Turkish AI sector urged to pivot to niche models amid global memory crunch

Record-high prices for random access memory, fueled by the voracious hardware requirements of generative AI platforms, have triggered a worldwide supply crisis that Türkiye's technology sector can turn into competitive advantage, according to Artificial Intelligence and Technology Association Secretary-General Cihan Sarı. The Istanbul-based industry representative characterizes the situation not as temporary disruption but as "a tipping point where AI investments have hit the limits of the physical world."

Memory War Reshapes Global Supply Chains

Sarı explains that leading chip manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are systematically reallocating production lines from conventional consumer RAM to high-bandwidth memory components serving corporate data centers. The capacity required to produce one gigabyte of HBM equals that needed for three gigabytes of standard memory, dramatically constricting consumer supply while AI firms "wait at the door with cash in hand." RAM prices have already surged more than 100%, with ripple effects driving inflation and elevating costs for everyday electronics.

Strategic Pivot Toward Efficiency-First Development

Rather than competing in resource-intensive general model training dominated by multinational corporations, Sarı advocates for Turkish entrepreneurs to pursue specialized, domain-specific artificial intelligence applications. "Developing small but domain-specific models that only know law, health care or production is the only way out for the Turkish tech sector," he states. This efficiency-focused approach requires substantially less computational power while delivering targeted expertise precisely calibrated to sectoral needs.

Defining Opportunity Amid Physical Constraints

Sarı frames the current hardware bottleneck as a pivotal moment where the AI industry confronts the tangible boundaries of material resources. For Türkiye, this represents a distinctive window to establish competitive positioning through optimization rather than scale. "The winners in the coming period won't be those with the biggest computers but those who use their resources most wisely," he concludes. "AI training won't stop, but it's shifting, and as Türkiye, we need to focus on the new efficiency path we can take."