In 4Q21, NAND Flash bit shipments grew by only 3.3% QoQ, a significant decrease from the nearly 10% in 3Q21, according to TrendForce's investigations. ASP fell by nearly 5% and the overall industry posted revenue of US$18.5 billion, a QoQ decrease of 2.1%. This was primarily due to a decline in the purchase demand of various products and a market shift to oversupply causing a drop in contract prices. In 4Q21, with the exception of enterprise SSD, the supply of which was limited by insufficient upstream components, the prices of other NAND Flash products such as eMMC, UFS, and client SSD, all fell.

TrendForce's summary of NAND Flash market sales performance in 2021 is as follows: although there have been signs of weakening since 2H21, thanks to remote services and cloud demand driven by the pandemic, revenue performance still grew significantly compared to 2020. Revenue reached US$68.6 billion, up 21.1% YoY, the second-biggest increase since 2018.

China is reacting to new outbreaks of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus with partial lockdowns. This could further delay the availability of laptops with 12th Gen Intel Core processors and NVIDIA's Ti graphics cards, which debuted at the beginning of the year. The first factories have already been closed in Suzhou in the east of the country. Supply chain and logistics bottlenecks, a shortage of certain chip types and price increases are already on the horizon.

WDC recently stated that certain materials were contaminated in late January at NAND Flash production lines in Yokkaichi and Kitakami, Japan which are joint ventures with Kioxia, according to TrendForce's investigations. Before this incident, TrendForce had forecast that the NAND Flash market will see a slight oversupply the entire year and average price from Q1 to Q2 will face downward pressure. However, the impact of WDC's material contamination issue is significant and Samsung's experience during the previous lockdown of Xi'an due to the pandemic has also retarded the magnitude of the NAND Flash price slump. Therefore, the Q1 price drop will diminish to 5~10%. In addition, according to TrendForce, the combined WDC/Kioxia NAND Flash market share in the 3Q21 was as high as 32.5%. The consequences of this latest incident may push the price of NAND Flash in Q2 to spike 5~10%.

The contaminated products in this incident are concentrated in 3D NAND (BICS) with an initial estimate of 6.5exabytes (approximately 6,500M GB) affected. According to TrendForce, damaged bits account for 13% of the group's output in 1Q22 and approximately 3% of the total output for the year. The normal production schedule for the entire line has yet to be confirmed. It is worth noting that the damages announced by WDC likely do not account for total losses stemming for this event and the number of damaged Kioxia parts has not been aggregated, so the total number of affected bits may increase further.

What do the MP3 players of the 1990s and today's smartphones have in common? Neither would exist were it not for NAND flash memory, an innovation whose influence has reverberated throughout the decades. KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that it has reached a new milestone - 2022 marks the 35th anniversary of the company's invention of NAND flash memory.

Back in 1987, it would have been hard to imagine all of the ways that this then brand-new technology would impact the world. NAND flash memory has ushered in entire new technological eras, and obsoleted technologies and products that had been in use for years - changing our lives in countless ways. Since starting at zero 35 years ago, the NAND flash market has grown to $70B. In terms of die density, flash memory has grown from 4 Mb to 1.33 Tb - a 333,000x increase. To put this exponential growth in perspective, in the 1990s, the largest available density flash memory could hold 1/8 of a photo. Flash forward to today, where the largest available die density is a whopping 1.33 Tb - and capable of storing 39,000 photos.

Global semiconductor sales revenue grew by a more than comfortable 25% in 2021, hitting a new record above $500 Billion for the first time. The data, part of Gartner's preliminary report on the state of the industry in 2021, bookends yet another year plagued with shortages and too little supply for the thirst of the consumer and business sectors. Naturally, supply constraints have led to higher ASP (Average Selling Prices) for the hardware that does get manufactured and distributed, as we've seen all too well in the graphics card market.

"As the global economy bounced back in 2021, shortages appeared throughout the semiconductor supply chain, particularly in the automotive industry," said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner. "The resulting combination of strong demand as well as logistics and raw material price increases drove semiconductors' average selling price higher (ASP), contributing to overall revenue growth in 2021.

