Musk identified memory as his AI compute ceiling rather than power or GPUs, spotlighting Micron (MU) as the sole U.S.-based HBM maker among just three global suppliers. On SpaceX's (SPCX) earnings call, Musk said memory demand grows 200% annually against 20% supply growth, predicting prices will keep rising, not falling. TrendForce projects Q3 2026 DRAM price growth decelerating to 13% to 18%, raising risk that Micron's low-looking valuation multiples could prove misleading.
The most widely read finance newsletter on Substack isn't published by a bank, it's Doomberg, where 383,000+ readers get the energy and macro analysis the mainstream press misses. 24/7 Wall St. readers save 17% on their first year here. On SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX)'s Q2 2026 earnings call held Aug. 4, 2026, Elon Musk answered a question about the pace of compute buildout with five words that memory investors have circulated ever since: "Limiting factor currently is memory." The remark lands directly on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), the only U.S.-based maker of high-bandwidth memory and one of just three global HBM suppliers. SpaceX itself trades publicly as NASDAQ:SPCX after its 2026 IPO.
Musk just told public shareholders that memory caps his AI ambitions, above both power and GPUs. Musk framed the constraint in his own supply-versus-demand math. "The memory output is increasing by around 20% per year.
Now, normally that would be fantastically fast and amazing for any large, mature industry. But ask yourself, is the demand increasing by 20% a year? No, the demand is increasing by 200% a year, maybe higher.
So if you've got demand increasing much faster than supply, then Economics 101 would suggest that the price increases. It does not decrease." Those 20% and 200% figures are his characterization on the call, not independently verified industry data. Before Doomberg published a word, its team spent long careers in heavy industry, private equity, and the hard sciences.
They take no advertisers and serve no institution — which is why their lateral-thinking coverage of energy, finance, and geopolitics reads nothing like consensus financial media. Doomberg has set aside a discounted rate exclusively for 24/7 Wall St. readers — it isn't available on their main page. What gives the memory line weight is what Musk dismissed alongside it.
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