NOR Flash and SLC NAND Shortages Keep Pressure on Contract Prices Into Late 2026

According to the source, major memory suppliers continue to favor higher-value products such as HBM and advanced-layer 3D NAND, leaving mature-node NOR Flash and SLC NAND with constrained capacity. That imbalance already drove cumulative contract price increases above 100% in the first half of 2026, with estimated gains of roughly 100% to 120% for NOR Flash and about 130% to 150% for SLC NAND. The article says demand has remained firm across automotive, industrial, edge AI, networking, data center and other reliability-sensitive applications. High-density NOR Flash is benefiting from larger firmware footprints in ADAS, smart cockpit and edge AI devices, while SLC NAND demand is supported by industrial automation, robotics, networking equipment and enterprise server boot or buffer use cases. At the same time, no meaningful capacity expansion has been announced, and some vendors are reducing exposure to low-capacity, mature-node segments. For the second half of 2026, TrendForce expects the shortage to persist. The report indicates that high-density NOR Flash could see another 60% to 65% price increase, while SLC NAND could still rise around 70% to 75%, even if the pace slows versus the first half. The broader RamTrend implication is that AI-driven capacity prioritization is not only affecting headline products like HBM but is also tightening supply for older, high-reliability flash categories that remain essential in embedded and industrial systems.