Storage has become a "seller's market"! Which companies on this golden track hold significant investment opportunities?

Over the weekend, a piece of news went viral in the AI community.

The flash memory leader$SanDisk (SNDK.US)$NAND flash memory contract prices surged significantly in November, with increases reaching as high as 50%.This marks at least the third price hike for SanDisk this year. Following a 10% increase across all product lines announced in April, the company implemented another 10% price hike for all channels and consumer products at the beginning of September, firing the 'first shot' in the storage price increase, which prompted industry leaders like Micron Technology to follow suit with their own price hikes.

Notably, the price hike announcement caused significant reverberations throughout the storage supply chain, leading module manufacturers such as Transcend, Innodisk, and Apacer Technology to suspend shipments and reassess quotations. Specifically, Transcend halted quotation and delivery starting from November 7, citing 'an expected continued upward trend in market conditions,' implying that 'prices may rise further.'

Regarding expectations for rising storage prices,苟嘉章, General Manager of Silicon Motion Technology, recently stated in an interview thatwith the substantial expansion of artificial intelligence applications, the global memory industry is experiencing a structural, long-term period of severe shortages.

In fact, recent performance of storage-related stocks shows that these companies have continued to reach new highs, unfazed by market pullbacks. Among them, $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$ one company's stock has surged over 580% year-to-date, $Western Digital (WDC.US)$ 、 $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$ and $CSOP Samsung Electronics Daily (2x) Leveraged Product (07747.HK)$ while another has risen more than twofold. $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ The stock price has doubled, and the company, which has been listed for less than a month, $CSOP SK Hynix Daily (2x) Leveraged Product (07709.HK)$ has surged over 86%.

Since September, multiple articles by Niuniu have highlighted related opportunities. Interested fellow investors can click to view>>

– ‘OpenAI Advances into AI Applications!’ The Two Key Sectors of Compute Power and Storage Enter a ‘Golden Cycle’—This Investment Map Is Worth Saving!

– Storage Industry Enters Super Cycle! This Year's AI Boom Super 'Hit': SanDisk and Micron Technology Repeatedly Hit New Highs

– “Acceleration of the Storage ‘Super Cycle’: Explosive Earnings, Soaring Stock Prices—Who Will Lead the Next Phase?”

Storage Cycle: Upward Trend, Price Hikes Begin

In the AI era,if computing power is the engine, then storage is the fuel.

Minsheng Securities noted that the development of the storage industry exhibits clear cyclical characteristics, which can be divided into multiple cycles. Among these, a new cycle has commenced since 2024,driven by supply optimization through production cuts by major storage manufacturers and increased demand for high-end server and PC storage fueled by artificial intelligence (AI).

Open Source Securities stated,amid the pull of an AI supercycle, memory chips are facing shortages. From the demand side,the demand for storage from AI servers is growing exponentially, with DRAM usage in a single AI server being approximately eight times that of a traditional server, and NAND usage about three times higher. By 2025, AI-related storage demand is expected to account for 40% of total demand, with further increases likely in the future. Additionally, tight HDD production capacity is accelerating the penetration of semiconductor storage represented by SSDs;

from the supply perspective,manufacturers such as Samsung and SK Hynix have indicated that they will allocate most of their future capital expenditures toward persistently tight High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and products with high profit margins.

according to Semiconductor Industry Observations,Traditional DRAM may not stabilize until after 2027, while demand for NAND and high-capacity storage could persist until 2028 or even longer.

Ping An Securities noted that NVIDIA’s Blackwell platform achieved scaled shipments in Q2 2025, coinciding with North American CSP vendors expanding their deployment of general-purpose servers. SSDs, leveraging high performance and energy efficiency, are expected to gradually become the mainstream technology for large-capacity data storage.

Currently, overseas memory manufacturers face urgent profitability demands. Driven by the robust growth of AI, related production capacity is shifting toward higher-end products. Combined with the traditional peak restocking season in the second half of the year, contract prices for DRAM and NAND Flash storage products are expected to bottom out and rebound starting from Q2 2025. Additionally, sustained high demand for enterprise storage products such as eSSD and RDIMM is likely to drive significant improvements in the financial performance of related companies within the memory supply chain.

UBS Group believes that the core factor behind the surge in memory chip prices this cycle is structural supply-demand imbalance, with AI being a key variable.According to UBS analysis, the memory industry is facing a 'potential severe shortage,' driven primarily by four factors:

1. Strong HBM demand driven by AI.

2. A steady refresh cycle for traditional servers.

3. Additional demand for enterprise-grade solid-state drives (SSDs) due to AI and shortages of traditional hard disk drives (HDDs).

4. Limited increases in wafer production capacity being prioritized for HBM manufacturing.

Which companies are worth watching?