NAND Flash prices for 1Q22 are expected to decline by 8-13% QoQ, compared to TrendForce's previous forecast of 10-15% QoQ, primarily due to PC OEMs' increased orders for PCIe 3.0 products and the impact of the lockdown in Xi'an on PC OEMs' price negotiation approaches. To mitigate potential risks in logistics, NAND Flash buyers are now more willing to accept a narrower decline in contract prices in order to obtain their products sooner. However, as the Xi'an lockdown has not noticeably affected the local fabs' manufacturing operations, the movement of NAND Flash contract prices going forward will likely remain relatively unaffected by the lockdown.

In addition, TrendForce finds that the daily number of new COVID-19 cases in Xi'an has recently undergone a noticeable drop, and the local government has also announced that that the emergency level has been downgraded. As such, Samsung's and Micron's local production facilities are returning to normal with respect to workforce and operational capacity. Samsung's local production base manufactures NAND Flash products, whereas Micron's local production base is responsible for the testing and packaging of DRAM chips as well as the assembly of DRAM modules. The impacts of the lockdown mainly relate to delays in the deliveries of memory products to customers. On the other hand, the event has not caused a tangible loss in memory production.

The all-new XPOWER XS70 PCIe 4.0 SSD from Silicon Power (SP) is about to take gaming to new highs with its thrilling performance and unique design that will give hardcore gamers the boost to take on opponents for hours on end.

With a standard data transfer rate that's 2x faster than the 3.0 version, the XS70 PCIe Gen4 x4 with 3D NAND flash memory and NVMe 1.4 support is exactly what serious gamers need to crush the competition. Mind-blowing continuous read and write speeds up to 7,300 MB/s and 6,800 MB/s, respectively, enable the XS70 to push the limits of what an SSD can do so you can break new records.

In response to the rising market demand for next-generation, customized high-end storage, Phison Electronics Corp. (Phison; 8299TT), a leader in NAND controllers and NAND storage solutions, acquired shares of its joint-venture company Nextorage Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Nextorage") from its joint-venture partner, Sony Storage Media Solutions Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "SSMS"; SSMS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation). The acquisition continues Phison's expansion into the customized high-end storage market, including high-resolution image processing systems, automotive electronics, e-sports and gaming systems, factory automation, electronic medical equipment, and industrial robots, etc. Through the resources of local R&D engineers in Japan, it serves nearby Japanese customers and continuously improves service quality.

Japan is a major industrial country. In addition to industrial robots that are widely used globally, automotive electronics, e-sports and game systems, high-resolution imaging systems, electronic medical equipment, and factory automation equipment all occupy important positions in the world. In addition to high-speed data access, storage products required by this type of high-end application market often require a certain degree of customization and system-optimization adjustments for terminal applications. In other words, the standard storage products on the market cannot be perfectly matched and integrated with the system side, and therefore there is a demand gap for customization. The acquisition of the joint-venture company Nextorage, from joint-venture partner SSMS, which is strong in the customized high-end storage market, is expected to help Phison strengthen its high-end customized storage products to meet the needs of the Japanese and global markets.

DigiTimes, citing sources within the industry, reports that Samsung is mulling a price raise for its own-brand SSDs. The report doesn't put a number or percentage to the prospective price increase, but it also states that Samsung is seemingly moving in the opposite direction of other SSD vendors. Samsung's competition is expected to lower overall pricing by up to 10% in an attempt to increase product attractiveness after facing lower than expected demand.

Samsung is one of the world's largest manufacturers of NAND chips, and enjoys a fully vertical SSD development capability: the company manufactures its own NAND and controller chips, which has led to a strong foothold in both the industry and in consumer's expectations for SSD speed and reliability. It thus seems strange that the company would move in the opposite direction of the remaining industry, especially considering how it benefits from economies of scale and (expectedly) higher product margins than companies that don't manufacture their own NAND. However, Samsung has recently cut its production guidance for both its Xi'an, China NAND factories after local COVID-19 surges forced partial lockdowns. These factories are responsible for around 40% of Samsung's global NAND output - and thus, they also account for around 7% of global NAND production.

SK hynix Inc. today announced that it has received merger clearance from the Chinese antitrust authority, State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) for its acquisition of Intel NAND and SSD business. With SAMR's merger clearance SK hynix has received all required merger clearances in eight jurisdictions from the relevant competition authorities.

