Bulls, Bubbles and a ‘Ram Job’: Hosts Dissect Memory Price-Fixing Claims

Episode 808 of DHUnplugged, titled Bulls in a Bubble Shop, hosted by John C. Dvorak and Andrew Horowitz, published June 30, 2026, closes out the first half of 2026 with the S&P 500 up roughly 7.5%, the Dow above 52,000, and AI hardware names running like the bulls at San Fermin. With markets shuttered Friday for the July 4 holiday, the BLS jobs report pulled forward to Thursday, and the country’s 250th anniversary looming, the hosts tally winners, losers, and warning signs flashing under the surface of the rally.

The conversation ranges widely across the quarter’s dominant storylines. Key threads include:

• The alleged DRAM ‘ram job’ and a new U.S. antitrust class action against Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron
• The July 4 launch of Trump Accounts, the $1,000 Treasury-funded seed for newborns, and host Andrew Horowitz’s Kevin Hassett critique
• SpaceX’s newly issued investment-grade bonds already underwater, and the stock joining the Nasdaq 100
• Japan’s yen at 162 to the dollar, hints of Bank of Japan ‘yentervention,’ and the widowmaker trade
• PCE inflation climbing to 4.1% and the Bank for International Settlements flagging AI-boom financial-stability risks

Horowitz reserves particular scorn for what he calls a contradiction at the heart of the new Trump Accounts program, which he says was pitched on live television as a lesson in capitalism, ownership and compounding.

Dvorak, meanwhile, needles the AI infrastructure narrative, arguing compute is heading back to the desktop via Nvidia Blackwell-powered mini machines, which could leave server farms underutilized and memory prices vulnerable to collapse.

The deeper dive centers on memory. SanDisk finished the half up 780%, Micron up 300%, Western Digital up 240%, Seagate up 226%, while South Korea’s KOSPI surged 125% behind Samsung and SK Hynix. Yet the hosts revisit the 2005 DRAM price-fixing case in which Hynix paid $180 million, Samsung $300 million, and Infineon $160 million, noting the plaintiffs now allege the same three companies control 90% of DRAM and coordinated supply cuts as conventional DRAM prices jumped roughly 700% over four years. They also cover Chevron’s 20-year Project Kilby data-center power deal with Microsoft, Comcast splitting off NBCUniversal and Sky, the Interior Department slashing federal drilling bonds 95% to $25,000, Wendy’s brief meme-stock spike after CFO Steve Cyrilus arrived from Potbelly, and gold slipping below $4,000 as Bitcoin sinks to $58,600. Horowitz also previews an upcoming Peter Schiff interview on The Disciplined Investor.

About DHUnplugged

DHUnplugged is a weekly investing and markets podcast hosted by columnist John C. Dvorak and money manager Andrew Horowitz. The show blends Fed policy, earnings, commodities, tech and offbeat cultural observations with a skeptical, humorous, unrehearsed tone. It is available at dhunplugged.com and via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and RSS. Episode 808 is available now wherever podcasts are heard.

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