After Memory, Flash Prices Surge Too: Samsung Electronics Hikes Q1 NAND Prices by 100%

IT Home reported on January 25 that the rapid spread of AI applications is driving a sharp rise in demand for NAND-based storage devices. Supply, however, has not expanded at the same pace—creating a clear shortage in the market.

According to South Korean outlet ETNews, Samsung Electronics has raised its first-quarter NAND flash supply prices by more than 100%. The company reportedly finalized supply contracts with major customers toward the end of last year and began executing them at the higher prices starting in January. This follows earlier moves to lift DRAM contract prices by as much as nearly 70%, meaning the overall memory upcycle is now broadening beyond DRAM into NAND.

The NAND price rally is also not a short-lived spike. As supply tightened across the memory industry late last year, NAND felt the impact as well. TrendForce data shows NAND prices rose about 33% to 38% quarter-on-quarter in Q4, and the market had expected a similar increase in Q1. In reality, actual supply pricing appears to be coming in above those expectations.

Importantly, this is not a Samsung-only story. Industry observers broadly believe SK hynix is moving in the same direction, with NAND price increases comparable to Samsung’s. As the world’s No.1 and No.2 NAND suppliers by market share, aligned pricing behavior from these two players carries significant weight. Overseas brokerages, including Nomura Securities, have also pointed out that SanDisk—ranked as the world’s fifth-largest NAND manufacturer—plans to raise NAND prices by 100% in the new year.

As one industry source put it, “Just like DRAM, NAND makers are increasingly joining the wave of price increases—at this point, a broad-based NAND price rise is becoming difficult to avoid.”

At the core of this surge is a classic supply-demand imbalance. On the demand side, AI infrastructure investment is accelerating, and enterprise SSD demand is rising noticeably. At the same time, smartphones and PCs are moving faster toward higher-performance, higher-capacity storage configurations. The trend toward “on-device AI”—where end-user devices run AI workloads locally—further amplifies the need for higher-spec storage.

On the supply side, NAND manufacturers have not pursued aggressive capacity expansion over the past year. Process transitions and other operational factors have also limited meaningful supply growth. Samsung, in particular, has been viewed as relatively cautious in NAND capital spending: while it has not implemented major production cuts, the industry consensus is that shipment growth remains constrained.

Looking ahead, the industry expects NAND prices to keep climbing into the second quarter. Samsung is reportedly already in discussions with customers about additional NAND price increases for Q2.

As DRAM and NAND prices continue to rise, the downstream effects are becoming more visible. AI infrastructure buildout costs are climbing, fueling commentary that “the bottleneck to AI adoption is memory.” Meanwhile, makers of consumer devices—especially smartphones and PCs—are also facing increasing pressure to pass higher component costs on to end customers.

Another industry insider noted that the impact won’t be limited to AI data centers: smartphone and PC manufacturers are also preparing to raise end-product prices in response to higher memory costs. With supply unlikely to ramp significantly in the near term, the upward trend may persist for some time.