AI’s Memory Hunger Won’t End Soon—Here’s How to Survive the SSD Price War

The AI boom has memory chipmakers laughing all the way to the bank—but PC users are stuck paying through the nose for SSDs with no relief in sight.

Kioxia’s managing director Shunsuke Nakato states the memory market is in a 'high-end and expensive phase' due to AI-driven demand, with manufacturing capacity sold out through 2026. He noted:

'There is a sense of crisis that companies will be eliminated the moment they stop investing in AI, so they have no choice but to continue investing.'

Kioxia is expanding production at its Yokkaichi factory and expects full-scale mass production at its Kitakami plant this year. SSD price increases are most extreme for 2TB and 4TB drives, with higher cost-per-gigabyte compared to 1TB models. Retail research confirms no near-term price relief for SSDs, with shortages expected to persist due to long lead times for new chip factories.

For users, the workaround involves checking for secondary M.2 slots in PCs or laptops to add storage. Secondary slots may use slower PCIe lanes but remain faster than external drives or SD cards.