SSD prices could spike after Western Digital loses 6.5 billion gigabytes of NAND chips
Western Digital and Kioxia’s collaboration total up to around 30 percent of the NAND flash market, according to TrendForce. Both Western Digital and Kioxia mainly supply SSD and eMMC storage drives for PCs, and Western Digital is one of the leading suppliers in the industry.
The contamination of materials used in the production processes appears to have actually been spotted in late January at 2 plants in Japan, with Western Digital’s joint endeavor partner, Kioxia (formerly Toshiba), revealing it has impacted BiCS 3D NAND flash memory.
Western Digital says it has lost at least 6.5 exabytes (6.5 billion gigabytes) of flash storage due to contamination concerns at its NAND production facilities. The contamination might see the rate of NAND– the primary part of SSDs– increase up to 10 percent, according to market research company TrendForce. Any prospective NAND scarcities or price fluctuations could affect the PC market over the next couple of months, which had another huge year in 2021 regardless of global chip lacks and need for GPUs.
It’s not clear what triggered the contamination, whether products on the marketplace will require to be recalled, or when production will resume. Western Digital states it’s “working carefully with its joint venture partner, Kioxia, to execute essential steps that will bring back the centers to normal functional status as rapidly as possible.”