SK hynix will continue to prepare to close the transaction including achieving all of the closing conditions. The consideration for the 1st Closing is USD 7 billion. Upon the 1st Closing, SK hynix will acquire the Intel SSD business (including SSD-associated IP and employees) and Dalian facility. SK hynix sincerely welcomes and appreciates SAMR's merger clearance for the deal. SK hynix will enhance its competitiveness of NAND Flash and SSD business by continuing the remaining post-merger integration process.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has developed the PM1743 SSD for enterprise servers, integrating the PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) 5.0 interface with Samsung's advanced sixth-generation V-NAND.

"For over a decade, Samsung has been delivering SATA, SAS and PCIe-based SSDs that have been recognized for outstanding performance and reliability by leading enterprise server customers including corporations, governments and financial institutions," said Yong Ho Song, Executive Vice President and Head of the Memory Controller Development Team at Samsung Electronics. "The introduction of our PCIe 5.0 SSD, along with PCIe 6.0-based product developments that are underway, will further solidify our technological leadership in the enterprise server market."

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today announced results for its first quarter of fiscal 2022, which ended Dec. 2, 2021. "Micron delivered solid fiscal first quarter results led by strong product portfolio momentum," said Micron Technology President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. "We are now shipping our industry-leading DRAM and NAND technologies across major end markets, and we delivered new solutions to data center, client, mobile, graphics and automotive customers. As powerful secular trends including 5G, AI, and EV adoption fuel demand growth, our technology leadership and world-class execution position us to create significant shareholder value in fiscal 2022 and beyond."

Demand for NAND Flash products will undergo a noticeable and cyclical downward correction in 1Q22 as major smartphone brands wind down their procurement activities for the peak season and ODMs prepare for the New Year holidays, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. As such, the NAND Flash market will remain in an oversupply situation, with prices continuing to undergo downward corrections accordingly. However, PC OEMs have been reinstating certain orders for client SSDs since early November in response to improvements in the supply of upstream semiconductor materials. By fulfilling these orders, suppliers are able to keep their inventory level relatively low, meaning they are not under as much pressure as previously expected to reduce inventory by lowering prices. Taking these factors into account, TrendForce expects NAND Flash ASP to undergo a 10-15% QoQ decline in 1Q22, during which NAND Flash prices will experience the most noticeable declines compared to the other quarters in 2022.

Regarding the price trend of NAND Flash products across the whole 2021, TrendForce further indicates that suppliers have actively transitioned their output to higher-layer technologies, resulting in a bit supply growth that noticeably outpaces demand, though the tight supply of components such as controller ICs and PMICs has constrained the production of NAND Flash end-products. Hence, the decline in contract prices of NAND Flash products has not been as severe as previously expected. Moving ahead to 2022, however, the supply of relevant components is expected to gradually improve, so the market for various NAND Flash products will also likely shift towards a noticeable oversupply. As a result, prices of NAND Flash products will steadily decline before the arrival of the peak season in 3Q22.

The growth of the NAND Flash market in 3Q21 was primarily driven by strong demand from the data center and smartphone industries, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. More specifically, NAND Flash suppliers' hyperscaler and enterprise clients kept up their procurement activities that began in 2Q21 in order to deploy products based on new processor platforms. Major smartphone brands, on the other hand, likewise expanded their NAND Flash procurement activities during the quarter as they prepared to release their new flagship models. As such, clients in both server and smartphone industries made significant contributions to the revenue growth of the NAND Flash industry for 3Q21. At the same time, however, suppliers also warned that orders from PC OEMs began showing signs of decline. On the whole, the industry's quarterly total NAND Flash bit shipment increased by nearly 11% QoQ for 3Q21, and the overall NAND Flash ASP rose by nearly 4% QoQ for the same quarter. Thanks to rising prices and expanding shipments, the quarterly total NAND Flash revenue increased by 15% QoQ to a new record high of US$18.8 billion in 3Q21.

Despite the forecasted 18.6% YoY growth in total DRAM bit supply next year, the global DRAM market is still expected to shift from a shortage situation to an oversupply, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. This shift can primarily be attributed to the fact that, not only are most buyers now carrying a relatively high level of DRAM inventory, but DRAM bit demand is also expected to increase by only 17.1% YoY in 2022. On the price front, the oversupply situation will result in a drop in DRAM ASP in 2022 but not a major decline in annual DRAM revenue, thanks to the oligopolistic nature of the DRAM industry. Annual DRAM revenue for 2022 is expected to reach US$91.54 billion, which represents a slight YoY increase of 0.3%.

