real life currently swimming in gold coins Scrooge McDuck style, it would be Jensen Huang.

And if you want an “AI” to generate that image for you, then there’s a good chance it’ll do it with an Nvidia GPU.