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ThinkView Notification, 21:00, November 27, 2025, Guangdong

ThinkView Aggregates the Latest Global Storage Dynamics

Since the surge in storage prices began, storage module manufacturers have faced a daily conundrum: how to allocate their limited supply amidst skyrocketing downstream demand. According to Innodisk Chairman, the price of DDR4 has soared by over 1000% from last year and continues to rise. However, the market focus has long since shifted from price to availability.

DDR4 Prices Soar by Over 1000%

Taiwan-based industrial-grade memory and storage module manufacturer Innodisk recently held a performance briefing. Chairman Chien Chuan-sheng said in a post-meeting interview that the memory demand driven by AI has broken free from the traditional cyclical logic of supply and demand. He noted, "Currently, supply is stable, but demand is multiple times the available stock, making it completely out of stock." The biggest challenge for the company each morning is deciding which customers to allocate the limited supply to. The market focus is no longer on price but on how to distribute production capacity.

Chien Chuan-sheng pointed out that the DDR4 shortage, which began in the second quarter, is no longer a temporary imbalance that can be resolved within one or two quarters. Instead, it is a structural demand driven by AI infrastructure. DDR4 is currently driven by three major applications: industrial computers and IPCs, which "cannot be phased out in the next few years or even longer"; switches in AI server architectures; and cloud service providers (CSPs) that still use a significant amount of DDR4 internally. "The supply gap for DDR4 is currently the largest," he said.

He revealed that since last year, DDR4 prices have soared by over 1000% and continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace. The key issue remains that demand is still multiple times the supply. Compared to traditional PCs or consumer applications, AI infrastructure investment focuses on GPUs and servers, with memory and storage accounting for only a small portion of the overall cost. This highlights the high price insensitivity of AI customers.

SSD and NAND Price Surge Just Beginning

Innodisk Chairman Chien Chuan-sheng also noted that the price surge is not limited to DRAM; the upward trend in SSD and NAND prices has only just begun. He pointed out that while the SSD market was recovering in the first two quarters, it has recently shown a similar trend to DRAM. The surge in demand for enterprise SSDs, driven by AI inference, has increased by tens of times, with capacities of 32TB, 64TB, and even 128TB proving insufficient. Original equipment manufacturers' (OEMs) capacity cannot be doubled in the short term, leading to a rapid tightening of supply.

Chien Chuan-sheng highlighted that the nature of AI inference quickly accumulates temporary data. In the past, servers used 512GB or 256GB, but now even 128TB is not enough. He emphasized that the shortage of SSDs is becoming widespread and is driven by structural demand from AI, rather than a cyclical consumer pattern.

Regarding the question of whether the expansion of NAND production in mainland China could alleviate the supply shortage, he noted that the impact would be minimal. Even if international majors wanted to expand production, it would not be until 2027 or 2028, and it would be too late to fill the gap in the short term.

Looking ahead to 2026, he summarized Innodisk's internal view in one sentence: "Next year will be a 'double shortage with Edge AI landing'—memory shortage, Flash shortage, and Edge AI will become a reality." Amid the simultaneous growth in demand for AI servers, Edge AI, industrial computers, and networking, coupled with the tight supply of DDR4 and NAND, the market is entering a new phase where "money may not guarantee the availability of goods."