China's Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) achieved a major milestone in the second quarter of 2026, capturing 14% of global NAND flash shipments to rank third globally for the first time, narrowly displacing Kioxia. This shift comes amid an AI-driven surge where enterprise SSDs absorbed 48% of all NAND shipments. However, YMTC remains fifth in revenue terms due to its heavy reliance on lower-margin consumer products, as U.S. Entity List restrictions block its access to lucrative Western server markets.
YMTC third-place shipment ranking
- ▪Counterpoint Research Director MS Hwang stated that a 15% market share is the minimum required for a memory manufacturer to fund its own capital expenditures for future growth.
- ▪Counterpoint Research Director MS Hwang projected that Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation will pull further ahead in the NAND flash market in 2027 and 2028.
- ▪Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation shipped 14% of the world's NAND flash memory by volume in the second quarter of 2026, entering the global top three for the first time.
- ▪Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation narrowly displaced Japan's Kioxia Holdings Corporation to claim the number three spot in global NAND flash shipments in the second quarter of 2026.
Enterprise SSD demand surge
- ▪Enterprise solid-state drives in servers are projected to absorb more than half of all global NAND bits shipped by the end of 2026.
- ▪The surge in enterprise solid-state drive demand in the second quarter of 2026 was driven by artificial intelligence inference workloads shifting from training to inference.
- ▪Enterprise solid-state drives accounted for 48% of total global NAND bit shipments in the second quarter of 2026, up from 26% in the same period a year earlier.
NAND supply shortage impact
- ▪NAND contract prices rose approximately 75% in the second quarter of 2026 alone, pushing consumer average selling prices to record highs.
- ▪Global NAND industry revenue grew fivefold in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the second quarter of 2025, driven by supply tightness and server storage demand.
YMTC revenue market position
- ▪Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation's lower revenue ranking stems from its heavy exposure to lower-margin consumer products and a small footprint in high-value enterprise solid-state drives.
- ▪The U.S. Entity List has included Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation since December 2022, barring the company from achieving Western server qualification and limiting its market.
- ▪Despite ranking third in shipment volume, Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation ranked fifth globally in NAND revenue for the second quarter of 2026, trailing behind Micron Technology and Kioxia.
- ▪Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation plans to shift its product mix toward enterprise solid-state drives in the second half of 2026, supported by growing avenues for capital support.
Competitive landscape shifts
- ▪Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation is preparing to go public in mainland China, following the July 2026 market debut of DRAM-focused Chinese memory chip company CXMT.
- ▪Kioxia Holdings Corporation's NAND shipment growth trailed Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation in the second quarter of 2026 as rising server prices slowed customer purchases.
- ▪SK hynix held the second position in global NAND shipments with a 22% market share in the second quarter of 2026, supported by a 40% quarter-over-quarter shipment increase from its subsidiary Solidigm.
- ▪Samsung Electronics capped its NAND output in the second quarter of 2026 to prioritize the production of higher-margin DRAM.
- ▪Samsung Electronics maintained the global NAND shipment lead in the second quarter of 2026 with a 25% market share, down from 32% in the second quarter of 2024.
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