Framework founder says that ‘personal computing as we know it is dead’ — vows to keep building ‘computers that you can own at the deepest level’

Framework founder Nirav Patel has decried the “winner takes all” race currently happening in the computer industry, especially as various AI tech companies are consuming memory and storage chips, and even processors, at an unprecedented pace. He said in the blog announcing the company’s Framework [Next Gen] Event 2026 on April 21 that despite its achievements in helping push for a more repairable, upgradable, and customizable laptop ecosystem, “There is a very real scenario in which personal computing as we know it is dead.”

All of this stems from the massive demand that the buildout of AI infrastructure has placed on computing and other resources. What began as a GPU shortage from 2023 to 2025 eventually turned into a memory and storage chip shortage that started in late 2025. Now, we’re seeing inklings of a CPU shortage, as data centers now demand massive amounts of server CPUs to power AI agents. This also does not include the massive increases in electricity costs as energy suppliers and grid operators invest in new power plants and upgrade infrastructure to handle the massive amounts of power that data centers demand.

Unfortunately, these AI companies are backed by massive investments, meaning the average consumer has no recourse against these tech giants. “It’s clear that the fundamentals of computing and electronics have changed. The computer in the cloud has increasingly greater economic output than the computer in the hand. This means that to the extent that there are constraints on the supply that feeds both, the cloud will win every time,” Patel said. He also added, “The industry is asking you to own nothing and be happy. Computers are no longer a bicycle for the mind. They are becoming the self-driving car that takes you directly to the destination.”

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Still, Framework said that it will not take this lying down. Its event announcement also doubled as its own manifesto, saying that “as long as there is a person in the world who still wants to own their means of computation, we will be here to build the hardware that enables it,” and that it “will always be fighting for a future where you can own everything and be free.”

This niche company has been going against the grain of the wider laptop industry trend of non-repairable, non-upgradeable parts. Framework laptops are fully upgradeable — from memory and storage to the GPU, motherboards, and even the display. The Framework Laptop 16 (RTX 5070) is one of its latest products, which proved that you can actually upgrade the graphics cards on a laptop; something that Dell tried (and failed at) with its Alienware Area-51m gaming laptops. The ever-increasing RAM and SSD pricing have got the entire computing industry on edge, but Framework is providing monthly updates to the community to help navigate these shortages.

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