future backordered

Posted on February 17, 2026 by Escape

The situation with prices on the PC components gets absolutely ludicrous. First, the GPUs were driven into absurd territory because crypto miners were buying them in bulk. Then, once the crypto gold rush cooled off a bit with mining profits halving across the major players, the AI frenzy took its place.

Now we’ve got RAM manufacturing triopoly (Hynix, Samsung and Micron) trying to squeeze everyone by pushing the DDR prices into the stratosphere by 400% in three months. The top-tier GPUs now cost over $8K. And today I hear that some geniuses in the Western Digital headquarters decided to join in and grab their slice of the sweet, sweet pie.

The CEO of WD has stated that the manufacturer’s entire capacity for this year is booked out till the end 2026. “Booked”, right?

So where am I going with this? Let me tell you about the Game theory.

There is a thing called a “credible threat”. In game theory it is a promise to take a specific action that is believable to other players, meaning the person making the threat has both the intention and the ability to follow through if necessary. The key is credibility: the threat must be rational and enforceable from the perspective of the party making it.

Credible threats matter because they shape strategic behavior. When market players believe supply is genuinely constrained they will adjust expectations, pricing strategies and purchasing decisions accordingly.

Sometimes the announcement itself is part of the strategy. And I am certainly not buying it.