I’m not sure if SSDs were really cheaper before. RIght now, I’m seeing about $0.043-$0.05/GB. From what I recall, that’s about the same or a little better than what we had in 2023.

However, I very much agree that prices should have decreased much further in that time.

There are several options here below $90 (including a couple nvme ones), and a couple at or below $85: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#t=0&sort=price&page=1&A=1600000000000%2C24000000000000

SSDs have gotten much cheaper. 10 years ago, they were over $0.50/GB, now they’re just over $0.04/GB That’s over 12 times cheaper.

You can get a 2tb ssd for $85. 10 years ago a 2tb ssd would’ve been super expensive and very boogie.

Many Microsoft employees are on Visas. So they can’t really risk losing their jobs as they’d risk deportation. I suspect this is one of the reasons why big tech companies hire so many workers on visas tbh.