The DRAM Cartel - Price Fixing, Anti-Consumer Collusion, & Corporate Conspiracy
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Date: 2026-03-07
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Comments and reviews: 20
leesweeney8879
I got back close to 2k from this.
The Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) price-fixing cases, often referred to in the context of major settlements involving Texas and other U.S. states, primarily centered on a global conspiracy by manufacturers to artificially inflate the price of memory chips between 1998 and 2002. Major manufacturers, including Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, and Micron, were implicated in this conspiracy.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
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Key Aspects of the Case:
Conspiracy Period & Impact: Between 1998 and 2002, DRAM manufacturers agreed to fix prices, affecting computers, printers, and other electronic devices.
Guilty Pleas and Fines: Major manufacturers, including Samsung, Hynix, and Infineon, pleaded guilty to criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Specifically, in 2005, Samsung pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $300 million criminal fine.
State Involvement: Texas was one of many states involved in a multi-state investigation that began in 2004, which led to a $90 million settlement to resolve claims that the manufacturers harmed consumers.
Class Action Settlements: A $310 million class-action settlement was reached for indirect purchasers (consumers and businesses that bought devices containing the chips).
Later Litigation: Similar allegations of DRAM price-fixing resurfaced in lawsuits filed in 2018 against Samsung, Hynix, and Micron, covering a period from 2016 to 2018. However, a U.S. appeals court upheld the dismissal of some of these antitrust allegations in 2022.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
5
Current Context (2025-2026):
While there have been recent concerns about high RAM prices due to AI demand shortages, as of early 2026, there has been no new federal lawsuit bringing a direct price-fixing claim similar to the 2000s scandal.
In other words as long as the GOP get bribes they will not look into it.
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I got back close to 2k from this.
The Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) price-fixing cases, often referred to in the context of major settlements involving Texas and other U.S. states, primarily centered on a global conspiracy by manufacturers to artificially inflate the price of memory chips between 1998 and 2002. Major manufacturers, including Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, and Micron, were implicated in this conspiracy.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
1
Key Aspects of the Case:
Conspiracy Period & Impact: Between 1998 and 2002, DRAM manufacturers agreed to fix prices, affecting computers, printers, and other electronic devices.
Guilty Pleas and Fines: Major manufacturers, including Samsung, Hynix, and Infineon, pleaded guilty to criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Specifically, in 2005, Samsung pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $300 million criminal fine.
State Involvement: Texas was one of many states involved in a multi-state investigation that began in 2004, which led to a $90 million settlement to resolve claims that the manufacturers harmed consumers.
Class Action Settlements: A $310 million class-action settlement was reached for indirect purchasers (consumers and businesses that bought devices containing the chips).
Later Litigation: Similar allegations of DRAM price-fixing resurfaced in lawsuits filed in 2018 against Samsung, Hynix, and Micron, covering a period from 2016 to 2018. However, a U.S. appeals court upheld the dismissal of some of these antitrust allegations in 2022.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
5
Current Context (2025-2026):
While there have been recent concerns about high RAM prices due to AI demand shortages, as of early 2026, there has been no new federal lawsuit bringing a direct price-fixing claim similar to the 2000s scandal.
In other words as long as the GOP get bribes they will not look into it.
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Vaijykone
Nice documentary. In other words, a system that is designed to control selecting for people that have the psychological traits that maximize that exact behaviour. This is simply evolutionary psychology and systems theory being observed. Don't expect this to change either, because you can't change the system with its own mechanisms and even if you could, the people that the system selected for aren't going to remove themselves and they don't want things to change. If you dig deeper and wider, you will understand that the memory sector is just one small example of this, there's much bigger areas, such as the monetary system as a whole that does essentially this exact same thing. In summary: The purpose of a system is what it does and what the system does is that it controls people.
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Nice documentary. In other words, a system that is designed to control selecting for people that have the psychological traits that maximize that exact behaviour. This is simply evolutionary psychology and systems theory being observed. Don't expect this to change either, because you can't change the system with its own mechanisms and even if you could, the people that the system selected for aren't going to remove themselves and they don't want things to change. If you dig deeper and wider, you will understand that the memory sector is just one small example of this, there's much bigger areas, such as the monetary system as a whole that does essentially this exact same thing. In summary: The purpose of a system is what it does and what the system does is that it controls people.
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heroicgoo915
This video is much more than an interesting watch. This video is very IMPORTANT & has ramifications that are mind-boggling! We all Know/knew corporations are greedy asf BUT THIS video shows much more than mere greed. This is illegal marketing on a global scale, its fkng horrendous!
