Analyst: Recent negative rumors about NAND have been exaggerated; SanDisk's low-priced LTA is a strategic choice rather than weak demand
Citrini analyst Jukan published a response to the recent market rumors regarding bearish notes on NAND and negative news about QLC price negotiations. It is not surprising that SanDisk accepted a price lower than the initial offer when signing a long-term agreement with Meta, as SanDisk is one of the most proactive NAND manufacturers in pursuing LTAs, planning to allocate over 50% of its total shipments to such agreements. Based on this strategy, it is naturally willing to accept LTA prices lower than the current quarterly contract price, and it cannot be inferred that "SanDisk cannot seamlessly resell all orders to higher-bidding North American customers."In response to rumors that Chinese module manufacturers were rejected by domestic CSPs when promoting eSSD, Jukan explained that Chinese CSPs have direct procurement channels with Yangtze Memory Technologies and that the issue is not a lack of demand. Regarding the claim that large-scale cloud providers are driving down prices for QLC eSSD, leading to some volumes not being sold, he believes that new cloud providers have sufficient demand to absorb these volumes.Jukan concluded by stating that negative headlines are more easily amplified when storage stocks perform poorly, but the fundamentals have not shown substantial deterioration. He reiterated that he remains bullish on storage. Previously, Jukan had stated that DRAM contract prices still have about a 40% upside potential until the end of 2027, and HBM supply continues to be tight. This clarification on the NAND side further solidifies his bullish stance on the entire storage sector.