SanDisk Enterprise SSD Prices to Surge Over 100%

According to market sources, memory chip heavyweight SanDisk is expected to double prices for enterprise-grade SSDs in the first quarter of 2026, reflecting surging demand for server-class storage over the coming quarters as AI-driven data center workloads continue to expand.

The move highlights widening supply gaps and sharper price volatility in the storage market, as demand for AI data centers accelerates while NAND wafer availability becomes increasingly tight. In a recent client note, Nomura Securities said its channel checks show multiple memory vendors steadily pushing prices higher, with enterprise NAND Flash seeing especially aggressive increases. Nomura added that SanDisk's enterprise SSD NAND pricing could rise by more than 100% month over month as early as March.

Nomura, a well-regarded technology-focused financial research firm, attributes the planned price hikes to a combination of short-term supply tightness and medium-term demand growth, driven largely by AI expansion and structural changes in AI-oriented storage architectures.

The firm also identified NVIDIA’s Inference Context Memory Storage Platform (ICMSP) as a key driver of enterprise storage demand this year. Built around the BlueField-4 DPU, the platform integrates 512 GB SSDs with KV cache support. In an NVL144 rack, each compute tray includes a BlueField-4 DPU and a 512 GB drive, resulting in 18 DPUs per rack and a total of 9.216 TB of 3D NAND. If NVIDIA ships 50,000 NVL144 racks annually, this alone would require roughly 0.439 exabytes of 3D NAND. Partner configurations using BlueField-4 DPUs are also expected to increase NAND consumption further through the Vera Rubin platform later this year.

Even so, Nomura noted that while NVIDIA’s ICMSP could consume up to around 1 EB of 3D NAND per year in an optimistic 2026–2027 scenario, this demand alone does not fully justify a sudden doubling of NAND prices, given that the industry produces more than 800 EB of NAND Flash annually.

It remains unclear how rising prices for high-capacity 3D NAND will affect mainstream NAND used in client devices, although enterprise and consumer NAND are typically manufactured in the same fabs, suggesting some level of price linkage over time.

Financially, SanDisk reported solid top-line growth in its fiscal 2026 first quarter (ended October 3, 2025), with revenue reaching USD 2.31 billion, up 22.6% year over year and 21% sequentially. GAAP net profit came in at USD 112 million, down 47% year over year but up sharply quarter over quarter, while non-GAAP net profit reached USD 181 million despite a year-on-year decline.

Notably, industry chatter as early as November 2025 had already suggested that SanDisk raised its November NAND Flash contract prices by as much as 50%, reinforcing expectations that pricing momentum in enterprise storage remains firmly upward.