People need jailing over this and fines reaching hundreds of billions, if not TRILLIONS need to be levied at all involved corporations. Absoloutely monstrous behaviour, pretty much done !In broad daylight after learning the history via this video. Its not even a fkng SE CRET!!!!!! Bastards, truly!!
EDIT: For the 3rd time in my life (im preinternet, giving cash to YT'ers is alien to us, lol :/ ) ill spend cash in your shop to show support. Again, these types of vid are amazing & IMPORTANT!!!
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This video is much more than an interesting watch. This video is very IMPORTANT & has ramifications that are mind-boggling! We all Know/knew corporations are greedy asf BUT THIS video shows much more than mere greed. This is illegal marketing on a global scale, its fkng horrendous!
People need jailing over this and fines reaching hundreds of billions, if not TRILLIONS need to be levied at all involved corporations. Absoloutely monstrous behaviour, pretty much done !In broad daylight after learning the history via this video. Its not even a fkng SE CRET!!!!!! Bastards, truly!!
EDIT: For the 3rd time in my life (im preinternet, giving cash to YT'ers is alien to us, lol :/ ) ill spend cash in your shop to show support. Again, these types of vid are amazing & IMPORTANT!!!
reply
grandmarquee
We should be seeing lawsuits already. Microslop Slopatya Nadella literally said they have chips and can't do anything with them, they can't power them up. So I guess we'll horde them while our partner OpenAi buys up the rest of the chips. How is this ok! This isn't supply and demand it's scalpers buying up stock and holding on to it raising all the prices. And Microslop makes out the most with this because we can all tell that these assholes want us to rent everything. They horde the chips you can't buy shit and then they'll rent you compute, not even a computer and windows will be a subscription. Get me out this Dystopia bring on the Renaissance.
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We should be seeing lawsuits already. Microslop Slopatya Nadella literally said they have chips and can't do anything with them, they can't power them up. So I guess we'll horde them while our partner OpenAi buys up the rest of the chips. How is this ok! This isn't supply and demand it's scalpers buying up stock and holding on to it raising all the prices. And Microslop makes out the most with this because we can all tell that these assholes want us to rent everything. They horde the chips you can't buy shit and then they'll rent you compute, not even a computer and windows will be a subscription. Get me out this Dystopia bring on the Renaissance.
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masterluckyluke
I think it's not too crazy to assume that all big companies talk with each other one way or another to fix prices and control the market. The biggest problem, at least here in Germany and Europe is, to actually get hard evidence and even IF there is hard evidence mostly the penalties are so low the companies already calculate with those penalties in mind. So even IF they're fined, they don't care about that money because they already reserved that money in case they were caught. So at the moment, the only thing they learn from this is how they can do it more secretly and where infos were leaked. It's like fighting windmills.
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I think it's not too crazy to assume that all big companies talk with each other one way or another to fix prices and control the market. The biggest problem, at least here in Germany and Europe is, to actually get hard evidence and even IF there is hard evidence mostly the penalties are so low the companies already calculate with those penalties in mind. So even IF they're fined, they don't care about that money because they already reserved that money in case they were caught. So at the moment, the only thing they learn from this is how they can do it more secretly and where infos were leaked. It's like fighting windmills.
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gsestream
enough with the human curse law stuff. get christ, get good. you are not poor are you. yep all law argument issues are because you are poor. come to the light, for darkness does not come into the light. whoever you are who judges, dont you recognize that you are doing the same works that you are judging others for. even if you dont steal, but you mock christ, you are a law breaker. one broken, all broken. one kept, all must be kept, or law has no point. there where you are the law for yourself, there is no law. ie human self-rule lawlessness, instead of christ given freedom.
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enough with the human curse law stuff. get christ, get good. you are not poor are you. yep all law argument issues are because you are poor. come to the light, for darkness does not come into the light. whoever you are who judges, dont you recognize that you are doing the same works that you are judging others for. even if you dont steal, but you mock christ, you are a law breaker. one broken, all broken. one kept, all must be kept, or law has no point. there where you are the law for yourself, there is no law. ie human self-rule lawlessness, instead of christ given freedom.
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CD-vb9fi
This is one of the reasons we need to fully abandon Patents! They allow the cartels to form up and gives company's the power to destroy competitors in courts rather than in competition. At this point... I only have one thing to say.
American deserves it. America deserves it so much it's almost comical. Every step you folks support, promote, and defend evil. And then you WHINE when its inevitable consequences come and take from you what it tricked you into giving away willfully thinking yourselves wise.
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness...
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This is one of the reasons we need to fully abandon Patents! They allow the cartels to form up and gives company's the power to destroy competitors in courts rather than in competition. At this point... I only have one thing to say.
