Sam Altman Thinks Your RAM Belongs in AI Data Centers. The Free Market Lets You Disagree.

The internet was abuzz last week over comments from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggesting that RAM and computer storage would be better allocated to AI data centers than to individual consumers. He called individual ownership “terrible” from a “global allocation perspective.” His broader argument is that the RAM in an individual’s computer might be used only five percent of the time, while RAM in an AI data center is used constantly. Judged solely by utilization, he does have a point. 

But thankfully, the United States remains a free-market economy, and his comments highlight exactly why it is important to keep it that way.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes people owning RAM is wasteful, and that it belongs in data centers instead. “From a global allocation perspective, actually, it’s quite terrible to have everyone have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer.” https://t.co/3C7ZAkzRbT

— Pubity (@pubity) October 30, 2026

Sam Altman says its bad that everyone’s personal computers are using the world’s limited supply of memory chips. “It’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAMs sitting in their own computer, and being used 5% of the time. Like, you want maximum utilization.”

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) October 30, 2026

Many were quick to argue that Altman’s comments showed some sort of moral failing, but his argument is simple and, taken on its own terms, accurate. That still gives him no authority over the rest of us. Just because AI data centers could use RAM more efficiently, or supposedly need it more, gives AI companies no special claim to it. The economic freedom we take for granted on a daily basis includes the freedom to buy things that someone else thinks could be put to better use.

In a free market, you or I can buy RAM just as a Big Tech company can. Not in the same quantities, of course, and certainly not with the same purchasing power. But the basic right to participate in the market is the same. You don’t have to prove that your use is the most productive, belong to a privileged class, or persuade an official that you deserve it. You need a willing seller and enough money to pay the price for it.

This is also another reason to oppose government ownership stakes in private companies. Consider a government that decides the United States needs to get further ahead in the AI race, or fears that we are falling behind. With a financial stake in an AI company, it would have an added incentive to direct resources toward that company. Making the most “efficient” use of existing RAM could then become an excuse to restrict purchases by other businesses and individual consumers, or, in a more extreme scenario, demand that people turn over their hardware. 

The point is that Altman’s views on allocating resources become dangerous when backed by political power. He can think your RAM belongs in a data center, and who knows, maybe it would be put to better use there. But that doesn’t mean he gets to decide what you do with it. Neither should the government.

You don’t have to prove that your use of RAM is more important than his. It is yours, and you get to make that decision. That is economic freedom. That is the free market at work, the one the Left has long despised, and the one that many conservatives increasingly view as something America must move past. Don’t fall for it. Your freedom to buy RAM, along with every other good and service, is not just something we take for granted. It is a real freedom worth preserving, and one that helped lay the foundation for the economic power the United States is today.

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