Chen Libai, chairman of ADATA, bluntly stated in an interview a few days ago that the current simultaneous shortage of DRAM and NAND is a scene he has "not seen in more than 20 years."He said that market demand exceeded expectations, causing the original factory's safety stock to fall to a historical low. Currently, the original factory is in a state of "making as much as possible and selling as much as possible" and has no worries about sales.
In addition, due to the surge in gross profits of Korean and American original DRAM manufacturers, a large amount of NAND production capacity was transferred to DRAM production, which unexpectedly led to simultaneous shortages in the NAND market, creating a situation of double material shortage.
Under the extreme tightening on the supply side, Chen Libai said that although ADATA's order visibility is high, actual shipments are subject to the limited distribution of the original factory. He said helplessly: "I have been apologizing to customers recently because the goods are really not enough."
Chen Libai pointed out that now every customer is faced with the dilemma of "you can't buy goods even if you have money". Even the chairman and general manager have to personally negotiate with suppliers for supply. They are lucky to be able to get 30% of the original supply.
Since the supply side has absolute bargaining power, most non-CSP customers find it difficult to sign a one-year contract and can only accept short-term contracts with “monthly price negotiation”.
Chen Libai emphasized that the current demand for AI is real and rigid, and its sustainability and scale far exceed any previous storage shortages. The market will maintain a long-term bullish trend.
He predicts that DRAM and NAND products will still be in short supply in 2026. ADATA's strategy next year will be to "save sales" in the first half of the year and give priority to strategic main customers.
