Samsung is reportedly preparing to halt consumer SATA SSD production around 2026, narrowing its focus toward higher margin NVMe and enterprise storage that benefit from booming AI demand. At the same time, analysts report that Samsung has lifted DDR5 contract prices by over 100 percent, from roughly 7 dollars to about 19–20 dollars per unit, citing extremely tight inventories and strong orders from data centers and advanced devices.
This move comes shortly after Micron announced it will down its Crucial consumer SSD and DRAM brand by early 2026, redirecting 3D NAND and DRAM capacity to HBM, server memory, and enterprise SSDs for AI accelerators. Together, these shifts indicate that large manufacturers see more profit in AI and server markets than in budget consumer hardware, which could mean higher RAM and SSD prices, fewer low cost models, and slower spec progress for mainstream PCs and smartphones over the next few years.
