In the latest episode of DHUnplugged, titled "Bulls in a Bubble Shop," hosts John C. Dvorak and Andrew Horowitz examined a new U.S. antitrust class action accusing Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of conspiring to fix DRAM prices. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, alleges that the three companies, which control approximately 90% of the DRAM market, coordinated supply cuts that drove conventional DRAM prices up roughly 700% over four years. The hosts drew parallels to the 2005 DRAM price-fixing case, where Hynix paid $180 million, Samsung $300 million, and Infineon $160 million in penalties.
Horowitz expressed skepticism about the timing of the lawsuit, noting that memory stocks have surged dramatically in the first half of 2026. SanDisk finished the half up 780%, Micron up 300%, Western Digital up 240%, and Seagate up 226%. Meanwhile, South Korea's KOSPI surged 125% behind Samsung and SK Hynix. Dvorak questioned the sustainability of the AI-driven demand for memory, arguing that 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 episode also covered the July 4 launch of Trump Accounts, a $1,000 Treasury-funded seed for newborns. Horowitz criticized the program as a "forced financial literacy experiment wrapped in a political brand name with a socialist starter check to teach capitalism." He also discussed Japan's yen trading at 162 to the dollar, with hints of Bank of Japan 'yentervention,' and the PCE inflation climbing to 4.1%. The Bank for International Settlements has flagged AI-boom financial-stability risks.
Other topics included SpaceX's newly issued investment-grade bonds already underwater, 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, and gold slipping below $4,000 as Bitcoin sinks to $58,600. Horowitz also previewed an upcoming Peter Schiff interview on The Disciplined Investor.
The hosts closed 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 bulls. However, they warned of warning signs flashing under the surface of the rally, including the potential for a memory price collapse and the broader implications of the antitrust case.
