Phison: NAND shortage could hit consumer electronics in 2026
Phison CEO K.S. Pua Khein-Seng has warned that an incoming NAND shortage in 2026 could be severe enough to disrupt, or even temporarily shut down, parts of the consumer electronics supply chain. In recent comments, Pua argued that memory allocation is increasingly being pulled towards AI infrastructure, leaving consumer OEMs exposed on both availability and price.
NAND shortage 2026: why Phison is sounding the alarm
The headline claim is not only that supply will tighten, but that procurement terms may also harden. Pua reportedly said at least one foundry is demanding a three-year cash prepayment up front for capacity. If accurate, that kind of working-capital requirement would be difficult for smaller device makers to absorb, especially in segments where margins are thin and bill-of-materials volatility is already high.
His thesis is that this cycle is being driven less by the usual consumer refresh patterns and more by structural demand from data centres: GPUs and AI servers require large pools of DRAM, HBM and flash storage, while memory makers prioritise higher-margin enterprise products and newer nodes. The result, in Phison’s view, is a squeeze that hits downstream brands first: fewer configurations available, higher end-user prices, and, for some firms, forced exits from product lines.
Market signals already point to higher NAND pricing
Independent market watchers have also been pointing to steep near-term price rises. TrendForce recently upgraded its Q1 2026 outlook, expecting memory pricing pressure to feed through into retail electronics, with smartphone production at risk of a sharper decline in 2026. As previously reported by eeNews Europe when memory pricing forecasts for early 2026 were revised sharply upwards, analysts have been flagging that both DRAM and NAND contract pricing is moving fast.
Whether the worst-case “shutdown” scenario materialises or not, the practical takeaway for consumer electronics firms is straightforward: the NAND shortage 2026 risk is not just about chips being unavailable; it is also about who can finance supply, lock in allocation, and pass costs along. If procurement leverage shifts further towards suppliers and foundries, smaller brands could be the first to feel the bite of a prolonged NAND shortage 2026.
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