Water and electricity are pleased to welcome memory chips to the growing list of resources that have become hotter and pricier than ever due to AI demand.

The Big Three memory-chip producers—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—can’t meet demand for both AI data centers and consumer electronics, whose prices are rising with no end in sight.

Diagramming the dRAMa

The shortage stems from bad timing and the feast-or-famine nature of the memory biz, according to industry watchers.

Inciting incident: the pandemic. In the pre-ChatGPT world, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft went full Pac-Man mode and scoffed up memory and storage to support the cloud-computing demands of working from home, which seemed more like a paradigm shift than an OOO blip.

Rising action: the hoarding. Stockpiling drove memory prices higher, which was beneficial for memory companies. But the buying bonanza dried up in 2022 and 2023, as RTO mandates rained down and inflation ticked up. As a result, some companies cut production by up to 50% to stabilize prices.

Crisis: burned by boom–bust. Even though demand rebounded in late 2023, the Big Three couldn’t shake the bad…memory of getting burned on supply. Storage and memory expert Thomas Coughlin told IEEE Spectrum, “There was little or no investment in new production capacity in 2024 and through most of 2025.” Last year, the shortage arrived.

Denouement TBD

Increasing production would help address the problem, but it takes at least 18 months and $15+ billion to get a new fab up and running. Some experts think that innovation might need to be part of the solution:

• If people can be persuaded to move away from using AI in the cloud (where most of the major chatbots are run from) to using AI PCs that can run those operations locally, data center demand could ease.
• Memory suppliers might then rebalance consumer needs over the tech for data centers, which is more expensive to produce.

Big picture: Until solutions are found and implemented, most smartphones, PCs, gaming consoles, and routers will get more expensive.—HVL

Warner Bros. Discovery may reportedly talk to Paramount about sale again. No Valentine’s Day weekend would be complete without a persistent suitor maybe getting their happily ever after. Bloomberg reported that WBD might reconsider Paramount Skydance’s hostile offers, as the Ellison-backed company tries to boot Netflix out of the acquisition picture. This comes after Paramount sent over yet another sweetened offer on Feb. 10, which has some members of the Warner Bros. board wondering if Paramount could “offer a path to a superior deal,” according to the outlet. However, it also reported that the board has not decided whether or not it will leave Paramount on read.

American VIPs sounded off at Munich Security Conference. The high-level, independent forum for debating international security wrapped up yesterday, but not before prominent Americans spent the weekend making doing some public speaking. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on European nations to “revitalize an old friendship” with the US. At a different panel, Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire said, “The reason we’re here is to provide reassurance that we understand how important our European allies are.” Other notable American attendees included Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

OpenAI scoops up OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger. Sam Altman’s catch of the day is the guy responsible for creating the AI agents that may or may not use their own social network to eventually achieve the singularity. OpenClaw’s first iteration, Clawdbot, launched late last year, but Steinberger already impressed Altman with his offering of AI agents that can complete tasks and make decisions without constant human oversight. In the announcement last night, Altman called Steinberger a “genius” and said that OpenClaw would “live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.” Hmm, kind of like a crustacean in a shell.—HVL

As AI improves, there’s a fear it could take a wrecking ball to the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. But, like Miley Cyrus, IBM wants to use that wrecking ball to its advantage. The technology company recently announced plans to triple its entry-level hiring in the US this year.

Entry-leveling the playing field: AI excels at automating repetitive tasks, like data organization and basic coding, which usually fall to people in entry-level roles. So, IBM is revamping its job descriptions. According to Chief HR Officer Nickle LaMoreaux:

• Junior software developers will do less coding and spend more time with clients.
• HR staffers will let chatbots field questions, then step in when needed.

Today’s entry-level employees are also tomorrow’s managers, so supporting young talent makes sense long-term, LaMoreaux said.

It’s not just IBM. Cloud platform Dropbox is bulking up its internship and new-graduate programs by 25%. Chief People Officer Melanie Rosenwasser told Bloomberg that younger workers are better at using AI than most, a skill the company wants to leverage.

New grads still face headwinds. Since early 2023, entry-level job postings in the US are down 35%, per analytics firm Revelio Labs.—BC

Feed the Fed: Last Friday’s CPI report was just an appetizer for the Federal Reserve, as its favorite gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, will be released this Friday for December. The advance estimates of GDP for Q4 2025 and the full year will also come out on Friday. And minutes from the central bank’s January meeting will be released on Wednesday.

A new era at Walmart: On Thursday, Walmart will report earnings for the first time under new CEO John Furner (though he’s only been in the role for two weeks). It’s also the first time the company will deliver results since its market cap hit $1 trillion earlier this month. The data should offer insight into how US consumers fared over the holidays and in the days that followed, when everyone was returning the clothes their parents bought them.

The Year of the Horse, of course: The Lunar New Year—or Spring Festival, as it’s known in China—starts tomorrow, kicking off more than two weeks of eating, gift-giving, and semi-awkward meetings with cousins you rarely see. It all adds up to a massive economic event, especially for the travel sector, with a record 9.5 billion plane, train, and automobile trips expected during the 40-day period around the celebrations, according to China’s National Development and Reform Commission. The Lunar New Year also marks the beginning of the Chinese zodiac calendar’s Year of the Horse, or more specifically, the Year of the Fire Horse, which would be a decent name for a Blazing Saddles sequel.

But wait, there’s more:

• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify on Wednesday in a landmark trial trying to determine whether some major social media apps are designed to addict young users.
• Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model hits Netflix today.
• Carvana, Molson Coors, and DoorDash deliver results on Wednesday.
• Hilary Duff will release luck... or something, her first album since 2015, on Friday.

Free hotel breakfast may be checking out for good, at least at some establishments. In a bid to cut costs, Hyatt Place, a Hyatt Hotels brand, eliminated free breakfast from dozens of properties last year, and Holiday Inn also recently scaled back its offerings to a buffet-only setup to save on labor and cut food waste.

Complimentary breakfast may no longer be worth the squeeze. Boutique hotel owner Mitchell Murray told CNBC that the perk can cost 5% to 7% of total revenue. But skipping breakfast can be a tough sell, especially at economy establishments, where value-hungry guests factor a free meal into their booking calculus.—BC