SSD prices may follow RAM pricing after Samsung and SK Hynix reportedly cut NAND production

Samsung and SK Hynix are reportedly cutting NAND production to divert manufacturing capacity to more profitable avenues, such as DRAM.

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The emergence of AI and the exponential power of the hardware fuelling demand from companies around the world for more powerful models is straining the global supply of specific components, with DRAM the most notable at the moment.

With a limited number of memory manufacturers and only a limited number of global suppliers, manufacturers are making more money selling HBM and DRAM in large quantities to customers such as NVIDIA and AMD, as these companies can outbid consumer-facing companies like Lenovo and Dell.

The strain on the DRAM supply has seen DDR5 kits skyrocket in price, and the same thing could happen to NAND storage. NAND chips have become an important component in the AI supply chain, as NVIDIA's Rubin platform is now expected to gobble up a large portion of the global NAND supply, with racks taking up as much as 115.2 million TB of NAND storage by 2027.

With NAND production reportedly reduced by Samsung and SK Hynix, and NAND supply already allocated to companies such as NVIDIA and AMD, we can expect a similar level of strain on global NAND supply, which will more than likely trickle down to consumer products, as with DRAM. Reports indicate that NAND shortages have already increased SSD prices, particularly over the past few months.