Based on an analysis of DRAM sufficiency ratio (which refers to the surplus of supply in comparison with demand) for each quarter in 2022, TrendForce forecasts a 15% YoY decrease in DRAM ASP for 2022, with prices undergoing the more noticeable declines during the first half of the year. Heading into 2H22, however, owing to the rise in DDR5 penetration rate, as well as the arrival of peak seasonal demand, the decline in DRAM ASP will likely narrow. TrendForce does not rule out the possibility that DRAM ASP may even hold flat or undergo an increase in 2H22.

ADATA Technology, a manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, mobile accessories, gaming products, electric power trains, and industrial solutions today announces a new series of solid state drives (SSD), the ADATA LEGEND series, geared toward creators of different needs and budgets. They include the ADATA LEGEND 740, 750, and 840.

The LEGEND 740 and 750 utilize PCIe Gen3 x4 and NVMe 1.3 to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 2,500/2,000 and 3,500/3,000 MB per second, respectively, to give creators the performance they need to create without limitations. Their M.2 2280 specifications support the latest Intel and AMD platforms for creating on the latest PCs, including desktop and laptops. For users seeking a further boost, the LEGEND 840 takes advantage of PCIe Gen4 x4 and NVMe 1.4 to offer read and write speeds of up to 5,000/4,500 MB per second.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic led to severe delays in manufacturing and logistics. In particular, governments worldwide began implementing border restrictions in 2Q20 to combat the ongoing health crisis, leading to a sudden decline in order volumes for channel-market SSDs, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Annual shipment of SSDs to the channel (retail) market reached 111.5 million units in 2020, a 15% YoY decrease. In terms of market share by shipment, Kingston, ADATA, and Kimtigo once again occupied the top three spots, respectively.

Looking at the channel market for SSDs as a whole, NAND Flash suppliers (among which Samsung possessed the largest market share) accounted for around 35% of the total shipments in 2020, while SSD module makers accounted for the other 65%. The top 10 module makers accounted for 71% of channel-market SSD shipments from all SSD module makers. Taken together, these figures show that the market remained relatively oligopolistic in 2020. However, it should be noted that TrendForce's ranking of SSD module makers for 2020 takes account of only products bound for the channel market and under brands owned by the module makers themselves; NAND Flash suppliers were therefore excluded from the top 10 ranking.

SK hynix Inc. (or 'the Company', www.skhynix.com) today announced financial results for its third quarter 2021 ended on September 30, 2021. The consolidated revenue of the third quarter 2021 was 11.805 trillion won, while the operating profit amounted to 4.172 trillion won and the net income 3.315 trillion won. Operating margin for the quarter was 35% and net margin was 28%.

SK hynix achieved record high quarterly revenue since its foundation, and regained operating profit more than 4 trillion won after two and a half years since the fourth quarter of 2018. The increased semiconductor memory demand for server and smartphone (mobile) applications, alongside the improved product prices, contributed to the Company's record-breaking quarterly revenue.

In response to the demand for visual content, the pursuit of higher-resolution imaging and large amounts of stored data, Apacer, a leading global supplier of industrial storage and memory, has launched a professional-grade, high-endurance and military-grade CFexpress Type B card tailored for photographers and designers. Its excellent reliability and fast read/write speeds have made it a favorite among cinematographers. Apacer has been deeply involved in the industrial memory field for more than 20 years, and put its extensive experience in the audio-visual memory card market to work in developing this cutting-edge CFexpress card.

Apacer's CFexpress Type B cards are lightweight and extremely durable. They adopt only high-endurance NAND Flash ICs and also make use of high-speed PCIe Gen 3x2 interfaces, which have the advantages of ultra-high performance and extremely low latency. The continuous read/write speeds can reach up to 1,700 MB/s and 1,200 MB/s respectively, meeting the needs of next-generation high-speed cameras. They support 4K and 8K video capture as well as firmware adjustment for mainstream camera equipment, delivering a higher level of image detail and post-production tolerance. Through the CFexpress card, photographers and editors can enjoy the high performance brought by high-speed reading and writing everywhere, and also take advantage of high-resolution files and high-stability recording quality, capturing important moments at any time and putting no limits on audio and video creativity.

