Prices double again! Korean media: Samsung Electronics expected to raise NAND prices by 100% in Q2
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The global AI investment boom is driving a surge in storage demand and intensifying the supply-demand imbalance in the NAND market. According to Seoul Economic News, Samsung Electronics plans to set the price increase for major NAND products in the second quarter at a level similar to that of the first quarter this year.
According to a previous article published by Wallstreetcn, Samsung Electronics raised NAND prices by 100% in the first quarter, and also raised DRAM prices by 100%. This means that NAND supply prices have increased about two-fold compared to the end of last year.
According to Seoul Economic News citing industry experts, memory manufacturers' bargaining power has reached an unprecedented level, and downstream demand companies will have no choice but to accept Samsung Electronics' proposed prices. Meanwhile, other manufacturers such as SK Hynix and Kioxia are also preparing further price hikes.
Explosion of AI inference demand, NAND supply falls short
The core driving force behind the sharp rise in NAND prices comes from the expansion of storage demand driven by the evolution of AI technologies. As AI shifts from data training to the inference stage, which involves understanding and handling user requests, the demand for massive data storage increases dramatically and NAND's strategic value rises accordingly.
At the same time, large technology companies continue to expand investments in AI data center construction, and procurement demand for storage equipment is surging rapidly, further boosting the rise in NAND prices.
Market research firm DRAMeXchange data shows that the average fixed transaction price of generic NAND products, 128Gb multi-level cell (MLC), soared to $12.67 last month, up 33.9% month-on-month and a staggering 452.3% year-on-year.
Supply side continues to contract, manufacturers' pricing power significantly strengthened
Active supply contraction is another key factor in the current bout of strong prices. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the top two in the NAND market, have recently shifted their resource focus to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other high value-added products, drastically reducing NAND production capacity. The production cuts initiated last year are still being gradually released, and the structural tightening of market supply is difficult to reverse in the short term.
According to Seoul Economic News, under the background of manufacturers maintaining strong pricing power, even if final transaction prices differ slightly depending on customers, the price increase determined by Samsung Electronics will be largely accepted by the market, and the overall upward trend of NAND prices is expected to continue for some time.
Wave of price hikes spreads, strong industry follow-up sentiment
As the global leader in the NAND market, Samsung Electronics' pricing moves have always been a benchmark for the industry. Industry professionals noted that main competitors like SK Hynix and Kioxia are preparing to follow with price increases, and the domino effect of overall NAND price hikes has already begun to take shape.
For investors, the continuous rise in NAND supply prices is expected to directly improve the profitability of related memory manufacturers. With AI infrastructure investment cycles yet to peak and leading manufacturers focusing capacity on HBM, the tight supply-demand pattern and strong pricing in the NAND market may last longer.
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