Prices for SSDs have doubled in less than six months, but still remain stable. However, the price of the NAND flash memory chips has also doubled, but in a shorter time span of just three months.
The statement comes from Khein-Seng Puya, Phison CEO, during an earnings call with investors. Note that he’s talking about the prices of NAND, and not the cost of the SSD as a whole. On that note, Phison purchases said components from the three major manufacturers: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.
One of the reasons for the increase in NAND prices is, unsurprisingly, due to the inflated demand from AI servers, which are demanding storage and memory components from Phison. If you think this doesn’t affect us, do we have bad news for you.
Because of the demand for NAND memory chips, that leaves less of the component for consumer-level components, mainly the NVMe SSDs that we purchase from local and online retailers. Even worse, the Phison CEO says that every NAND manufacturer are “sold out” for the year 2026. “All the capacity is sold out. No matter whether they can convert TLC production to QLC production, it wll not help because capacity is sold out.”
It’s not just Phison sounding the alarm on the situation. Both Adata and Sandisk have also warned that supplies from all major memory and storage makers are suffering from a supply shortage, brought about by the aforementioned demand for the component.
In short, if you’re thinking about expanding your storage capacity on your PC or laptop, it’s best to get that SSD you’ve been eyeing for some time now.
