“Still Not Enough Money”: NAND Prices Surge 50% Overnight and Will Keep Rising, Phison Warns

Phison’s enterprise solutions accounted for a substantial 30% of the company’s revenue in the first quarter alone.

Khein-Seng Pua, CEO of Phison Electronics, has raised the alarm regarding a dramatic surge in NAND flash pricing. He reported that chip costs skyrocketed by nearly 50% almost overnight, highlighting the persistent volatility and tension within the global memory market.

This price hike is primarily driven by the insatiable appetite of the artificial intelligence sector. As AI infrastructure developers and major cloud service providers aggressively scale their storage capacities, global supply chains are facing unprecedented pressure. This shift has already manifested in Phison’s financials, with enterprise-grade SSDs generating approximately 30% of the firm’s total revenue in Q1 2026.

Despite flourishing demand and rising profits, the storage controller specialist continues to navigate significant procurement hurdles. Phison has already locked in long-term supply contracts with two DRAM manufacturers and six NAND producers. Furthermore, the company is negotiating prepayment terms to guarantee priority access to components, a defensive move intended to safeguard operations against a worsening deficit.

The current market climate has forced a massive expansion of the company’s inventory. Phison’s stockpiles grew from NT$35.6 billion at the end of 2025 to NT$50 billion by late February 2026. Nevertheless, Pua emphasized that even this significant reserve remains inadequate to fully satisfy the market’s current trajectory.

Source: iXBT.games