The significance of NAND merchandise within the synthetic intelligence (AI) reminiscence market is quickly rising. Though the advantages from AI had been restricted in comparison with DRAM, with the enlargement of AI information facilities, NAND costs and gross sales have entered an upward trajectory, centered on enterprise solid-state drives (eSSDs) that may rapidly course of and retailer large quantities of knowledge.
In response to trade sources on Nov. 11, David Goeckeler, CEO of SanDisk, the world’s fifth-largest NAND producer based mostly in the USA, mentioned in his firm’s current third-quarter earnings announcement, “Subsequent yr would be the first time demand for information middle NAND surpasses that of the cell sector,” including, “Demand for NAND is exceeding provide, and this development will proceed past the tip of subsequent yr.”
Different main NAND suppliers are making related assessments of the market. Samsung Electronics (005930) acknowledged in final month’s earnings report relating to NAND market circumstances, “Even contemplating our manufacturing capability enlargement for subsequent yr, buyer demand will exceed it, leading to a major shortfall in provide relative to demand.” SK hynix (000660) additionally mentioned that its NAND output for subsequent yr has already been “fully bought out,” including, “Some suppliers are actually in search of to signal long-term provide contracts.”
The imbalance between NAND provide and demand is resulting in larger product costs. The fastened transaction worth of NAND flash reminiscence for reminiscence playing cards and USB drives, 128-gigabit MLC, rose 10.6 p.c in September and 14.9 p.c in October, marking the biggest enhance in a decade. Samsung Electronics and SanDisk have reportedly determined to lift NAND provide costs by 10 p.c lately.
Subsequent-generation reminiscence referred to as “HBF,” which stacks NAND chips in a fashion just like high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM), can also be drawing consideration. The product is designed to take care of some great benefits of HBM whereas utilizing NAND’s traits to handle HBM’s capability limitations. SK hynix and SanDisk have begun joint growth of HBF and plan to begin manufacturing in 2027.
