OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Responds to Backlash Over His Comments on PC RAM - 80 Level

Emma Collins Editor 05 November 2026 Altman says that his words were taken out of context. jamesonwu1972 / Shutterstock.com OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has responded to the backlash over his comments about how much RAM people need in their PCs. The criticism from the gaming and tech community came after Altman's interview on the Cheeky Pint YouTube channel . In the interview, the CEO spoke about the worldwide DRAM shortage. "From a global allocation perspective, actually, it's quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer, and being used maybe 5% of the time. Like, you want maximum utilization in the cloud if you're trying to deal with this very supply constrained environment. And somehow many people's intuition is the opposite of that," he said (via IGN ). Elon Musk also joined the backlash. Altman then took to X/Twitter and said that his words were taken out of context and that he wants the world to have "tons of memory" and for people to put as much of it in their computers as they want. Altman reportedly briefly changed his name on X/Twitter to "Ram Altman." "I actually do want the world to have tons of memory and people to put as much as they want in their computers." "I have been arguing for the world to ramp up memory production for a long time." The memory shortage , which worsened when Micron prioritized RAM supply for AI companies, is predicted to continue, and Samsung co-CEO TM Roh has said that likely no company is "immune to its impact." Subscribe to our Newsletter , join our 80 Level Talent platform , Discord , and follow us on Twitter , LinkedIn , Telegram , and Instagram , where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more. Are you a fan of what we do here at 80 Level? Then make sure to set us as a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our content in your feed. Subscribe to 80 Level Newsletters Latest news, hand-picked articles, and updates Subscribe I consent to receive emails from 80 Level Privacy Policy Terms of use Preview images: jamesonwu1972 / Shutterstock.com; Faces Portrait / Shutterstock; collage made by 80 Level Built for the Game & Digital Art Industry Get Our Media Kit Comments 0 Type your comment here Leave Comment Built for the Game & Digital Art Industry Get Our Media Kit