According to Japanese semiconductor industry sources, Apple has officially accepted Kioxia’s new NAND flash memory purchase agreement.Starting from the first quarter of 2026, the unit price of NAND flash memory supplied by Kioxia to Apple will double.
The core change in this agreement is not only a significant increase in flash memory prices,It also clarified for the first time the mechanism for dynamic price adjustment on a quarterly basis, and subsequent pricing will be flexibly adjusted according to changes in market supply and demand and price trends.This adjustment also marks a strong improvement in the bargaining power of upstream storage suppliers, completely reversing the industry structure that had long been dominated by major downstream terminal manufacturers.
Currently, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other companies are shopping for AI computing power regardless of cost, which directly drives the price of DRAM and NAND flash memory to skyrocket by more than 600% in the past year. Major storage manufacturers have prioritized their production capacity towards lucrative AI and data center orders, while consumer demand with lower gross profit margins has been ranked last in supply. As a result, Apple has to accept Kioxia's price increase terms.