Xataka: rising GPU prices are making local AI a luxury
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Xataka says demand from the AI industry is making graphics cards more expensive and local AI less accessible. According to Price Squirrel data cited by the outlet and published via Reddit, GPU prices rose by more than 30% over the past three months, while the RTX 5090 doubled in price; even used models such as the RTX 3090 were listed above €1,000 on Wallapop.
The outlet says manufacturers such as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have more incentive to produce HBM for AI accelerators than GDDR for graphics cards, putting pressure on the consumer market. In Xataka’s analysis, this hurts gamers and users who want to run models locally while benefiting OpenAI, xAI and Anthropic. OpenAI’s Sam Altman said local inference is a “terrible allocation of scarce resources,” according to the article.
Why it matters · editorial interpretation
The price increase cited by Xataka could make it harder for users to run models locally, while memory production prioritized for AI accelerators puts further pressure on the consumer GPU market. The case also highlights the tension between cloud AI infrastructure and local computing, although Sam Altman argues that local inference is a poor allocation of scarce resources.
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