American deserves it. America deserves it so much it's almost comical. Every step you folks support, promote, and defend evil. And then you WHINE when its inevitable consequences come and take from you what it tricked you into giving away willfully thinking yourselves wise.
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness...
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ivolol
Every time you mention an $X00 million fine to company Y in this video, no-on watching here will really be able to contextualize the scale of that.
I think to actually give such mentions understandable meaning, it would be a great improvement if you could overlay a bar graphic; with the fine amount, filling a percentage relative to the company's net profit or revenue or market value at the time (whichever is easiest to consistently report). That way people can see how much of a dent in the wallet such fines even made (or... I'm guessing the opposite fact).
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Every time you mention an $X00 million fine to company Y in this video, no-on watching here will really be able to contextualize the scale of that.
I think to actually give such mentions understandable meaning, it would be a great improvement if you could overlay a bar graphic; with the fine amount, filling a percentage relative to the company's net profit or revenue or market value at the time (whichever is easiest to consistently report). That way people can see how much of a dent in the wallet such fines even made (or... I'm guessing the opposite fact).
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EricM-z6w
What's even MORE surprising How SURPRISED some people are when they discover that Samsung is completely corrupt....or, even worse, those who KNOW how corrupt Samsung is YET they own 5 or 10 Samsung products. Unfortunately, most Americans do not care about ANYTHING until it hits their wallet in a noticeable way. A few dollars here, ten bucks there, fifty cents here.....noone cares. If you want to continue fleecing American consumers, just do it slowly, in increments, or offer monthly extortion payments AKA/No interest if paid in full in 6 months!.
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What's even MORE surprising How SURPRISED some people are when they discover that Samsung is completely corrupt....or, even worse, those who KNOW how corrupt Samsung is YET they own 5 or 10 Samsung products. Unfortunately, most Americans do not care about ANYTHING until it hits their wallet in a noticeable way. A few dollars here, ten bucks there, fifty cents here.....noone cares. If you want to continue fleecing American consumers, just do it slowly, in increments, or offer monthly extortion payments AKA/No interest if paid in full in 6 months!.
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theov3rmind
I curious what role you see for GN moving forward. Especially because of the lack of interest in the consumer market due to such high barriers to entry (that are only going to get worse). Should the audience expect more political commentary such as this to take priority over tech reviews I'm not sure that I like the vibes I'm getting from GN recently. Everything seems so hostile that the viewer themselves can start to perceive hostility directed towards them (the viewer)! Weather that hostility is real or imagined; it is there nonetheless.
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I curious what role you see for GN moving forward. Especially because of the lack of interest in the consumer market due to such high barriers to entry (that are only going to get worse). Should the audience expect more political commentary such as this to take priority over tech reviews I'm not sure that I like the vibes I'm getting from GN recently. Everything seems so hostile that the viewer themselves can start to perceive hostility directed towards them (the viewer)! Weather that hostility is real or imagined; it is there nonetheless.
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mafusenpai3537
Tbh, the world will never be an ideal world, and the world will always be a piece of shit world to live in. So, I don't mind things like these to happen in the world. If they want some money and they do it for a period of time, so be it. The world gives and takes. What I DO mind is if it would become a norm, the prices to never go back to where they're supposed to be and so on. So I don't mind if they go from hero to villain and villain to hero, back and forth. I would mind if this is going to villain and remains forever villain.
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Tbh, the world will never be an ideal world, and the world will always be a piece of shit world to live in. So, I don't mind things like these to happen in the world. If they want some money and they do it for a period of time, so be it. The world gives and takes. What I DO mind is if it would become a norm, the prices to never go back to where they're supposed to be and so on. So I don't mind if they go from hero to villain and villain to hero, back and forth. I would mind if this is going to villain and remains forever villain.
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ikaruga001
Idea for a video:
Could you explain especially to younger audience, how U.S forced Japan to stop producing memory Where and why this all actually started. It still affects so many things. How it may even started downfall of Japanese GDP which they are still suffering. Could our memory be different ie better. How about prices Maybe half the current cheapest prices. How protectionism is awful and usually doesn't help anybody (this is where we are now).
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Idea for a video:
Could you explain especially to younger audience, how U.S forced Japan to stop producing memory Where and why this all actually started. It still affects so many things. How it may even started downfall of Japanese GDP which they are still suffering. Could our memory be different ie better. How about prices Maybe half the current cheapest prices. How protectionism is awful and usually doesn't help anybody (this is where we are now).
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SKLL3TR
As a PC owner I'm just saying this straight up I'm not ever getting a PC or upgrading my components again when the time comes I'm just going to say goodbye I'll go buy a PlayStation Because Sony is too big to not release a console that plays most games and devs will actually work hard to make the console run their games, just forget about it because this is not going to end they have soaked their greed too much to go back.
