TECH NEWS – If we thought that SATA and NVMe SSD prices were already reaching oppressive levels, then we should prepare for even worse.

After DRAM, it seems that the NAND sector is also facing difficult times, especially since these two technologies have many of the same suppliers who are trying to maximize profitability during the AI craze. Samsung and SK Hynix plan to reduce NAND production, arguing that, given current DRAM demand, manufacturers find it more profitable to reallocate resources from NAND production lines. Both companies have lowered their NAND production forecasts for this year. While this will not have a significant impact on the AI sector, consumers may soon feel the effects.

This announcement follows the integration of NAND chips into the AI supply chain, especially after Nvidia introduced its ICMS platform, which expands the KV cache of agentic AI systems to maintain extensive context logs. The Rubin platform is expected to account for a significant portion of global NAND production. Rack solutions alone could consume 115.2 million TB of NAND storage by 2027, which would put enormous pressure on the supply chain.

Since manufacturers are reducing NAND production, they will likely raise contract prices to ensure maximum profit from the resources allocated to production lines. AI giants such as Nvidia and AMD have booked their NAND supplies several quarters in advance. Ultimately, the burden will fall on consumers, repeating a scenario similar to the memory shortage.

In recent months, SSD prices have already risen significantly, and as agent systems become the new norm, the demand for NAND platforms will continue to grow. This could cause supply shortages that would ultimately disrupt the industry. Ultimately, it will be the average consumer who pays for it all. As we have written, HDDs have also become significantly more expensive, so we will have to pay much more for whatever storage we buy.

Source: WCCFTech, Chosun