Silicon Motion confirms a turn in the SSD market: the retail channel sinks while PC manufacturers absorb more and more units

The consumer SSD market is going through a fundamental change in 2026, and one of the voices that best sums it up comes from within the supply chain itself. Nelson Duann, vice president of silicon motionhe assured in an interview with Tom’s Hardware during Computex 2026 that the SSD retail market “has almost disappeared” in the first half of the year. It does not mean that units have stopped being sold, but rather that a growing part of the volume no longer ends up in stores or in the usual channel for end users, but directly in the hands of PC manufacturers.

The explanation offered by the manager connects with a trend that we have been seeing for months in memory and storage. Large NAND manufacturers are prioritizing supply for data centers and infrastructure linked to artificial intelligencea movement that has made consumer SSDs more expensive and has altered product distribution. We have even seen legendary brands like Crucial fall.

According to Duann, this has forced brands such as Acer, ASUS, Dell or HP to resort more intensively to the so-called module makersthat is, companies that assemble finished SSDs using controllers and NAND purchased from third parties. Historically, these companies were very focused on the retail market and units that ended up in the hands of enthusiasts or users who upgraded their equipment on their own. Now, however, an important part of its production is changing destination and is heading to large computer manufacturers.

NAND goes to the data center and changes the market balance

The movement has industrial logic. If memory manufacturers devote more capacity to higher-margin products for AI and servers, they leave less room for the traditional PC customer. This not only puts pressure on SSD prices for the end user, but also forces the commercial chain to be reconfigured. Duann explains that OEMs are no longer getting enough direct supply from NAND manufacturers, so they are purchasing more units from third-party assemblers, who in turn continue to purchase controllers from companies like Silicon Motion.

The consequence is that part of the business changes shape. The retail channel weakens, but volume continues to move towards the OEM market. From Silicon Motion’s point of view, that even has a positive side, because the company continues to sell many SSD controllers to module manufacturersalthough those products no longer end up on a store shelf or in the typical aftermarket SSD with a heatsink and enthusiast packaging.

In fact, Duann himself points out that not so long ago the majority of these assemblers lived primarily off the retail market. However, since the end of last year and throughout 2026, OEM demand has gained much more weight and now absorbs a significant part of their production. That is to say, the SSD that was previously aimed at the user who wanted to expand their laptop or build a new desktop is increasingly ending up inside a computer already assembled by a large manufacturer.

A market that does not sink completely, but does change location

What emerges from all this is that the reallocation of NAND towards AI is causing structural changes in the storage market. Some companies are hurt, especially those most exposed to pure consumption or the retail channel. Others, such as independent SSD controller developers, may even benefit if demand for server and build drives continues to grow.

Therefore, when Silicon Motion says that the retail market has almost disappeared, it is not describing a literal disappearance of the consumer SSD, but a displacement of the business. The end user finds themselves with less attractive offers in stores, higher prices and less prominence of the direct update channel. Meanwhile, PC makers and integrators absorb more product because the available NAND is now distributed with a different logic. AI is not only stressing the marketbut rather it is redrawing who buys, who builds, and who gets an increasing share of available NAND storage.