AI-driven memory demand has sent NAND prices soaring more than 20-fold, but flash memory and hard drive makers alike remain cautious about large-scale capacity expansion. SanDisk argues that the widening price gap between NAND and hard disk drives (HDDs) has further weakened the economic case for solid-state drives (SSDs) to replace HDDs in AI data centers.

Kioxia Holdings is moving to capture a larger share of AI-related storage demand, as the shift from AI training to inference raises interest in high-speed, high-capacity NAND flash and solid-state drives.