China’s YMTC now rivals SanDisk and Micron on NAND flash market share.
Per Counterpoint Research data, these three firms each captured an identical 13% slice of the NAND market during Q1 2026. Kioxia took a slight lead at 14%, SK Hynix held 18%, while Samsung retained the top spot with an overwhelming 29% market share.
SanDisk’s market proportion stayed flat from Q1 2025 to the same quarter this year. Over the 12-month timeframe, SK Hynix’s share climbed 2 percentage points, yet Micron and Samsung each shed 2 points, Kioxia lost 3 points, and YMTC posted a 5-percentage-point gain.
Counterpoint Research published Q1 2026 market share breakdowns for all NAND chip vendors.
Many industry observers regularly refer to TrendForce’s global NAND market share data, yet its Q1 2026 ranking of the world’s five largest enterprise SSD vendors excludes YMTC entirely.
TrendForce’s Q1 2026 ranking of the top five NAND suppliers.
In-depth research tracking YMTC’s production capacity and wafer output is mostly contained within TrendForce’s paid subscription reports rather than its freely accessible top-vendor rankings. Even with this caveat, SanDisk’s 4.1% share listed by TrendForce stands in sharp contrast to Counterpoint’s 13% figure, a gap partially attributable to SanDisk’s consumer flash storage division.
TrendForce released a July briefing covering NAND flash industry trends, noting the market has faced tight supply throughout 2026 with a 4% to 5% supply shortfall. This imbalance stems from skyrocketing AI storage demand paired with restrained capacity expansion plans. The agency forecasts that manufacturers’ ongoing process node transitions, gradual rises in total bit production, and sluggish consumer electronics demand will slowly bring supply and demand back into alignment, with current supply constraints set to ease in the second half of 2027.
Chipmakers from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan plan to keep upgrading existing fabrication lines and selectively ramp production at current fabs to lift overall market supply volumes.
In contrast, Chinese memory manufacturers will roll out substantial new production capacity as new fabrication equipment goes into operation, pushing their global share of total NAND bit output close to 19%. Counterpoint appears to have spotted this growth shift earlier than TrendForce.
YMTC primarily supplies its NAND chips to domestic Chinese buyers instead of global overseas markets. As its production volumes expand, local domestic demand will rely more heavily on YMTC’s memory products.
TrendForce’s analysis shows server hardware makes up over 40% of total global NAND bit demand, while smartphones and laptops combined account for roughly another 40%. This means consumer electronics demand remains a critical factor shaping the overall trajectory of the NAND market.
Beijing Qianxing Jietong Technology Co., Ltd.
Sandy Yang/Global Strategy Director
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Email: yangyd@qianxingdata.com
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