Memory is being hoarded by the same 10-ish companies in order to build data centers for cloud infrastructure and AI. As a result, the cost of building or buying a computer or server has increased exponentially. Because of this, a business who may have purchased a server previously now has to rent cloud space from the very companies that caused the shortage. Same with consumers who now may have to rely on cloud services as they cannot afford computer that can preform that task otherwise. You may not be able to buy more storage but you can rent it.
The fact that this isn't being treated as a threat to the economy and to life is insane to me. The price of purchasing IT equipment will increase in every sector, which you and me will see. Other devices which use memory such as appliances, cars and medical devices, are now more expensive to build or outright cannot be built because of this shortage. Of course the companies will increase the cost of cloud infrastructure this consolidation continues.
