> It would require half of one distribution center of a major retailer.

That also meets the specifications of a clean room, and is actively maintained as one?

If OpenAI bought 40% of the annual capacity of finished memory, with the goal of using it in their server farms ASAP, that's one thing.

But unfinished wafers that still need to be protected to finish the manufacturing process, that OpenAI itself does not have any capability to do?

That to me looks like a preemptive strike against competitors, which also affects any other industry that requires RAM, in an attempt to develop a monopolistic position.

I can't see how this isn't a massive national security issue for any country that needs devices requiring RAM for new systems and maintenance of existing ones (pretty much all of them...) to manage critical infrastructure, national defence, public and social services, and so on.