Contract prices of NAND Flash products are expected to undergo a marginal drop of 0-5% QoQ in 4Q21 as demand slows, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Hence, the current cyclical upturn in NAND Flash prices will have lasted for only two consecutive quarters. Looking ahead, NAND Flash suppliers' capacity expansion plans will be affected by the outlook on future trends and the supply of other non-memory components. At the same time, attention will have to be paid to the demand projection. At the moment, NAND Flash suppliers appear likely to downsize their capacity expansion activities for 2022, resulting in a 31.8% YoY increase in NAND Flash bit supply next year. Annual bit demand, on the other hand, is projected to increase by 30.8% YoY. With demand being outpaced by supply and competition intensifying among suppliers for higher-layer products, the NAND Flash market will likely experience a cyclical downturn in prices in 2022.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), the only U.S.-based manufacturer of memory and one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers, today announced that it intends to invest more than $150 billion globally over the next decade in leading-edge memory manufacturing and research and development (R&D), including potential U.S. fab expansion. Micron's investment will address increasing demand for memory that is essential to all computing.

Memory and storage are a growing portion of the global semiconductor industry, and today represent approximately 30% of the semiconductor market. Secular growth drivers like 5G and AI will expand usage of memory and storage across the data center and the intelligent edge, and in areas like automotive and a diversity of user devices.

SkyHigh Memory Limited., a global leader in embedded storage solutions, is introducing 3.0 V 1 Gb - 4 Gb densities 4 KB page and 2 KB page ML-3 products to its family of NAND Flash memories. The new 1 Gb - 4 Gb ML-3 SLC NAND Flash product family devices are designed on 1xnm, the industry's most advanced technology node for SLC NAND products. Available with different interfaces, SkyHigh Memory first-generation Serial (SPI) SLC NAND and third-generation Parallel SLC NAND complete the third generation ML-3 4 Gb - 16 Gb parallel SLC NAND product family already in production.

The new 1 Gb - 4 Gb devices will be offered to support high-reliability systems that store critical data and operate at extended temperatures, up to +105°C. Thanks to its internal ECC engine, the ML-3 product family can support chipsets with as low as a 1-bit ECC engine to accommodate legacy chipsets and modern chipsets with higher ECC engines.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today announced results for its fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2021, which ended Sept. 2, 2021. "Micron's outstanding fourth quarter execution capped a year of several key milestones," said Micron Technology President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. "In fiscal 2021, we established DRAM and NAND technology leadership, drove record revenues across multiple markets, and initiated a quarterly dividend. The demand outlook for 2022 is strong, and Micron is delivering innovative solutions to our customers, fueling our long-term growth."

Investments in capital expenditures, net were $2.01 billion for the fourth quarter of 2021 and $9.72 billion for the full year of 2021, which resulted in adjusted free cash flows of $1.88 billion for the fourth quarter of 2021 and $2.75 billion for the full year of 2021. Micron repurchased approximately 13.9 million shares of its common stock for $1.05 billion during the fourth quarter of 2021 and 15.6 million shares of its common stock for $1.20 billion during the full year of 2021 and ended the year with cash, marketable investments, and restricted cash of $10.46 billion, for a net cash position of $3.69 billion.

Over the past couple of years there has been a huge increase in ransomware attacks, and now scientists claim to have a solution that could help protect SSDs from getting encrypted by ransomware. The SSD-Insider++, as the solution has been named, claims to be able to detect ransomware activity and reverse the encryption on the fly.

SSD-Insider++ was developed by a group of engineers from South Korea's Inha University, Daegu Institute of Science and Technology, and the Cyber Security Department at Ewha Womans University (EWU), as well as a researcher from the University of Central Florida in the US. It's a firmware level based protection that looks for patterns of ransomware activity on the drive and stops it before any damage has been done.

A number of manufacturers have been caught red-handed, so to speak, by changing components on their SSD products without as much as a product specifications change. This has happened in the past with ADATA, Patriot, and more recently with Western Digital and its WD Blue SN550; now, it's Samsung that's being on the receiving end of a more attentive look at their recent batches of the 970 EVO SSD - particularly its 1 TB configuration.

According to Computerbase, a YouTube channel in Asia seems to have first noticed the difference. They've tested the older version of Samsung's 970 Evo Plus 1 TB (product number MZVLB1T0HBLR, April 2021 production date, a Phoenix controller [S4LR020] and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND) against the newer (product number MZVL21T0HBLU and is equipped with an Elpis controller [S4LV003] and 3D-NAND with the identifier K9DUGY8J5B-CCK0), which likely features different packaging and density for the same 96-layer 3D TLC NAND.