Wednesday, December 3rd 2025

AI Infrastructure Continues to Strengthen NAND Flash Demand; Kioxia Posts Highest QoQ Growth of 33.1% in 3Q25

TrendForce's recent research indicates that the ongoing expansion of AI infrastructure by CSPs fueled strong demand for enterprise SSDs in 3Q25. As a result, the combined revenue of the top five NAND Flash vendors grew by 16.5% QoQ, approaching US$17.1 billion. The production cuts enacted earlier in the year are now impacting the market, helping to balance supply and demand in the latter half. Additionally, the rising proportion of enterprise SSD shipments contributed to increased ASPs among suppliers.

A forecast for 4Q25 indicates that demand driven by AI for high-performance TLC and QLC enterprise SSDs will keep growing. However, as suppliers' inventories normalize and node migrations cause typical yield-related losses, the growth in shipments will be more restrained. Ongoing shortages in HDD supply will continue to push NAND Flash prices upward. TrendForce predicts total NAND Flash prices will rise by 20-25%, further boosting quarterly revenue.
Over the third quarter of 2025, Samsung retained the top position with $6 billion in revenue, up 15.4% QoQ. Despite facing intensified competition from local brands in China for mobile NAND, its enterprise SSD shipments remained robust, securing a 32.3% market share.

SK Group (SK hynix + Solidigm) ranked second at around $3.53 billion, an increase of 5.7% QoQ. Subsidiary Solidigm continued to benefit from rising demand for QLC enterprise SSDs used in generative AI workloads, which played a major role in boosting the group's revenue.

Kioxia delivered the best performance among all suppliers. Boosted by demand from AI servers, seasonal smartphone inventory buildup, and its continued shift to BiCS8 technology, its bit shipments increased significantly—propelling revenue up 33.1% QoQ to exceed $2.84 billion. The company moved up to third place, increasing its market share by 2 percentage points.

Micron ranked fourth with around $2.42 billion in revenue, a 15.4% QoQ growth, fueled by record-high data center SSD shipments. Sandisk finished fifth, with cloud and edge-computing applications boosting revenue to nearly $2.31 billion, marking a 21.4% QoQ growth.
Source: TrendForce
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16 Comments on AI Infrastructure Continues to Strengthen NAND Flash Demand; Kioxia Posts Highest QoQ Growth of 33.1% in 3Q25

#1
mb194dc
The simply incredible money waste in to hardware for which there's little front end use case, continues.

Good luck if you actually need flash of ram for something that's actually ever going to be a profitable enterprise...
Posted on Reply
#2
_JP_
The issue is that this "endless growth" will create a nostalgic feeling for corporations that in 30 years will be seeking to repeat the cycle with whatever exists as consumable technology then.

"Shit, remember the 2020s? We kept hitting those EBIT KPIs!"
Posted on Reply
#3
Bwaze
Nostalgic feeling? If this AI craze really pops (and I don't believe it will, our society is based more and more on it, even if it means producing slop for everything), companies will try to find something else that promises revenues similar to this. I think most of current AI hype is actually produced by Nvidia and other hardware makers that were "nostalgic" for the days of cryptomining, and found something else to replace it.
Posted on Reply
#4
Red Hood
BwazeNostalgic feeling? If this AI craze really pops (and I don't believe it will, our society is based more and more on it, even if it means producing slop for everything), companies will try to find something else that promises revenues similar to this. I think most of current AI hype is actually produced by Nvidia and other hardware makers that were "nostalgic" for the days of cryptomining, and found something else to replace it.
Posted on Reply
#5
TheGeekn°72
it's already too late for RAM and now, it begins for NAND... decided not to get outrun by stocks running out this time, ordered a couple units as emergency replacements just in case
Posted on Reply
#6
_JP_
BwazeNostalgic feeling? If this AI craze really pops (and I don't believe it will, our society is based more and more on it, even if it means producing slop for everything), companies will try to find something else that promises revenues similar to this. I think most of current AI hype is actually produced by Nvidia and other hardware makers that were "nostalgic" for the days of cryptomining, and found something else to replace it.
Oh, I agree with you, as long as replacements continue to be made-up (before "Crypto", it was "IoT" and before that it was "Cloud", etc.) the technologies are valid and I am very aware GenAI is not going away (much like ML and LLMs were not), but the "200% allocation on all fronts" of the corp. world will stop eventually, even if it ought to have happened already.
The thing is, as it has become more and more apparent, the economy is affected by this and much of the means for which we depend on these days (like web portals for services and basic documentation that became digital) start having barriers of entry that were not the point 15 years ago.
Posted on Reply
#7
Bwaze
I don't think any of us realizes what "AI can replace most of workforce" really means for a society, everyone hopes his position is unique in being safe from AI replacement - and now the companies are laying off people before AI can even replace them, just to offset the cost of AI...
Posted on Reply
#8
Wirko
_JP_The issue is that this "endless growth" will create a nostalgic feeling for corporations that in 30 years will be seeking to repeat the cycle with whatever exists as consumable technology then.

