Zhongxin Jingwei, March 14 (Luo Kun) &#34;I checked the order records, and the 2TB solid-state drive I bought at the end of August last year has already risen from 789 yuan to 1759 yuan. This increase is even more exaggerated than gold.&#34; Ms. Wang, who lives in Shenzhen, told Zhongxin Jingwei that she plans to purchase another solid-state drive for mobile data storage, not expecting that the price of hard drives has more than doubled in the past six months.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://inews.gtimg.com/om_bt/OdmFfHZqQB0UW3V6sgxmaXo92iBaF2nle0FoVi2ZjgsJ4AA/641?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://inews.gtimg.com/om_bt/OdmFfHZqQB0UW3V6sgxmaXo92iBaF2nle0FoVi2ZjgsJ4AA/641"/>
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Ms. Jiang, who lives in Changsha, Hunan, also found that the 1TB Seagate mechanical hard drive she bought a few years ago has risen from 299 yuan to 899 yuan.
On the 13th, Zhongxin Jingwei saw on e-commerce platforms that the prices of 2TB solid-state drives from brands like SanDisk, Seagate, and Samsung ranged from 1500 yuan to 2400 yuan.
On social media, many netizens referred to hard drives as &#34;the most successful financial product of the year&#34; and &#34;electronic gold.&#34; Wind data shows that from the end of August last year to now, the spot price of gold has risen from 3374 USD/ounce to 5100 USD/ounce, with a year-on-year increase of about 51%.
The head of a computer repair shop in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, told Zhongxin Jingwei on the 12th that due to the sharp rise in storage chip prices, the prices for expanding memory in computers and phones must be based on the daily quotation. For example, for the iPhone 14 Pro, the daily price for expanding to 256G memory is 400 yuan, and for 512G it is 900 yuan. Repair businesses on e-commerce platforms also stated that &#34;the price changes daily,&#34; and currently, the &#34;purchase&#34; price of hard drives is high, with quotes only valid for the day.
The National Development and Reform Commission's Price Monitoring Center stated on February 28 that research shows that as of January this year, the prices of the two main storage chip products, DRAM and NAND flash memory, have reached their highest levels since data became available in 2016. Taking mainstream models as an example, the average contract price for DRAM (DDR4 8Gb 1G8) in January was 11.5 USD, an increase of about 24% from the previous month and about 83% from September 2025; the average contract price for NAND flash memory (128Gb 16G8 MLC) was 9.5 USD, an increase of about 65% from the previous month and nearly 1.5 times higher than in September 2025.
From the capital market perspective, the stock prices of related companies have surged.
Taking SanDisk, which is listed on the US stock market, as an example, its stock price has increased more than 13 times since the upward trend began in August last year. As of the close on March 12, its stock price was 618.82 USD per share. In the A-share market, storage-related concept stocks have also seen significant increases, with Zhaoyi Innovation rising by 120% in the past year and Lanke Technology rising by over 90% during the same period.
Why have storage product prices skyrocketed? Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Consulting Group, analyzed that the core driving factors mainly come from three aspects:
First, the demand side has been completely reshaped by AI technology. Storage has transformed from traditional electronic components into the core &#34;veins&#34; of AI servers. The demand for video memory and RAM by AI models is several times that of traditional servers, prompting cloud vendors and major AI companies to lock in orders frantically, directly squeezing upstream storage capacity.
Second, the supply side is controlled by oligopolies. Over 90% of global storage capacity is concentrated in three companies: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. In the face of the new demand explosion from AI, these three manufacturers have actively reduced the production capacity of consumer-grade products, prioritizing resources for high-margin enterprise storage fields such as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), further reducing market circulation.
Third, the cost and strategic attributes have significantly increased. Currently, storage is no longer cheap hardware but has become a strategic resource in the AI era. Coupled with the long construction cycle of new production lines and fluctuations in raw material prices, the bottom logic of storage prices has changed. This shortage is not a short-term phenomenon but a long-term pattern change caused by supply-demand mismatch.
In the past, many consumers believed in the saying &#34;buy early to enjoy early, buy late for discounts&#34; when purchasing electronic products. Does the price increase of storage products mean that the golden era of consumer electronics for the &#34;wait-and-see&#34; crowd is coming to an end?
Zhang Yi pointed out that overall, the short-term adjustment space for storage products is limited, and in the medium to long term, they will be in a high-level oscillation state, with no significant drop opportunities in the short term. Looking ahead to the next year, storage prices are likely to remain at relatively high levels. Although the increase will narrow as channel inventories are gradually digested, it is difficult to return to the low levels of several years ago. This round of industry prosperity cycle is expected to last for 1.5 to 2 years. Currently, the likelihood of a short-term decline in AI demand and major manufacturers releasing new capacity to &#34;buy at the bottom&#34; is low. In addition, the speed of domestic substitution will directly determine the duration of this wave of prosperity in the storage industry.
The aforementioned article from the National Development and Reform Commission's Price Monitoring Center also pointed out that storage chips are currently in an upward cycle. Throughout the year, driven by the continuous growth of AI server computing power demand, the global storage chip market will continue to face a supply-demand imbalance, and storage chip prices will continue to rise. The increase in storage chip prices is gradually being transmitted to consumer electronic terminal products. As the penetration rate of AI applications increases, consumers' preference for high-end and intelligent consumer electronic products has strengthened, and the trend of consumption upgrading is evident, with higher requirements for memory performance. Manufacturers have limited space to alleviate cost pressures through downgrading specifications, and raising terminal prices will become a common trend.
Zhang Yi believes that from the consumer side, the past consumption habit of &#34;yearly price reductions&#34; is no longer applicable to the storage sector. For ordinary consumers, it is advisable to assess based on their own needs: if it is not a necessity and merely to follow trends, they can make rational choices based on their budget; if there is a necessity, such as computers or phones being affected by insufficient storage capacity, they will have to accept the current price levels.
(More reporting clues, please contact the author of this article, Luo Kun: luokun@chinanews.com.cn) (China News APP)

SOXX

Recently, the prices of solid-state drives have surged significantly. The price of a 2TB hard drive for a consumer in Shenzhen increased from 789 yuan to 1759 yuan, a rise that exceeds that of gold. Consumers in Changsha also found that the price of a 1TB hard drive rose from 299 yuan to 899 yuan. On e-commerce platforms, the price of 2TB solid-state drives ranges from 1500 yuan to 2400 yuan. The prices of storage chips have reached historical highs, with DRAM and NAND flash prices increasing by 24% and 65%, respectively. The stock prices of related companies have also risen sharply, with SanDisk's stock price increasing more than 13 times since last August

- The price of storage devices has surged dramatically, with 2TB solid-state drives increasing from 789 RMB to 1759 RMB since last year.  
- Factors driving this price hike include soaring demand from AI technologies, oligopolistic control of supply by major manufacturers, and rising strategic value of storage.  
- Analysts predict a sustained period of high prices due to ongoing AI-related demand, with little chance for significant declines in the near future.

腾讯新闻 - 财经

"The price has doubled in six months"! Hard drives have become "electronic gold"