As the memory industry is experiencing a supercycle characterized by strong demand and limited supply, the valuation of memory-related stocks is being readjusted. Fellow investors have also identified key companies in the supply chain that are worth monitoring, providing references for investors:

including the world's largest DRAM and HBM supplier $CSOP SK Hynix Daily (2x) Leveraged Product (07709.HK)$ , the world's second-largest DRAM supplier and third-largest HBM supplier $CSOP Samsung Electronics Daily (2x) Leveraged Product (07747.HK)$ , one of the world’s top three DRAM suppliers, the second-largest HBM supplier, and the fourth-largest player in the global NAND market $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ , the fifth-largest player in the global NAND market $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$ , the two leading global hard disk manufacturers $Western Digital (WDC.US)$ 、 $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$ ；

, and the global leader in NAND flash memory controller solutions $Silicon Motion Technology (SIMO.US)$ , as well as a U.S.-based memory IP company $Rambus (RMBS.US)$ , a global leader in memory storage technology $Marvell Technology (MRVL.US)$ , a memory storage packaging manufacturer $Lam Research (LRCX.US)$ , specializing in thin-film deposition systems for memory chip manufacturing processes $Applied Materials (AMAT.US)$ ; a leader in enterprise memory storage technology $NetApp (NTAP.US)$ , a global frontrunner in memory storage technology $Everpure (P.US)$ 。

Notably, Goldman Sachs highlighted in its latest research report that SanDisk’s Q3 performance exceeded expectations across the board, directly igniting market confidence.The firm raised $SanDisk (SNDK.US)$its target price to $280, stating that the NAND flash memory market will remain undersupplied through 2026, granting manufacturers significant pricing power,which will ultimately translate into soaring profit margins. The bank increased its EPS forecasts for 2025-2027 by an average of 79%, attributing tight capacity driven by AI server demand as a key factor behind the supply-demand imbalance. The market has yet to fully digest the profit explosion potential of this supercycle.

Bank of America believes that the rapid growth in data center demand is significantly driving NAND flash memory pricing, and the high gross margins of enterprise SSD products will become a major profit driver. The bank has raised its earnings per share forecast for SanDisk’s fiscal year 2026 by 15.4% to $8.The firm also substantially raised SanDisk's target price from $125 to $230.and maintained a Buy rating. Analysts at Bank of America believe that,amid an AI-driven storage supercycle, the price-to-book valuation multiple of this NAND supplier should be re-rated to a level of 3-4 times.

In light of the industry-wide upward pricing trend,UBS Group expressed optimism about the prospects of South Korea’s two major memory chip manufacturers and accordingly raised their financial forecasts and valuations.

For SK Hynix, UBS raised its revenue and operating profit forecasts for 2026 by 3% and 5%, respectively, and increased its forecasts for 2027 by 9% and 16%. In its report, UBS reiterated SK Hynix as its "top pick in the memory sector," emphasizing its leading position in the HBM market and predicting that the company will maintain a 51% market share in 2026.

For Samsung Electronics, UBS similarly raised its revenue and operating profit forecasts for 2026 by 2% and 7%, respectively, based on higher DDR pricing expectations; forecasts for 2027 were increased by 5% and 23%, respectively. UBS's updated operating profit forecast is 24% and 15% higher than the market consensus for 2026 and 2027, respectively, reflecting confidence in Samsung's profitability.

And $Micron Technology (MU.US)$in this aspect,Its financial report shows that the combined revenue contribution from three product categories—HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), high-capacity DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module), and server LP DRAM (Low Power Dynamic Random Access Memory)—reached $10 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, representing an increase of more than five times compared to the 2024 fiscal year. In the fourth fiscal quarter alone, HBM products generated nearly $2 billion in revenue.

Citi analyst Christopher Danely recently raised the price target for Micron Technology to $275. He forecasts that DRAM prices will rise by 25% in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, marking the highest quarterly increase since the 1990s.

Moreover, analysts at Morgan Stanley also noted,Data is the 'crude oil driving artificial intelligence,' and hard disk drive manufacturers will be significant beneficiaries.The analysts stated: "Given the consistently cyclical nature of the HDD industry, we believe the market is currently overlooking a key point: as long-term growth momentum strengthens and structural profit margins improve, $Western Digital (WDC.US)$and $Seagate Technology (STX.US)$valuations will continue to surpass historical levels."

Overall, the memory industry is entering a 'boom cycle.'However, Minsheng Securities also highlighted associated risks:

1. This cycle is AI-driven, and if CSP (Cloud Service Provider) capital expenditures fall short of expectations, it could adversely impact the memory industry, directly affecting the recovery of the cycle.

Currently, AI inference is primarily centered around KV Cache processing. Should there be a paradigm shift in inference technology, it could lead to changes in the memory hierarchy system and potentially have an adverse impact on storage requirements.

If the development of separate manufacturing for Logic die (logic chips) falls short of expectations, affecting the mass production timelines of DRAM technologies such as 4F2, it may result in unfavorable implications for the supply dynamics within the FAB and DRAM industries.

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