--- title: "TrendForce: AI storage demand stimulates HDD substitution effect, NAND Flash suppliers accelerate transition to high-capacity Nearline SSDs" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/260990414.md" description: "According to a survey by TrendForce, AI inference applications have driven the demand for real-time access and high-speed processing of vast amounts of data, prompting HDD and SSD suppliers to expand the supply of large-capacity storage products. Due to a supply gap in the HDD market, NAND Flash manufacturers are accelerating their transformation, investing in the production of ultra-large capacity Nearline SSDs of 122TB and 245TB. The HDD industry is undergoing a technological upgrade, with rising costs weakening its core competitiveness, while NAND Flash is enhancing capacity through 3D stacking technology, which is expected to reduce Nearline SSD costs by 2026" datetime: "2025-10-14T06:03:04.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/260990414.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/260990414.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/260990414.md) --- # TrendForce: AI storage demand stimulates HDD substitution effect, NAND Flash suppliers accelerate transition to high-capacity Nearline SSDs According to the latest survey by TrendForce, the demand for real-time access and high-speed processing of massive data is rapidly increasing due to AI inference applications, prompting hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) suppliers to actively expand the supply of high-capacity storage products. As the HDD market faces a significant supply gap, NAND Flash manufacturers are accelerating technological transitions, investing in the production of ultra-large capacity Nearline SSDs of 122TB and even 245TB, alleviating the previously uncertain outlook for future demand. TrendForce indicates that the HDD industry is currently experiencing the growing pains of technological upgrades. The high initial costs of investing in new generation heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology production lines not only create bottlenecks in capacity expansion but also force suppliers to pass on costs to customers, resulting in an increase in the average selling price (ASP Per GB) from the previous $0.012-$0.013 to $0.015-$0.016, weakening HDD's core cost advantage. In contrast, NAND Flash has seen a much faster capacity increase through the evolution of 3D stacking technology compared to HDD. Additionally, as the number of stacking layers moves from hundreds to over 200 or more, the storage bit density of wafers continues to improve. It is expected that the output of 2Tb QLC chips will gradually increase by 2026, becoming the main force in reducing Nearline SSD costs. AI inference workloads involve a large amount of random reads of small data and rapid calls to model parameters. From a performance perspective, the IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) of SSDs is hundreds or even thousands of times that of HDDs, and their microsecond-level latency is incomparable to the millisecond-level latency of HDDs. Moreover, SSDs do not require motors to drive disks during operation, resulting in significantly lower power consumption per TB compared to HDDs. For large data centers, the savings in electricity, cooling costs, and rack space from switching to SSDs can long offset their higher initial purchase costs. TrendForce points out that once the HDD industry's HAMR technology production lines are fully upgraded and achieve economies of scale, there will be room for optimization in production costs. However, the speed of NAND Flash cost reduction and the elasticity of capacity expansion both have structural advantages. For NAND Flash suppliers seeking long-term demand beyond smartphones and PCs, the emergence of the Nearline SSD market is undoubtedly a welcome relief after a long drought and an excellent opportunity for HDD replacement. Therefore, they are shifting their investment focus towards higher density and larger capacity QLC products, not only to meet current orders but also to compete for dominance in data center storage architecture over the next decade ### Related Stocks - [603138.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/603138.CN.md) ## Related News & Research - [China April Retail Sales +0.2% y/y (exp 2%) & Industrial Prduction +4.1% y/y (exp 5.9%)](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286699672.md) - [Firearms that people mocked until prices proved them wrong](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286905233.md) - [Is Valeura Energy (TSX:VLE) Balancing Growth Ambitions and Discipline With Its Steady 2026 Plan?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286679843.md) - [Announcement from Eimskip: Seafarers’ Union of Iceland announces strike](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286679460.md) - [16:51 ETBeverly Hills MD ProRetinol Age Rewind x3 Officially Launches: A New Era of Gentle, Slow-Released Retinol Skincare Backed by Plastic Surgeons](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286966075.md)