AI Server Demand Spurs Skyrocketing Enterprise SSD Prices, SK Hynix and Solidigm Expand Production
TapTechNews August 20th news, due to the surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, the price of enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs) has soared by more than 80%. To meet the market demand, SK Hynix and its subsidiary Solidigm are accelerating the expansion of NAND flash memory production.
The AI boom continues to heat up, not only driving the demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, but now also promoting the rapid growth of the enterprise SSD market. The amount of data stored by AI servers is increasing exponentially, and enterprises are scrambling to buy large-capacity SSDs, even willing to pay high prices to ensure supply.
In the face of the strong demand for enterprise SSDs, SK Hynix and Solidigm are giving priority to expanding the production capacity of enterprise large-capacity SSDs adopting quad-level cell (QLC) technology.
According to Chosun, SK Hynix is gradually increasing the wafer input of its Cheongju M15 factory, with the goal of increasing the monthly production capacity by about 10% by the beginning of 2025. At the same time, Solidigm also benefits from the sudden surge in SSD demand and achieved profitability in the second quarter, and plans to increase the production capacity by about 5% by the beginning of 2025.
It is understood that QLC technology can store 4 bits of data in each storage unit. Compared with TLC technology that can only store 3 bits, it can store more information, reduce power consumption, and provide faster read and write speeds. Therefore, QLC technology is very suitable for ultra-high-capacity enterprise SSDs.
At present, only Solidigm and Samsung, the two storage manufacturers, can produce enterprise large-capacity SSDs based on QLC technology. Among them, Solidigm takes the market lead with its 60TB QLC enterprise SSD. Industry experts said that Solidigm's QLC SSD has advantages in main controller compatibility and has been in short supply since the second quarter.
SK Hynix plans to further expand the product line and launch the next-generation product with a capacity of up to 128TB after introducing the 60TB QLC product in the beginning of 2025 to consolidate its position in the market.