Analyst: Recent negative rumors about NAND have been overblown; SanDisk’s low-priced LTA is a strategic choice rather than weak demand

ME News message, July 25 (UTC+8). Analyst Jukan from Citrini posted a response addressing recent market rumors about bearish notes on NAND and negative developments tied to QLC price negotiations. It’s not surprising that when SanDisk and Meta signed a long-term agreement, they accepted pricing lower than the initial quote. SanDisk is one of the most proactive NAND vendors in pushing for LTA; it plans to allocate more than 50% of its total shipment volume to such agreements. Based on this strategy, it naturally would be willing to accept LTA pricing below the current quarter’s contract price, so it’s not possible to infer that “SanDisk is unable to seamlessly resell all orders to higher-bidding North American customers.”

Regarding rumors that Chinese module makers were rejected when trying to promote eSSD to domestic CSPs, Jukan explained that Chinese CSPs have direct procurement channels to purchase from Yangtze Memory rather than lacking demand. As for claims that large hyperscalers drive down QLC eSSD prices, resulting in some quantities being unsellable, Jukan believes new cloud vendors have sufficient demand to absorb those volumes.

Jukan concluded that when storage stocks underperform, negative headlines are more likely to be amplified, but the fundamentals have not deteriorated meaningfully. Reiterating, “still bullish on storage.” Previously, Jukan said that DRAM contract prices still have around 40% upside potential by the end of 2027, and that HBM supply continues to remain relatively tight. This clarification on the NAND side further reinforces his bullish stance toward the entire storage sector. (Source: ChainCatcher)