daily market digest

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

In brief

The memory and storage markets are entering September under meaningful structural pressure: DRAM and NAND prices hit record highs in August, the overall supply ratio for both has reportedly fallen below 50% according to BofA, and forward-looking forecasts from UBS and BofA point to further double-digit price increases over the next 12 months — though the pace of the August uptrend is noted to be slowing as markets approach peak-level stress. Procurement teams should treat current conditions as a sustained supply constraint, not a short-term spike.

Market snapshot

DDR5 index
118.9
flat on the day
SSD index
105.0
5.3% on the day

Base 100 at series start. Each index is the median price per gigabyte across in-stock SKUs we track, as recorded when this edition was written.

Index Snapshot

The DDR5 index sits at 118.9 (+0.0% in the past 24 hours), while the SSD index moved to 105.0 (+5.3% in 24 hours) — a notable single-session jump for storage with no single SKU driving it, suggesting broad-based upward repricing. No individual SKU-level moves were flagged this period.

DRAM & NAND Macro

BofA's data showing the global DRAM and NAND supply ratio falling below 50% is the clearest structural signal in today's news flow, with the bank forecasting a 10–20% price surge in September. UBS separately projects DRAM up more than 40% and NAND up more than 30% over the next year. August already saw record-high prices for both categories, though the rate of increase is beginning to slow. Cloud service provider (CSP) capital expenditure is a primary demand driver, with memory projected to account for 68% of cloud giant CapEx by 2027 — and one analysis suggesting memory costs could exceed GPU costs for cloud operators by that same year.

HBM Capacity Lock-Up: Indirect Risk for Standard DRAM

The HBM situation is worth tracking even for buyers focused on standard DDR5. Samsung has reportedly locked approximately 70% of its memory capacity into long-term agreements through 2031, with HBM3E spot prices running 4–5× above long-term agreement (LTA) levels. Samsung's HBM3E is now volume shipping to NVIDIA, and Micron's HBM4 has entered qualification. SK Hynix is committing $4 billion to U.S.-based HBM expansion. Fab capacity absorbed by HBM production directly constrains the commodity DRAM wafer pool — a structural overhang for standard module availability.

Enterprise SSD

On the storage side, the top five enterprise SSD vendors collectively reached nearly $37.59 billion in revenue in Q2 2026, driven by both higher prices and higher shipments. The 5.3% single-session move in the SSD index is consistent with this demand environment. Buyers with near-term enterprise SSD requirements should validate lead times now rather than assuming spot availability at current prices.

Data covers in-stock SKUs as of 2026-09-01. Indexes rebased to 100 at ByteWatch launch. Forward price estimates from third-party analysts; ByteWatch does not endorse or guarantee forecasts.

Sources cited

The digest may cite only reporting it was given. These are the outlets behind this edition.

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