Qunlian talks about storage shortage: It will take up to 4 years to add new NAND production capacity, and supply shortage may last for many years

IT House reported on August 15 that Pan Jiancheng, chairman and general manager of Phison Electronics (Co., Ltd.), said at the financial report conference that the time required for the newly expanded NAND flash memory capacity from investment to actual mass production is much longer than market expectations, and the tight supply and demand situation may continue for many years. He pointed out that the market generally believes that after the price of memory chips rises, original manufacturers can quickly increase capital expenditures to expand production capacity, but this is not the actual situation. When he recently communicated with NAND original factory executives, he asked how long it would take from investment to mass production. The original estimate was about two years, but the answer given by the other party was "four years." Even if the current NAND price rises, Phison will not sell a large amount of inventory. Otherwise, if it cannot regain sufficient supply in the future, it may affect the supply of long-term customer projects. AI has become an important source of growth for Phison. In the second quarter of 2026, Qunlian's consolidated revenue reached NT$67.888 billion (IT House note: the current exchange rate is approximately NT$14.256 billion), a month-on-month increase of 65.7%, a year-on-year increase of 279.5%; gross profit margin climbed to 65.3%, a record high; after-tax net profit reached NT$26.219 billion, a month-on-month increase 72.8%, a year-on-year increase of approximately 34 times. Pan Jiancheng believes that in the past, NAND demand was mainly driven by shipments of PCs and smartphones, as well as increases in storage capacity of single devices. After entering the AI ​​era, the amount of pictures, videos and AI Agent data generated by generative AI continues to increase, and storage demand is gradually shifting from the traditional consumer electronics boom cycle to more long-term structural growth. However, the increase in NAND prices will also push up Phison's own procurement costs, so the increase in product selling prices does not mean that gross profit margin will increase simultaneously. Phison's gross profit margin reached 65.3% in the second quarter, a record high, but the company still needs to increase the added value of its products through research and development, enterprise-level SSDs and AI-related platforms. Related reading: "Phison's 2026Q2 total revenue increased by 279.5% year-on-year, and net profit increased by 3419.3% year-on-year