Simon Willison — 2026-05-22#

Highlight#

Simon highlights a fascinating economic ripple effect of the AI boom: an impending spike in consumer electronics prices due to silicon wafer capacity constraints. As AI data centers demand more High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), manufacturers are shifting production away from standard consumer RAM, which is already threatening the availability of cheap smartphones globally.

Posts#

[The memory shortage is causing a repricing of consumer electronics] · Source Simon links to an excellent breakdown by David Oks explaining why devices using memory are about to get significantly more expensive. With only three major memory manufacturers operating with fixed wafer capacities, the explosive growth in AI data centers is pushing High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) allocation from 2% to an expected 20% by the end of 2026. Because a single gigabyte of HBM consumes over three times the wafer capacity of standard consumer RAM (DDR/LPDDR), consumer device memory is severely constrained—an effect already hitting the sub-$100 smartphone market that is critical to regions like Africa and South Asia.

[FTC to Require Cox Media Group, Two Other Firms to Pay Nearly $1 Million to Settle Charges They Deceived Customers About “Active Listening” AI-Powered Marketing Service] · Source In a satisfying validation of his 2024 theory, Simon points to a recent FTC settlement regarding Cox Media Group’s supposedly creepy “active listening” ad tech. It turns out the companies weren’t actually secretly using smart devices to capture voice data; they were simply taking the way standard ad platforms already work and rebranding the reselling of data broker email lists with a fancy, misleading metaphor. Simon notes this provides excellent new ammunition for his ongoing “least rewarding niche online hobby”: myth-busting the persistent conspiracy theory that our phones are secretly eavesdropping on our conversations to serve targeted ads.

Project Pulse#

Today’s posts both reflect on the secondary shockwaves of the AI boom: the physical supply chain constraints caused by massive AI data center scaling, and the deceptive marketing practices of companies attempting to dress up old data broker mechanics as futuristic, AI-adjacent technology.