AI Demand Causes Severe NAND Flash Shortages and Price Increases

The global NAND flash memory market is experiencing extreme shortages and significant price surges, with current prices 5 to 10 times higher than in 2023. This is due to major manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron redirecting approximately 70% of their production capacity to higher-margin HBM and DDR5 memory for the AI industry. This shift has led to an 18% contraction in traditional NAND production, with the supply-demand gap projected to widen to 6% by 2026.