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Major storage suppliers are aligning long-term production plans with rapid demand and next-gen flash advances. SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital are signing 3–5+ year LTAs with cloud and hyperscaler customers to secure exabyte-scale HDD and SSD volumes, stabilize pricing, and justify multi‑billion dollar investments in capacity and new technologies. At the same time, Kioxia and SanDisk will demonstrate a multi-stack unit 3D QLC NAND architecture aimed at surpassing 1,000 layers, promising dramatically higher densities and lower costs per bit. Together these trends show the industry shifting to multi-year commitments to fund and deploy breakthrough NAND scaling and nearline storage capacity.
Kioxia (铠侠) reported strong FY2026 results: consolidated revenue rose 37.0% to ¥2.34 trillion and net profit attributable to owners jumped 103.6% to ¥554.49 billion for the year ended March 31, 2026. SSD and storage sales led growth with ¥1.3626 trillion, while smartphone-related revenue reached ¥759.98 billion. Operating cash flow improved 29.4% to ¥616.54 billion, and both GAAP and non-GAAP operating profits roughly doubled year-over-year. Management guided a robust Q1 FY2027, forecasting ¥1.75 trillion revenue and substantial non-GAAP operating profit growth, citing AI-driven demand for storage. The results highlight NAND/SSD market strength and Kioxia’s positioning amid rising AI workloads and data-center storage requirements.
Chip industry reports show spot prices for 64Gb MLC NAND have surged over 300% since late 2025 as major makers shift capacity to HBM and high-layer 3D NAND. Samsung began converting its Hwaseong Line 12 2D NAND fab to 1c DRAM in March and will finish shipments next month, removing a key 2D NAND source. Kioxia, SK hynix and Micron are maintaining only existing customer supply, and TrendForce forecasts global MLC NAND capacity will fall 41.7% year-over-year in 2026. Because MLC’s endurance suits industrial, networking and embedded uses, shortages could disrupt those segments even as vendors prioritize higher‑margin AI-driven products like Samsung’s 400-layer V10 NAND.
Storage vendors SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital are extending long-term supply agreements (LTAs) to lock in orders for the next 3–5 years amid rising AI-driven demand. SanDisk CFO Louis Vissoso says some SSD LTAs now run up to five years with hybrid fixed and floating pricing and quarterly volume commitments. Seagate CEO William Mosley reports exabyte-scale deals with cloud and hyperscaler customers and nearline capacity largely committed through 2027, while Western Digital’s Irving Tan says agreements already cover 2028–2029. Longer LTAs let suppliers plan NAND and HDD capacity, invest billions in fabs and next-gen tech (3D NAND, HAMR), reduce overcapacity risk, and stabilize pricing — though new capacity ramps will take years.
Kioxia and SanDisk will showcase a multi-stack unit architecture (MSA-CBA) QLC 3D NAND at the VLSI Symposium on June 14-18, aiming to push 3D NAND past 1,000 layers. The firms have already shared architecture diagrams and FIB-SEM images of stacked wordline-array wafers. Kioxia outlined a 1,000-layer roadmap in 2024 and projects NAND densities reaching about 100 Gbit/mm² and 1,000 wordline 3D NAND by 2027. Samsung has explored a similar 1,000-layer approach via multi-wafer BV stacking but opted for a more conservative path. Achieving >1,000-layer 3D NAND would significantly increase flash density and lower costs per bit, reshaping SSD and memory markets.