- Memory chips - the RAM inside phones, laptops, fridges, and trucks - are in a shortage Tim Cook called a 100-year flood, and some memory prices have climbed about 90% in a single quarter.
- Four forces hit at once: AI demand, a production shutdown in 2023, build times that push any fix to 2028 at the earliest, and a bombed helium plant in Qatar.
- The last two supply shocks ended in aggressive Fed rate hikes and market drops of around 45% and 20%, and this time Washington is spending heavily to bring memory production home.
