Affordable SSDs are at risk of becoming scarce as demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI) surges. The AI boom has created a supply crisis, with lead times for enterprise HDDs stretching to more than two years. To cope, data centers are shifting to stockpiling QLC NAND SSDs, which pushes component costs higher and puts heavy pressure on the supply of mainstream consumer SSDs. Industry watchers expect this shift to trigger a major shortage in the retail market soon, forcing individual buyers to face record-high hardware prices.
QLC SSDs Overtake TLC: A Major Shift in the Memory Market
Analysts believe that as AI companies move to QLC in large volumes, this type of memory chip will surpass TLC in total sales by early 2027, a major shift in the SSD market. The report also notes that AI companies have begun hoarding QLC NAND ahead of an expected shortage, leaving some manufacturers' production capacity fully booked through the end of 2026. It shows how fierce the AI race has become, with companies trying to lock in component supply at any cost.
The rapid growth of the AI sector and the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) have put enormous strain on the infrastructure that supports hyperscale data centers. Beyond GPUs and accelerators, this wave has driven unprecedented demand for every layer of PC hardware, from CPUs and memory to high-speed networking and large-scale storage arrays.
Cost Pressure and Scarcity Spread to DRAM
The surge in demand has sent component prices sharply higher. DRAM prices have risen by nearly 50% in recent weeks. Reports indicate that AI data center operators in the US and China are now receiving only about 70% of their DRAM allocations, even after agreeing to pay the higher prices. This suggests that the shortages and price hikes are not limited to storage but are spreading to random access memory as well.
An earlier DigiTimes report noted that demand for standard DDR5 RDIMMs (server RAM) now exceeds supply, as major chipmakers such as Samsung and SK Hynix shift production away from the consumer market toward higher-margin AI components. As a result, consumers and non-AI companies are facing a double shortage, of both RAM and SSDs.
The situation further strengthens the position of memory chip makers, allowing them to control prices and prioritize AI customers. Meanwhile, ordinary PC makers and consumers will have to deal with a volatile component market and ever-rising costs of building a PC.
