[Diary Point=Reporter Joo-yong Eom] SanDisk posted an operating profit of $8.78 billion in its fiscal 2027 first quarter, roughly 50 times higher than the $176 million it reported in the same period last year. Revenue came in at $11.031 billion, up 378% year over year.
Driving the surge was demand for AI data-center storage. SanDisk's data-center revenue reached $4.82 billion, up 1,685% from a year earlier, with both unit shipments and revenue per gigabyte rising. The company said demand has grown for SSDs that store the context and retrieval data AI models draw on during inference.
AI servers are claiming NAND supply first
AI servers need to read and store massive volumes of data quickly, not just during training but also during inference. While high-bandwidth memory and DRAM handle the fastest computations, NAND-based SSDs manage bulk data and retrieval databases. SanDisk said systems built with SSDs can deliver roughly three times the token throughput of systems relying solely on volatile memory, while using about 75% less energy.
As suppliers prioritize data-center orders, the volume left for everyday consumer SSDs can shrink in relative terms. SanDisk's consumer business revenue fell 39% year over year to $397 million, which the company attributed partly to the market adjusting to higher prices.
Thinner discounts, not sudden spikes, may come first
Still, rising AI server demand doesn't mean consumer SSD prices will immediately jump by the same margin. Market researcher TrendForce found that October contract prices for NAND flash wafers—across TLC, QLC and MLC types—held steady from the previous month, as weak consumer demand and reduced purchasing by module makers kept prices from climbing further.
The more likely near-term change for shoppers is fewer promotional sales and smaller discounts on high-capacity drives, rather than across-the-board price hikes. If data-center-bound, high-capacity SSDs get supply priority, manufacturers and retailers may manage consumer inventory more conservatively. TrendForce projects overall NAND prices could rise 15% to 20% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter, though that's a market forecast and not a guarantee of retail pricing.
Storage capacity directly affects the price of a new PC or laptop. Choosing a 1TB or 2TB SSD over 512GB in the same model can push up both component costs and the final price, and anyone upgrading storage themselves will feel NAND price swings directly. That said, finished product prices are also shaped by processors, memory, exchange rates and retailer inventory, so NAND costs alone don't determine the full price picture.
SanDisk expects data centers to account for more than 55% of the overall NAND market by 2027, with data-center bit demand expected to more than double in 2026 before growing roughly 40% more in 2027. Meanwhile, as of late October, the consumer market is showing both soft demand and delayed purchases due to elevated prices—suggesting the price trajectories for AI-server-grade SSDs and everyday PC SSDs could diverge even further going forward.