According to the latest memory price survey from TrendForce, the supply of MLC NAND is severely constrained due to production capacity for mature processes being diverted to higher-value products like high-layer-count 3D NAND. This shortage is compelling some industrial control, automotive, and networking communication clients to plan a switch to SLC NAND, which will exacerbate the already tight SLC supply situation.
Concurrently, demand for SLC from sectors such as AI edge computing, data centers, and automotive electronics continues to rise, rapidly widening the supply-demand gap. This is projected to drive SLC contract prices in the second half of 2026 up by 120-170% compared to the first half, with the possibility of further upward revisions.
TrendForce notes that MLC contract prices reached a historical peak in the first half of 2026, leading some buyers to adopt a more cautious procurement approach. However, clients in industrial control and automotive sectors, which have rigid requirements for memory certification and specifications, still need to replenish inventory. Faced with market unavailability and significant cost pressures, some clients who previously used mid-to-low capacity MLC are shifting to SLC 4Gb and 8Gb chips, which offer higher reliability and longer endurance (100,000 P/E cycles).
Furthermore, the four major niche applications for SLC are experiencing comprehensive growth, establishing a foundation of inelastic demand. In AI edge computing and high-end networking, as real-time AI inference rapidly extends to endpoints, smart factories, autonomous mobile devices, and next-gen network switches continue to ship, requiring SLC to support the fast booting of core real-time operating systems. Additionally, active national network infrastructure and data center projects are consuming large quantities of SLC NAND for boot drives and write-intensive buffers.
In automotive electronics and smart homes, SLC is needed to support systems requiring uninterrupted, error-free read/write operations. For extreme environments like medical imaging, aerospace, and defense, where zero data errors are tolerated, SLC has become a core technological solution for achieving long-term data preservation.
TrendForce points out that in the short term, major global SLC NAND suppliers have not planned new capacity expansions, focusing instead on process node shrinkage, yield improvement, and optimizing output per wafer. Confronted with the order-switching effect from MLC and the simultaneous explosion of demand from its original niche applications, the SLC market is expected to shift to a state of structural shortage in the second half of 2026. Considering factors such as the traditional stocking season in Q3 and the continued reduction in mature process supply alongside depleted inventories at suppliers in Q4, overall SLC prices in the second half of the year are anticipated to increase by 120-170% compared to the first half, with the potential for further hikes remaining.