Memory prices in Q4 2026: enterprise SSDs up as much as 28 percent, Micron expects 2027 to be tighter

Two releases on 30 September 2026 matter for any server or storage purchase scheduled for 2027. The market research firm TrendForce expects Q4 contract prices for conventional DRAM to rise 10 to 15 percent over the previous quarter and NAND flash 15 to 20 percent. For enterprise SSDs the abstract of the underlying report gives 23 to 28 percent, and the press release says this is the only memory category whose increase is larger than in the third quarter. On the same day Micron published its fiscal 2026 results and told analysts on the call that supply will be even tighter in 2027 and 2028.

How prices moved over the twelve months before this is covered in our post Memory prices after a year of crisis. This one deals only with the new numbers and with one question: order the servers, SSDs and RAM planned for 2027 now, or wait.

What TrendForce expects for Q4

TrendForce says DRAM increases are slowing, without stopping. Suppliers give their advanced-process capacity to server products first, and the market stays undersupplied. For server DRAM, cloud providers and server OEMs are ordering more RDIMMs for general-purpose servers now that server CPUs are easier to get. Suppliers have responded by shipping more low-capacity modules. With some suppliers, increases stay below the market average because of pricing terms in long-term agreements. PC DRAM supply could shrink in 2027 as more capacity moves to servers.

For enterprise SSDs, TrendForce puts 2026 bit demand growth at more than 80 percent, driven by cloud providers building inference capacity. QLC drives are used to hold KV caches and for vector databases. QLC capacity is being expanded, but according to TrendForce most of the additional supply is already committed, and little is left on the open market.

Client SSDs see smaller increases. PC makers are covering Q4 from stock built in the first half of the year and fitting smaller SSDs into mainstream models to cut material cost, so NAND suppliers are holding back on price rises there.

Every number in this table traces back to TrendForce. Reports such as those by Evertiq and ComputerBase repeat the same press release. We found no second, independent forecast and no dissenting one. The 23 to 28 percent for enterprise SSDs appears only in the public abstract; the full report costs USD 30,000 and is not public.

What Micron reported

In its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on 3 September, Micron took in USD 54.23 billion, against 11.32 billion a year earlier. Gross margin was 86.8 percent and net income 37.70 billion. Full-year revenue came to 133.19 billion after 37.38 billion the year before. For the current quarter Micron guides to 61.5 billion, plus or minus 1.5 billion.

One line in the business-unit table is worth a server buyer's attention. Core Data Center, which heise describes as data centres and servers outside the large cloud providers, had USD 18.0 billion in revenue at a 90 percent gross margin, up from 41 percent a year earlier. The cloud business came to 16.3 billion at 83 percent. Memory for ordinary servers is now Micron's largest unit and earns a higher margin than its hyperscaler business.

The statements about 2027 and 2028 come from the earnings call and are not in the press release. According to The Register, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said demand will exceed supply in 2027 and 2028, that both years will be tighter than 2026, and that he has no line of sight to when supply and demand return to balance. New fabs arrive in 2028 and are not expected to bring immediate relief. heise quotes him as saying 75 percent of Micron's 2027 output is already allocated to customers, and that DRAM prices rose in the high teens and NAND by about 30 percent during the quarter. These are the words of a supplier that profits from exactly this shortage. We did not read a transcript of the call; the quotes come from the two reports.

What reaches end devices

Between 1 and 2 October Samsung raised list prices for the Galaxy S26 range in its own German web store by 100 euros, and by 200 euros for the 1 TB Ultra. The Galaxy S26 with 256 GB now lists at 1,099 euros, up from 999 according to heise. heise notes that retail prices are still well below list.

On 1 October Raspberry Pi raised the price of the 2 GB Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 by USD 12.50, to 67.50 and 77.50, citing memory costs. The company advises customers not to pay for RAM they do not need.

Order now or wait

None of this week's sources gives a reason to wait. TrendForce sees enterprise SSD prices accelerating, Micron expects 2027 and 2028 to be tighter than 2026, and both say most additional supply is already committed. Against buying early: both statements come from market participants who watch one side of the market or profit from it, and capital tied up in hardware costs money. Anyone still weighing buying against renting finds the figures for that decision in On-premises versus cloud. Cloud providers buy the same SSDs and pass the cost into their prices.

Our recommendation depends on how far planning has got. If a project starting in 2027 has a fixed configuration and an approved budget, it pays to order servers, SSDs and RAM within Q4, with a price commitment and a confirmed delivery date in the quote. Going by the TrendForce forecast, enterprise SSDs are the most urgent part. If the requirement is still open, buying spare capacity on speculation is the more expensive bet: size the configuration to the actual need, ask for quotes with short validity and tie the order date to the budget approval.

Further sources

• TrendForce, press release of 30 Sep 2026 on Q4 contract prices, DRAM, NAND and the reasoning on enterprise SSDs
• TrendForce, report page 4Q26 Memory Price Forecast, abstract with 23 to 28 percent for enterprise SSDs
• Micron, fiscal Q4 and full-year 2026 results, revenue, margin, business-unit table
• The Register on the Micron earnings call, quotes on 2027 and 2028, new fabs
• heise on Micron (German), 75 percent of 2027 output allocated, unit margins
• Evertiq on the TrendForce forecast, same figures restated
• ComputerBase on the TrendForce forecast (German), German summary
• heise on Galaxy S26 prices (German), old and new list prices
• Samsung web store, Galaxy S26 (Germany), current list prices
• Raspberry Pi, price increase for the 2 GB models, new prices and reasoning