AI Boom Creates 2-Year HDD Backlog, Forcing Shift to QLC SSDs and Price Hikes

Fueled by the AI boom, demand for memory and storage has surged, with Western Digital’s affiliate SanDisk already raising the contract price of NAND flash chips by 20% for November 2025 and supply still falling short of demand. As a result, the delivery cycle for mechanical hard drives has stretched to nearly two years, meaning orders placed today will not be fulfilled until late 2027.

According to reports from DigiTimes, most AI companies are unwilling to wait two years for new hard drives and are instead turning to solid-state drives, with many opting for QLC NAND-based SSDs to control costs. This shift could squeeze consumer-grade SSD supply as production capacity moves towards high-volume enterprise QLC models, driving higher retail prices.

Industry observers predict that QLC NAND SSDs could surpass TLC NAND by 2027 in sales, though DRAM prices have surged by more than 50% recently and AI data centre operators in China and the US are receiving only about 70% of their allocated DRAM supply.