According to recent analysis from TrendForce, the demand for enterprise SSDs in Q4 2024 remained consistent with the previous quarter, primarily fueled by the introduction of NVIDIA H-series products and ongoing purchases from major cloud service providers (CSPs) in China.
Market Trends and Financial Overview
Despite stable demand, contract prices for enterprise SSDs stalled due to a downturn in the consumer electronics sector, causing prices to hold steady at Q3 levels. Consequently, major suppliers reported total enterprise SSD revenues of $7.34 billion, reflecting a minor decline of 0.5% compared to the previous quarter.
Forecast for Q1 2025
Looking towards the first quarter of 2025, demand for 4TB and 8TB enterprise SSDs is anticipated to benefit from AI training workloads. However, overall growth in procurement is limited due to seasonal demand slowdowns. The market is also experiencing an oversupply, prompting some suppliers to aggressively clear 16TB and 30TB SSD inventories. As a result, contract prices are expected to decrease significantly, projected to drop between 18% and 23%. Additionally, enterprise SSD revenues are forecasted to decline by nearly 30%. Improvements in market conditions are expected in the second half of 2025.
Supplier Performance
In Q4 2024, Samsung maintained the largest market share but faced a nearly 10% revenue drop, totaling $2.9 billion. This decline was attributed to capacity adjustments that did not keep pace with stronger order growth, leading to delays in fulfilling orders.
SK Group, which includes SK hynix and Solidigm, ranked second with an 11.8% quarter-over-quarter revenue increase to $2.3 billion. The integration synergies from Solidigm’s acquisition are becoming increasingly apparent, and the mass production of SK’s TLC-based PCIe 5.0 SSDs is expected to enhance their market presence.
Micron Technology, Inc. held steady with revenue of $1.17 billion, maintaining a 16% market share despite a decrease in demand for 30TB SSDs. The company focused on expanding its server customer base to sustain its performance.
Kioxia Corporation leveraged growing partnerships with North American CSPs, significantly increasing enterprise SSD shipments. Consequently, the company achieved a revenue rise of 13.8% quarter-over-quarter to $724 million, placing it fourth in the rankings. In contrast, Western Digital/SanDisk struggled with weak demand for high-capacity products, resulting in only $245 million in revenue for Q4 2024, positioning them in fifth place.