Earlier, Micron Technology announced that it’s winding down its consumer facing brand Crucial. This is so that it could focus more of its resources on servicing big tech, what with the AI industry boom. But more recently, a leakster claims that Samsung is windins down production of its own SATA SSDs. An announcement to this effect may happen as soon as when the new year rolls around. And said leakster claims that this will have greater repercussions than the end of Crucial.
This claim comes via the YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead citing “sources in distribution”. The actual end of production may not happen immediately, as the claim says that it will happen “at some point in the next couple of years”. This is also being corroborated by another source in retail who claims to have been warned by “a major SSD company’s rep” that SATA drives will be harder to get by mid-2026.
Diminished SATA Drive Supply Affecting NVMe Drive Prices
The video goes on to explain that while Micron may stop selling directly to consumers via Crucial, the company’s products will still find its way to consumers. This is because it is still selling to companies that make consumer products like G.Skill and Adata. In effect, shutting down its own consumer facing brand means not having to deal with customer service on that side.
On the flip side, Samsung not making SATA drives anymore just means less drives in the market. The reduced supply will mean higher prices, which may lead to panic buying before the price hikes kick in. Which in turn lead to higher prices again. And importantly, the South Korean tech giant is looking to end SATA SSD production entirely once it fulfils existing contracts, and not continuing to supply other makers of the product.
Memory Prices Will Come Down Again In The Future
On a more optimistic note, Moore’s Law Is Dead claims that there will come a time when eventually, AI applications will run on-device. And these devices will need high-tech RAM and SSDs to do so. That’s when the industry will swing the other way, and the consumer market will be where the money is once again. Though this probably won’t happen until 2027, or even later. And even that is optimistic, according to competitor SK Hynix.
Previously, a report from South Korea claimed that Samsung is looking at swapping some of its HBM3 production capacity for more general-purpose DRAM. This is related to said HBM3 production not making the cut to be supplying NVIDIA this this year.
(Source: Moore’s Law Is Dead / YouTube)
