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prices surge by up to 20% asdf PC Components Japanese PC shops limit SSD, HDD, and RAM purchases to prevent hoarding as storage and memory shortage takes hold SK Hynix SSDs SK hynix unveils AI NAND strategy, including gargantuan petabyte-class QLC SSDs -- ultra-fast HBF and 100M IOPS SSDs also in the pipeline Corsair Dominator Platinum RAM Bewildered enthusiasts decry memory price increases of 100% or more Corsair DRAM DRAM prices surge 171% year-over-year, outpacing gold price increases Inside Meta's data center Tech Industry AI buildouts need $2 trillion in annual revenue to sustain growth, but massive cash shortfall looms DDR4 RAM RAM DDR4 costs soar as manufacturers pull the plug Intel CPUs Intel hamstrung by supply shortages across its business, including production capacity SK hynix SSDs SK hynix announces mass production of its 2Tb 3D QLC NAND Satya Nadella on a Bg2 Pod episode Artificial Intelligence Microsoft CEO says the company doesn't have enough electricity to install all the AI GPUs in its inventory Kioxia LC9 123TB SSD Tech Industry Nvidia and Kioxia target 100 million IOPS SSD in 2027 GDDR7 memory modules from SK hynix GPUs Nvidia's RTX 5000 Super could be cancelled or get pricier due to AI-induced GDDR7 woes Trending * Early Black Friday Deals * Win 10 EOL * GTC 2025 * Intel 18A * Panther Lake * Battlefield 6 1. PC Components 2. Storage 3. HDDs Hard drives on backorder for two years as AI data centers trigger HDD shortage -- delays forcing rapid transition to QLC SSDs News By Hassam Nasir published 9 November 2025 The AI boom might help QLC overtake TLC in the next two years. * * * * * * * Comments (6) When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. Hard drive manufacturing (Image credit: Getty Images) The race to achieve AGI (artificial general intelligence) has pushed constituents to invest in and build data centers at a pace far outstripping our ability to make them. Manufacturers are struggling to keep up with AI demand, and the ongoing DRAM shortage is proof of this, with memory kits costing more than double what they did just a few months ago. Now, DigiTimes is reporting that storage is taking a hit, too, with delivery times for enterprise-grade HDDs delayed by two years. That means if a firm wants to buy large-capacity hard drives, the backbone of nearline storage, it has to wait 24 months due to long lead times. As the news cycle suggests, AI money doesn't wait for anyone, so hyperscalers are now switching to QLC NAND-based SSDs to avoid these backorders. Picking QLC over TLC allows them to maintain costs while achieving sufficient endurance for cold storage. However, hoarding QLC NAND creates its own shortage, since every cloud provider in North America and China is now lining up to buy it. This could lead to SSD prices rising worldwide, as most value-oriented models use QLC to save costs. In fact, DigiTimes claims that production capacity for QLC is completely booked through 2026 at some NAND manufacturers. You may like * Phison E26 SSD Phison CEO confirms NAND prices have more than doubled and all 2026 production already sold out * Samsung 9th Gen QLC V-NAND NAND and DRAM prices surge by up to 20% * asdf Japanese PC shops limit SSD, HDD, and RAM purchases to prevent hoarding as storage and memory shortage takes hold Crucial P2 Crucial P2 uses Micron-manufactured QLC NAND (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Therefore, given the current situation, QLC NAND is expected to overtake TLC in popularity by early 2027, marking a significant shift in the storage landscape. While enterprise-grade QLC SSDs would entirely power this pivot, Sandisk has already raised NAND prices by 50%, according to another DigiTimes report, after initially warning of a 10% increase two months ago. This unprecedented shortage across memory and storage was largely unforeseen. Still, given the AI ambitions of the world's wealthiest, the overnight whiplash is perhaps the only surprising aspect of these price hikes. Last month, the Adata chairman hinted that the situation would only worsen over time, and it's taken just a few weeks for us to receive confirmation. Every DRAM and NAND manufacturer is now selling capacity to AI customers willing to pay the big bucks. Instead of having 2-3 months of buffer capacity, these firms are down to just a few weeks now. This has led to year-best numbers for many businesses -- a sharp turnaround from a few years ago -- but, as usual, the short end of the stick trickles down to regular consumers who're now entangled in yet another electronics scarcity. Google Preferred Source Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. [ ][ ]Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands[ ]Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors[Sign me up] By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. See all comments (6) Hassam Nasir Hassam Nasir Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. Read more Phison E26 SSD Phison CEO confirms NAND prices have more than doubled and all 2026 production already sold out asdf Japanese PC shops limit SSD, HDD, and RAM purchases to prevent hoarding as storage and memory shortage takes hold SK Hynix SK hynix unveils AI NAND strategy, including gargantuan petabyte-class QLC SSDs -- ultra-fast HBF and 100M IOPS SSDs also in the pipeline Inside Meta's data center AI buildouts need $2 trillion in annual revenue to sustain growth, but massive cash shortfall looms DDR4 RAM DDR4 costs soar as manufacturers pull the plug SK hynix SK hynix announces mass production of its 2Tb 3D QLC NAND Latest in HDDs Western Digital corporate HQ headquarters WD launches investigation into problems with its SMR hard drives Best External SSDs Unlucky buyer purchases external Seagate HDD, gets an SD card glued inside a plastic shell Toshiba's new 12-disk stacking technology Toshiba touts industry-first 12-disk HDD stacking technology, will pair with microwave-based recording tech WD Gold 14 TB HDD on clearance sale Take $80 off this enterprise-class WD Gold 14TB HDD, which is on clearance sale for just $240 SeaGate BarraCuda 24TB Spacious 24TB hard drive is available for a mere 1 cent per GB WD 14TB External HDD Prime Day Deal WD's monstrous 14TB external hard drive drops back to all-time low pricing on day two of Amazon's Prime Day sales Latest in News AMD RDNA 3 GPU Architecture Deep Dive AMD reveals new CPU roadmap with Zen 6 slated for 2026, confirms Zen 7 for the first-time AMD K6 and FX-8350 AMD's ancient Bulldozer and Piledriver platforms getting new open source firmwares in 2025 Softbank CEO SoftBank offloads entire $5.83 billion stake in Nvidia JP Morgan building in HK J.P. Morgan calls out AI spend, says $650 billion in annual revenue required to deliver mere 10% return on AI buildout SanDisk Plug and Stay flash drive SanDisk debuts Type-C 'Plug and Stay' flash drive that never needs to be taken out of your laptop BTF 3.0 concept PC built using pre-release hardware Future of cable-less PC builds revealed, single 50-pin connector supports up to 2,145 watts [ ] 6 Comments Comment from the forums * RTX 2080 I buy BluRay and UHD discs of various films and TV shows I like and Rip them to my PC because 1) long term it is cheaper than paying to maintain 5 different streaming services, 2) the quality is higher, and 3) I prefer owning to subscribing. Consequently, I have a need to keep a large quantity of storage drives on hand. A few months ago an Article was written on this very site announcing Seagate's new 30TB drives. Right up my alley, so I bought one; $549. Fast forward to 3 weeks ago, there were rumblings that the AI build out would soon create a storage shortage. Remembering the grand old days of Chia mining, I bought a second 30TB drive, the price having already increased to $599. Only 2 days later, the 30TB model was out of stock at Seagate and hasn't come back in stock since. The 28TB model is currently in stock at $569, more than I paid for my first 30TB model. Who knows if even the 28TB model will be consistently in stock even at these elevated prices in the long term. It's rough out there people. It honestly reminds me a lot of trying to buy a RTX 3000 series GPU during COVID; they were either impossible to find or hideously overpriced. Oh well, I'm tempted to buy a RTX 5080 just because I can: a few are available at MSRP. Reply * yc1 I swear that this is intentional at this point a excuse to raise prices while not improving their product and if the demand doesn't spike allowing a massive price hike they cut production to keep scarcity high and increase prices like what flash memory and ddr 4 manufacturers did Reply * tamalero yc1 said: I swear that this is intentional at this point a excuse to raise prices while not improving their product and if the demand doesn't spike allowing a massive price hike they cut production to keep scarcity high and increase prices like what flash memory and ddr 4 manufacturers did its a cycle that repeats.. around 4 years ago they complained of RAM being worthless and companies losing money while producing. Aka oversupply of RAM and chips. Same with hard disks.. And before, during crypto.. there was also a shortage... in reality is all production manipulation just like the gas/oil production worldwide. Reply * satoasty Yep and to be fair the governments never wanted people to own their stuff by 2030. Probably works in their favour too. Apart from the stuff I can't prove, is Seagate as reliable as WD I've had a few older drives by Seagate fail on me but 1 was physical on the HDD? Reply * Arkitekt78 Yet another thing AI is ruining for humans. This bubble cant pop soon enough. Reply * thesyndrome So now not only are regular consumers getting screwed on RAM and SSD prices due to the NAND shortage, but now we can't even get mechanical drives for a reasonable price any more? And this is combined with GPU's prices always going up since COVID. It feels like the only PC part that hasn't drastically increased in price is CPUs. Computing is starting to become a ridiculous hobby from a financial perspective, and if anything will contribute to the downfall of AI faster than anything else; how can AI ever hope to make a profit if they've priced-out regular consumers from even being able to access it by making computers too expensive for the regular person, bearing in mind that inflation hasn't stopped and household essentials are still going up in price.? Reply * View All 6 Comments Show more comments Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. [mednnv697g] Add as a preferred source on Google * Terms and conditions * Contact Future's experts * Privacy policy * Cookies policy * Accessibility Statement * Advertise with us * About us * Coupons * Careers (c) Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.