Price of SSDs in 2026: why it's a panic (and when it will calm down)

A year ago, you found a 2TB NVMe SSD correctly for 120-150$ on Amazon. Today, the same kind of model is displayed at 300-480$ The Samsung 990 Pro 2TB? It hit $189 at its lowest in 2025. In April 2026, the Samsung 9100 Pro 2TB is listed at 478$ (that's about 440€). And it's not an isolated case.

On the French side, the pain is the same. A WD Black SN850X 2TB that was selling for 130€ at the end of 2024 is now priced at over 300€. The Kingston NV3 1TB, the quintessential "budget" SSDs, have gone from 80€ to 160€ . In short, the price of storage has doubled. Sometimes tripled. And the worst: it's not over.

In this article, we will dissect what is really happening. The figures, the causes, the actors who benefit from it, and above all — what interests everyone — should we buy now or wait for things to calm down.

To understand the extent of the thing, you have to look at the data of TrendForce , the reference body on memory component prices. And there, it stings.

According to their reports published at the end of March 2026, here is the evolution of contractual prices for NAND Flash — the component that represents about 90% of the manufacturing cost of an SSD :

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Concretely, the NAND Flash has taken +33-38% in Q4 2025 , then +85-90% in Q1 2026 (revised upwards from the initially planned 55-60% - yes, it was worse than expected). And TrendForce still predicts +70-75% in Q2 2026 (april-june).

If you calculate the three last quarters combined, it gives a multiplier of x4.2 to x4.5 on contractual NAND prices. Kingston had actually said this as early as December 2025: NAND prices had already risen by 246% since the beginning of 2025 , and 70% of this increase had been concentrated in the last 60 days alone.

Percentages are all well and good, but let's talk concrete. Here's what mainstream SSDs cost today on Amazon US versus their lowest prices in 2025:

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NVMe SSDs have taken over approximately 115% on average according to Gamers Nexus data. SATA, a little less affected, still show +75% . And on the business side, it's downright apocalyptic: a 30TB TLC enterprise SSD went from $3,062 in Q2 2025 to $17,500 in Q1 2026 That is +472%.

In euros, a 1TB Gen5 SSD now trades between 200 and 270€ where it cost 100-130€ a year ago. A 2TB Gen5? Consider 350 to 450€ . And the 4 TB, let's not even talk about it - Framework has reported that their 4 TB modules are out of stock, and the prices of those remaining in stock are outrageous.

The number one reason, it's not complicated: artificial intelligence eats up all available NAND . Google, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Meta, and company data centers are building AI server farms at a frantic pace — global data center capacity is increasing by 25 to 30% per year according to IDC. And each AI server rack requires 10 to 50 times more storage than a traditional server.

Result: enterprise SSDs now represent about 60% of global NAND production. What's left for gamers and regular people? Crumbs. And since suppliers make much more margin on enterprise than on consumer, they have no interest in rebalancing.

Micron made it clear during its last earnings call: they can only satisfy 55 to 60% of the demand of their main customers. Samsung and SK Hynix, who together control about 50% of the NAND market, have chosen not to massively increase production. Why invest billions in new fabs when the shortage makes you more money?

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By the way, Samsung announced increased profits of 755% in Q1 2026 — 57,000 trillion won (approximately 38 billion dollars). 95% of these profits come from memory. Shortage, for them, is champagne.

Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — the "Big 3" — are redirecting an increasing share of their capacity towards the HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) for Nvidia GPUs, at the expense of traditional NAND. SK Hynix has redirected 30% of its investments for 2026 (20 billion dollars) towards HBM3E and HBM4 for Blackwell GPUs.

Building a new NAND fab, it takes 2 to 3 years minimum The lithography tools (hello ASML) are also in shortage. And the CHIPS Act subsidies in the United States are speeding things up a bit at Micron in Boise, but it won't be operational before 2027. In short, we are stuck.

HP said it without beating around the bush: memory and storage have moved from 15-18% of the cost of a PC to around 35% in 2026 . Lenovo and Acer have announced price increases on their ranges. MediaTek, the mobile chip manufacturer, revealed during a conference in February that memory now accounts for 50% of the total cost of an SoC. And IDC predicts a 13% drop in global smartphone sales in 2026 due to the increase in prices passed on to consumers.

The honest answer: not before the end of 2027, possibly 2028 . And again.

TrendForce predicts no respite in 2026. Significant capacity expansions — Samsung in Pyeongtaek, Micron in Boise, SK Hynix in Cheongju — will not be fully operational before by the end of 2027 at the earliest . And even there, if the AI demand continues to double each year (TrendForce projects 300 exabytes of AI demand by 2027), the new capacities are likely to be absorbed immediately.

Samsung and SK Hynix have explicitly told their investors that they do not plan on aggressively expanding capacity. Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? The memory price rally could, according to some analysts, extend beyond 2028 .

The only hope in the short term? A slowdown in AI demand — which seems unlikely — or a global economic downturn that would calm investments in data centers. But for now, OpenAI would be buying NAND stocks in the order of 1 exabyte on pre-order. We are not out of the woods.

It's THE question. And unfortunately, the answer is nuanced.

Buy. Seriously. Prices in Q2 will be even worse than today. Framework themselves advise buying high-capacity SSDs "while supplies last." If you find a Gen4 1TB SSD under €140 or a 2TB under €250, it's a good deal in the current context — even if it hurts compared to 2024.

So aim end 2027 minimum But we're talking about 18 months. And there's no guarantee of a drastic drop even at that time. Meanwhile, the storage you haven't purchased is games not installed and projects not saved.

• SSD Gen4 rather than Gen5 — the price difference has become absurd while the gaming performance difference is almost zero
• The return of the HDD for mass storage — yes, that's where we're at. A 4TB HDD remains at 80-100€ and it's enough to store your less played games. However, HDDs are also starting to be affected (+25% on 16TB).
• The QLC SSDs — slower and less enduring than TLC, but significantly cheaper. For pure storage, it does the job
• Monitor flash sales — prices move quickly. WD Black SN850X 2TB appeared at $355 (instead of the listed $850) on Amazon US. Must be reactive

NAND Flash, which accounts for 90% of an SSD's cost, is in global shortage. The demand from AI data centers (Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI) is absorbing the majority of production, while manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are redirecting their investments towards HBM memory for Nvidia GPUs. Contractual prices have multiplied by 4 to 4.5 in nine months.

Not before the end of 2027 at the earliest, according to TrendForce. The new NAND production plants will not be operational before this date, and the AI demand continues to grow. Some analysts believe that the bullish cycle could last until 2028 or beyond.

If you need it, yes. Prices in Q2 2026 (April-June) are expected to rise by another 70-75%. Waiting will not help in the short term. Prefer Gen4 SSDs (better value for money than Gen5) and keep an eye on flash sales on Amazon and French sites like LDLC or TopAchat.

Yes, but a little less. According to Gamers Nexus, SATA SSDs have increased by about 75% compared to 115% for NVMe. They use the same NAND Flash, so the increase is inevitable, but since profit margins are already lower, manufacturers are absorbing a small part of the increase.

For mass storage (games you rarely play, movies, backups), yes, it has become a sensible option again. A 4TB HDD for 80-100€ remains unbeatable in cost per GB. But beware: HDD prices are also starting to rise (+25% on large models) because AI companies are also buying HDD capacity for archiving.