TrendForce reports a severe NAND Flash wafer shortage, driving SSD prices up 20–65% in November as enterprise demand surges; TLC and QLC lines tighten.
© D. Novikov
TrendForce reports that November brought a severe wafer shortage to the NAND Flash market, triggering a sharp jump in contract prices—with some categories climbing more than 60%. The squeeze stems from heavy fab utilization: suppliers are steering resources toward higher-margin enterprise solutions and premium models while hastening the retirement of legacy process nodes. As a result, the pool of available base wafers has shrunk markedly, and average prices rose by over 20% across most product lines.
The pain is most acute in TLC memory. According to the firm, 1 TB solid-state drives remain scarce as demand for enterprise SSDs stays strong. Prices for 512 GB models have surged the fastest—up more than 65%—as older production lines were wound down at speed. The 256 GB tier is under pressure as well, with thinning inventories further tightening the market.
A similar pattern is unfolding in QLC products. By November, the supply chain had visibly tightened: high-capacity enterprise SSDs were being snapped up for cloud platforms and cold-storage systems. That pushed prices for 1 TB models significantly higher. TrendForce notes that capacity-centric offerings across the board are getting pricier due to vigorous data center demand. Even MLC memory, traditionally favored in industrial and embedded applications, has become more expensive amid steady orders.
All told, the evidence points to producers deliberately holding back output to protect profitability in an overheated market. TrendForce estimates that major vendors now wield considerable pricing power, and the wafer shortfall will persist in the coming months. Contract prices are expected to continue rising in December—mirroring warnings from controller and NAND manufacturers, who previously said capacity for 2025–2026 has already been allocated.