NAND Flash Prices Double as Phison CEO Warns All 2026 Production Already Sold Out
Phison CEO Khein-Seng Pua confirmed that NAND flash prices have more than doubled in six months and that all 2026 production capacity is sold out, warning that enterprise SSD costs will continue rising through 2027.
The NAND flash memory market is experiencing a severe supply crunch that is pushing enterprise SSD prices to levels not seen in years. Phison CEO Khein-Seng Pua confirmed in recent statements that the same 1 TB TLC NAND chip that cost $4.80 in July 2025 now costs $10.70 — a doubling in under six months — and that every major NAND manufacturer has already sold out all production capacity for 2026.
Enterprise Impact Is Severe
For enterprise buyers, the situation is more acute than consumer pricing suggests. Analysis from TrendForce shows that 30 TB TLC enterprise-grade SSDs that cost approximately $3,062 in Q2 2025 now cost nearly $11,000 — a 257% increase in under a year. With AI infrastructure driving demand for high-capacity, high-endurance SSDs, enterprise customers are competing directly with hyperscaler procurement teams that hold larger budgets and longer-term supply agreements.
Pua warned that smaller system integrators and consumer electronics companies may be unable to secure any flash supply in the second half of 2026 at all. At least one major NAND foundry has moved to require three-year cash prepayment upfront — an unprecedented demand in the industry's history. Phison has deliberately shifted its own business mix toward server and enterprise SSDs, where demand driven by AI workloads provides more durable margins.
New Capacity Is Years Away
The fundamental constraint is time. New NAND fabrication lines currently under construction will not be ready for commercial production until late 2027 at the earliest. Market analysts at TrendForce project NAND demand will grow 20–22% year-over-year in 2026, while supply rises only 15–17%, meaning the supply-demand gap will widen before it closes.
For IT teams planning infrastructure refreshes or data center expansions, the practical implications are significant. Storage budgets set in 2025 will not cover equivalent capacity in 2026. Organizations should accelerate procurement of SSDs already known to be needed, evaluate hybrid SSD and HDD tiered architectures for workloads that can tolerate the performance trade-off, and review multi-year storage contracts before further price increases take effect.
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