In Q2 2026, driven by AI demand, the global NAND Flash market continued to face a supply shortfall, allowing manufacturers to maintain strong pricing power. This drove a significant increase in average selling prices (ASP), with price growth notably outpacing shipment volume growth. Under the combined effect of rising prices and volumes, NAND Flash revenue for all manufacturers continued to grow QoQ in Q2. According to CFM Analysis, the global NAND Flash market continued to expand in Q2 2026, growing 73.1% QoQ to reach $76.776 billion.

Looking ahead to Q3, manufacturers and select server customers have already locked in upper price limits under long-term agreements, and the room for further price increases outside of long-term contracts is also shrinking quarter by quarter. As a result, DRAM ASPs are expected to continue rising QoQ in Q3, albeit at a slower pace. Meanwhile, with DRAM bit shipments projected to achieve positive growth in Q3, manufacturers' Q3 DRAM revenues are forecast to reach yet another record high.

According to media reports, Kioxia recently held a technical briefing on semiconductor Memory and other technologies. The company plans to enhance NAND flash processing speed through CXL modules specifically designed for AI workloads, with the goal of offering an alternative to DRAM. These CXL modules are said to reduce data readout time to less than one-tenth that of conventional products, and their high-speed read performance brings them closer to DRAM in capability. Kioxia noted that replacing some DRAM with CXL modules could double capacity and boost performance by 30%.

Micron is reportedly exploring the idea of developing high-endurance NAND Flash modules that would be positioned closer to the GPU. The company is said to be investigating ways to bring NAND Flash closer to handle workloads that don't require the latency and bandwidth of traditional HBM or regular DRAM modules. This architecture, currently referred to as "near-GPU NAND," would serve as a middle ground between density and durability.

The third quarter is already past its halfway mark, yet the traditional peak season for consumer electronics is showing signs of "a peak season that isn't peaking." This is largely because, following the earlier round of Memory price increases, demand-side players had already engaged in nearly half a year of aggressive stockpiling. Since Q2, various end-application terminals have begun hitting the brakes on procurement, and the Q3 market in particular has been notably sluggish — with reports of goods being dumped, orders being returned, and deliveries being delayed surfacing from time to time.

GigaDevice held its first‑half 2026 performance briefing on September 1. The company's management clearly stated that DRAM, NOR Flash, and SLC NAND Flash products remain in a relatively favorable upcycle, and this trend is expected to continue through 2027.

V10 is Samsung's latest 3D NAND flash Memory, developed to meet the growing demand for high-performance, high-capacity, and energy-efficient storage in the AI era. Built on Samsung's 3D Bonded-VNAND architecture, the V10 features over 400 word lines (WL). Compared to the previous-generation V9, V10 delivers a bit density improvement of over 58%, a data I/O speed of over 4.8 Gbps, a performance boost of over 33%, and a power consumption reduction of over 25%. Samsung Electronics plans to deploy the V10 in ultra-high-capacity 128TB SSDs and next-generation PCIe 7.0 SSDs.

Detailed plans for Fab3 regarding construction schedule and equipment investments will be determined based on market trends. Investment plans for Fab3 are contingent upon government support.

For this IPO, YMTC Holdings plans to raise 33 billion yuan, of which 20.8 billion yuan will be used for the Yangtze Memory mass production line technology upgrade project, and 12.2 billion yuan will be allocated to R&D-related initiatives.

The widening gap between compute and Memory bandwidth growth means the "Memory wall" is not easing — it may in fact intensify further.

According to media reports, Nvidia has informed some of its major customers that it will raise prices on servers equipped with its artificial intelligence chips, including Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell lines, by more than 15%, citing surging Memory chip costs. The exact increase will depend on the chip generation and Memory configuration. The price hike is expected to take effect starting early next year.

According to media reports, FADU Chief Business Officer Tony Kim recently stated that the Memory shortage is unlikely to see significant improvement until 2027, primarily because new capacity requires substantial time from investment and fab construction to mass production. FADU's product roadmap has extended from PCIe Gen5 to Gen6 and Gen7. Gen6 controller is scheduled to complete chip-out in the first half of this year, with shipments expected to begin in the second half. For Gen7, the company has set a target transfer performance of 57GB/s, with a completely redesigned architecture to address data processing demands. The company is currently discussing specifications with customers, and sample validation is expected to begin in 2028.

AMD has achieved an estimated 4x increase in AI energy efficiency as of mid-2026, ahead of its 3x projected target for this stage and more than double the historical trendline for the same point. This progress shows AMD is building momentum toward its 2030 goal to deliver a 20x increase in rack-scale energy efficiency for AI training and inference.

According to South Korean media reports, South Chungcheong Province announced that the Provincial Urban Planning Committee has completed the necessary deliberations on Samsung Electronics' plan to expand its semiconductor manufacturing facility at the Asan Onyang campus. The expansion project, representing an investment of 6 trillion Korean won, involves constructing a new plant on a 389,825-square-meter site within the Onyang complex to ramp up production of high-performance AI semiconductors such as HBM. The investment is said to be the first of three Mega Projects for South Korea Great Leap Forward. Samsung Electronics plans to begin construction on the new factory next month, though the completion date has not yet been announced.

This week, DDR5 SODIMM and UDIMM prices have mainly followed the upward trend in resource prices. However, with no signs of demand recovery ahead of the back-to-school season, the overall market is showing a pattern of "rising prices but shrinking volumes."