The shift of AI workloads from training to inference is redrawing the NAND market’s pecking order. Counterpoint Research’s Q2 tallies put enterprise SSDs at 48 percent of all bits shipped, and that demand surge helped China’s YMTC climb past Micron and Kioxia to 14 percent of units, good for third place behind Samsung and SK Hynix.
Samsung still heads the rankings with 25 percent of units, down from 32 percent a year earlier. SK Hynix took the runner-up spot at 22 percent. Its US-based Solidigm subsidiary supplied much of the momentum, with bit shipments up 40 percent quarter over quarter. The revenue ladder looks different: YMTC lands fifth because its lineup leans on consumer products, with little of the premium datacenter eSSD business.
The AI transition left consumer supply short and drove industry revenue to records, roughly five times the Q2 2025 level. Buyers are stocking up on storage able to serve the KV caches and datasets that inference models need at low latency.
YMTC’s unit growth ran 22 percent year over year and 5 percent sequentially. Its Xtacking platform now runs 267-layer parts in volume, with 300-plus-layer generations in development, and the company has widened supply to domestic handset and server makers. Kioxia, third a quarter ago, slipped as pricier server drives cooled orders; Micron sits fifth in units but remains ahead of YMTC on revenue.
Fresh capital access underpins a second-half push to rebalance YMTC’s mix toward eSSDs.
