"The retail SSD market has almost disappeared," Silicon Motion says, as OEMs take what's left

Winners & losers: As demand from data centers drives up prices for components that directly or indirectly depend on NAND and DRAM, pre-built PCs are now often the only way for consumers to find reasonable deals. An executive at an SSD controller manufacturer recently confirmed that this is because PC manufacturers are ordering inventory that previously went to end users.

During Computex 2026, Silicon Motion senior VP Nelson Duann told Tom's Hardware that NAND shortages over the past year have nearly eliminated the direct-to-consumer market for SSDs. The company's SSD controllers, which previously ended up in drives sold at retail, now mostly go to companies such as Dell and Asus.

Traditionally, companies like Silicon Motion would sell SSD controllers to module manufacturers such as Samsung and Western Digital, which develop custom firmware and combine the controllers with NAND from suppliers to produce the SSDs that appear on store shelves. However, most DRAM and NAND currently goes toward AI data centers, leaving consumer products starved.

As a result, prices for SSDs, PCs, game consoles, components, and other devices that require memory or storage have steadily risen. Users who would normally build PCs must often settle for pre-built models or at least bundles to avoid exorbitant prices on RAM or storage drives.

Duann explained that one reason retail SSD prices have skyrocketed is that PC manufacturers can no longer obtain sufficient NAND from the usual vendors, so they've turned toward SSD module and controller makers. The dynamic helps stabilize the supply of PCs and smartphones, but it makes retail storage drives even scarcer and more expensive.

While some PC and laptop makers have raised their prices by as much as 40% amid the crisis, many NVMe SSDs have seen their prices more than double. Earlier this year, Kioxia predicted the extinction of the $50 1TB SSD. Scammers seeking to trick desperate shoppers have also become increasingly skilled at building fake SSDs that can fool benchmark apps, and users have had to find substitutions in unexpected places.

Unfortunately, the situation will likely remain unchanged in the second half of this year, and NAND suppliers told Duann that it will worsen in 2027. NAND supply that doesn't go toward data centers is expected to largely end up in higher-end products to offset lower unit shipments. Experts expect shortages to continue into 2028.