"Shit, remember the 2020s? We kept hitting those EBIT KPIs!"
30 years? That's about six times more than eternity in accelerated circular financial capitalism.
Posted on Reply
#9
TheGeekn°72
BwazeI don't think any of us realizes what "AI can replace most of workforce" really means for a society, everyone hopes his position is unique in being safe from AI replacement - and now the companies are laying off people before AI can even replace them, just to offset the cost of AI...
you don't get it, it's a "genius business decision" that is "forward looking"
Posted on Reply
#10
TechBuyingHavoc
BwazeNostalgic feeling? If this AI craze really pops (and I don't believe it will, our society is based more and more on it, even if it means producing slop for everything), companies will try to find something else that promises revenues similar to this. I think most of current AI hype is actually produced by Nvidia and other hardware makers that were "nostalgic" for the days of cryptomining, and found something else to replace it.
So you are in the camp that revenues will rise high enough and soon enough to justify the investment? Because the bubble is definitely going to pop if ROI remains as poor as predicted.
Posted on Reply
#11
Bwaze
TechBuyingHavocSo you are in the camp that revenues will rise high enough and soon enough to justify the investment? Because the bubble is definitely going to pop if ROI remains as poor as predicted.
No, I'm in the camp that pessimistically looks at this as a complete transformation of society - sure, there will never be enough revenue to justify the investment - especially when it becomes obvious how many people will eventually stay without jobs, and without prospects of getting one. So the governments will intervene, AI will become top priority next to defense, and we'll find money by axing everything else.
Posted on Reply
#12
TheGeekn°72
BwazeSo the governments will intervene,
when it'll be too late to do anything, pass laws years after the fact
BwazeAI will become top priority
why would it? it's virtually useless in 95% use cases, if all the megacorps in the world didn't manage to make money off of it, what makes you think the govt will take on the task to make it worthwhile?
Bwazenext to defense, and we'll find money by axing everything else.
there's literally nothing else to axe, most govts operate by running the core essentials and even the small "superfluous" bits are nowhere near valuable enough to fund remotely anything
Posted on Reply
#13
Bwaze
We bailed out banks, didn't we?

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). It was enacted by Congress on October 3, 2008, providing a $700 billion bailout for the US banking system.
Posted on Reply
#14
_JP_
Bwaze(...) so the governments will intervene (...)
Imagine living in the country where the Web Summit is held, and government openly endorses it. :ohwell:
Posted on Reply
#15
Wirko
TheLostSwedeTrendForce predicts total NAND Flash prices will rise by 20-25%, further boosting quarterly revenue.
I came here to say hi and remind everyone of the magnificent future-telling capabilities of TrendForce. Hi!



The following is a sad demonstration of how useful RAM is when it serves its duty in some AI gigacluster... which somehow learned that people are asking Google for "dram price prediction".
bitscreener.com/coins/dram/price-prediction
Posted on Reply
#16
TheLostSwede
News Editor
WirkoI came here to say hi and remind everyone of the magnificent future-telling capabilities of TrendForce. Hi!



The following is a sad demonstration of how useful RAM is when it serves its duty in some AI gigacluster... which somehow learned that people are asking Google for "dram price prediction".
bitscreener.com/coins/dram/price-prediction
C'mon, be nice to them, they couldn't have predicted this shitstorm.
Posted on Reply
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