Rising Supply to Ease NAND Flash Shortage in Second Half of 2027

NAND flash is a core storage component in solid-state drives, smartphones and notebooks. Demand has surged as AI inference and data-center construction boost purchases of enterprise SSDs, while limited fab space and suppliers’ preference for DRAM capacity have constrained output growth. Memory makers have relied mainly on process upgrades instead of major wafer-capacity additions. TrendForce expects the global NAND flash market to reach $270.6 billion in 2026, underscoring how the squeeze is feeding into server and consumer-electronics costs.

TrendForce said on July 21, 2026, that the NAND flash bit supply-demand gap is forecast at minus 4% to minus 5% this year. Servers already account for more than 40% of bit demand, with server shipments projected to rise 17%, while smartphone production is set to fall 15% to 20% and notebook shipments about 10%. Process upgrades, capacity additions by Chinese suppliers and weak consumer demand should push the bit balance into surplus in the second half of 2027, easing shortages even as server demand stays firm.