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As a PC owner I'm just saying this straight up I'm not ever getting a PC or upgrading my components again when the time comes I'm just going to say goodbye I'll go buy a PlayStation Because Sony is too big to not release a console that plays most games and devs will actually work hard to make the console run their games, just forget about it because this is not going to end they have soaked their greed too much to go back.
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opvask
This is a great angry man yelling at the wind piece. But the problem is that, while you can easily prove what they did in the past, there's no evidence to be presented on what's happening right now. It's all circumstancial so far. Now, ofcourse we all KNOW. But it needs to be proven. Hopefully this video can serve as a catalyst for someone, who is not suicidal btw!, to go in deep and eventually get the authorities involved.
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This is a great angry man yelling at the wind piece. But the problem is that, while you can easily prove what they did in the past, there's no evidence to be presented on what's happening right now. It's all circumstancial so far. Now, ofcourse we all KNOW. But it needs to be proven. Hopefully this video can serve as a catalyst for someone, who is not suicidal btw!, to go in deep and eventually get the authorities involved.
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gamersnexus
I work in industry: If anyone still thinks that companies, even the worst competitors, don't hold informal meetings to decide how things should be done , they'd better think again.
... and sometimes these meetings also include politicians and top trade union leaders who aren't interested in the common good but are there simply receiving gifts.
Monopoly is often not a concept that refers to a single company.
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I work in industry: If anyone still thinks that companies, even the worst competitors, don't hold informal meetings to decide how things should be done , they'd better think again.
... and sometimes these meetings also include politicians and top trade union leaders who aren't interested in the common good but are there simply receiving gifts.
Monopoly is often not a concept that refers to a single company.
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Deeps__
I never get the fines, they should be at least all profits from said fixing. The only fixing fines done right was libor here in the UK. I'm ex British army and all the fines went into a fund that was then distributed to military charities. I'll never forget osbourns words, the fines on those that represent the worst in our society will go to support and help those that represent the very best in our society.
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I never get the fines, they should be at least all profits from said fixing. The only fixing fines done right was libor here in the UK. I'm ex British army and all the fines went into a fund that was then distributed to military charities. I'll never forget osbourns words, the fines on those that represent the worst in our society will go to support and help those that represent the very best in our society.
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RayMisuto
I have no clue how they convince them this is a real show of how toxic the mentality on Earth is right now, people from other countries think that they have to answer to American law and the US government thinks that they could inflict US law on other countries.
We've been moving towards 1984 for so long that we've arrived at the phase of setting up one world government
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I have no clue how they convince them this is a real show of how toxic the mentality on Earth is right now, people from other countries think that they have to answer to American law and the US government thinks that they could inflict US law on other countries.
We've been moving towards 1984 for so long that we've arrived at the phase of setting up one world government
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TheGameBench
I feel like the fines for doing this should be 20% over the profits they made... not chump change. You just tell them it's legal, for a price, when they'll still make profit even if they get caught, so why wouldn't they do it You really need to disincentivize them by making the penalty so unpalatable. This could solve a lot of problems in the U.S. justice system.
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I feel like the fines for doing this should be 20% over the profits they made... not chump change. You just tell them it's legal, for a price, when they'll still make profit even if they get caught, so why wouldn't they do it You really need to disincentivize them by making the penalty so unpalatable. This could solve a lot of problems in the U.S. justice system.
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StaK_1980
I really love to learn that basically if you don't own a billion dollar fab, you have to play by the rules set by companies who have been colluding since time immemorial. They are too big to fail, too big to do anything wrong, and if they still get caught, the ensuing decades long legal process will be written off as a capital expenditure for just doing business...
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I really love to learn that basically if you don't own a billion dollar fab, you have to play by the rules set by companies who have been colluding since time immemorial. They are too big to fail, too big to do anything wrong, and if they still get caught, the ensuing decades long legal process will be written off as a capital expenditure for just doing business...
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monsieurlee
Seems like the majority of the ones that ended with actual prison have Korean names. How many guilty ones with western names ended up in prison
As for Sun Woo Lee, if he was CEO of Samsung Europe, did he work out of South Korea or Europe If Europe, how was he able to get a work visa with a criminal conviction, or was it conveniently overlooked by the Europeans
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Seems like the majority of the ones that ended with actual prison have Korean names. How many guilty ones with western names ended up in prison
As for Sun Woo Lee, if he was CEO of Samsung Europe, did he work out of South Korea or Europe If Europe, how was he able to get a work visa with a criminal conviction, or was it conveniently overlooked by the Europeans
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