Sandisk crushes wallets with up to 2.8X SSD price hikes as NAND shortage strangles the market — WD Black SN8100 8TB skyrockets past $2,500, more than a high-end gaming PC

Sandisk, renowned for producing some of the market’s best SSDs, has substantially increased prices across its SSD portfolio in early 2026. In fact, some of the company's SSDs cost almost three times more than their normal MSRP.

Sandisk, like other SSD manufacturers, has adjusted its SSD pricing to align with current market volatility. Our SSD price tracker, which monitors SSD pricing trends across U.S. retailers, shows that Sandisk raised SSD prices this month. The distressing price hikes are now live on Sandisk’s official online store, where we can see firsthand the steep manufacturer markups. The price adjustment targets not only the premium drives but also the entire portfolio, making it a comprehensive price restructuring.

The flagship WD Black SN8100 series shows staggering price increases of up to 2.5X above their original MSRP. The newly added 8TB variant now commands an eye-watering price tag exceeding $2,500. Before the NAND shortage crisis, you could build a high-end gaming system with a Core Ultra 9 or Ryzen 9 chip and a GeForce RTX 5080 with that kind of money.

Despite announcing the rebranding of Western Digital's SSDs to the new Optimus moniker, Sandisk continues to use the previous branding in the meantime, likely to clear any remaining inventory. The Optimus drives are unavailable on Sandisk's webstore, although the company has projected an early 2026 release. Pricing for these Optimus SSDs is not yet available; therefore, the price increases apply to the existing WD Black and WD Blue lineups.

Sandisk SSD Price Hikes

The price surges don't stop at the top end. Rising prices are trickling down to Sandisk's entire SSD product stack. The WD Black SN7100 series has increased in price by 2.1X to 2.9X, depending on capacity. The more budget-oriented WD Blue SN5100 series shows from 2X up to 2.8X higher prices in comparison to the original MSRPs.

Sandisk recently reported stellar Q2 2025 results, with revenue of $3.03 billion, an impressive 61% year-over-year increase, and surpassing the $2.69 billion forecast. The company's edge business was the highest earner, generating $1.678 billion in revenue, while consumer and data center generated respectable figures of $907 million and $440 million, respectively.

The ongoing data center expansion, fueled by the AI boom, has created exceptionally high demand for memory, and chipmakers are prioritizing enterprise products over consumer products. Sandisk is among the handful of companies benefiting from the shortage, with its data center business seeing a very healthy 64% growth. It's easy to see why consumer drives are affected in the current market.

All indications are that the NAND shortage will persist through 2026. Many manufacturers are expanding production capacity, but that takes time to materialize. The AI revolution shows no signs of slowing, so SSD prices may rise further before they stabilize. Sandisk SSDs may now sell for almost 3X what they did a few months ago, and that price is likely to increase further as the year progresses.

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