Just when I had dared to hope the memory supply crisis might begin to feel slightly less apocalyptic, Phison Electronics CEO Khein-seng Pua has sounded the alarm that NAND prices are still climbing at an alarming rate. This time, Pua says that NAND prices jumped up by 50% overnight.This price increase is chiefly driven by outsized demand—namely from the AI industry—and severe supply constraints. As such, the Taiwanese memory controller supplier counts both hyperscale AI operators and cloud service providers among its recent clients, with enterprise SSDs now accounting for 30% of Phison's Q1 2026 revenue (Via DigiTimes).But even in such a financially favourable position, Phison is still having to contend with a tricky supply landscape. Though the company has already signed long-term agreements with two DRAM as well as six NAND suppliers, it is continuing to negotiate prepayment plans to ensure it will have priority access to supply should the shortage continue to worsen.It is a popular belief that suppliers are raking it in during this memory shortage—and to be clear, Phison's inventory did rise from NT$35.6 billion to NT$50 billion between the end of 2025 and the last day of February 2026. Still, Khein-seng Pua has said, "Our current concern is that both money and inventory are insufficient."Indeed, the company board has recently approved a syndicated loan plan between US$400 million to US$500 million to better support both its growing inventory, as well as research and development costs.
