High-capacity QLC SSDs: 122TB and 245TB drives meet a NAND squeeze

On 5 May 2026 Micron began shipping the 245.76TB version of its 6600 ION, a PCIe 5.0 data-centre SSD built on its G9 QLC NAND and offered in E3.L and U.2, extending the 122.88TB E3.S model already in the family. Micron quotes up to 13.7 GB/s sequential read, 3.0 GB/s sequential write, 1.78 million random read IOPS and a 30W maximum, and claims a 5.6x reduction in rack space against 44TB hard drives for an exabyte deployment. ServeTheHome’s reading is that this is a drive for dense AI data lakes rather than for peak transactional performance.

The class is now crowded. StorageReview’s August leaderboard lists Solidigm’s D5-P5336 at 122.88TB with an endurance rating of 134.3 PBW over a five-year warranty, about 0.6 drive writes per day, Kioxia’s CD9P-R and CM9-R at up to 61.44TB, and Micron’s 6600 ION at 245.76TB, with DapuStor’s R6060 also in the 122TB-plus bracket. Endurance for these drives has to be read carefully: the 6600 ION is rated 1.0 DWPD for sequential writes but 0.075 DWPD for 4K random writes, and several other drives quote separate figures by write pattern.

Prices moved first

Demand for these drives arrived at the same time as a NAND shortage. TrendForce’s review of the first quarter, reported by Astute in July, put enterprise SSD contract prices up about 80% quarter on quarter, with enterprise SSD revenue up 86% to 18.46 billion dollars, of which Samsung took 7.05 billion. Kioxia was described as ramping 218-layer NAND and validating 245TB QLC drives for higher-volume shipment later in 2026. Suppliers are prioritising high-capacity enterprise products over the broader market, and Gartner, quoted in the same piece, estimated that server costs rose more than 125% in the first half of the year.

By the end of September TrendForce expected NAND contract prices to rise a further 15% to 20% in 4Q26, with enterprise SSD the only category whose price growth accelerates, and enterprise SSD bit demand growing more than 80% in 2026. The analyst describes a split market: AI demand accelerating while consumer demand stays weak, and downstream channels increasingly unable to absorb wafer prices.

What it means for buyers

A 122TB QLC drive replaces a shelf of hard drives, but only for read-heavy workloads; check the random-write DWPD figure, not just the sequential one, and match it to the application. Expect lead times to be set by allocation rather than by shipping, and expect quotations to be valid for days rather than weeks while contract prices are still rising. If a storage project is funded, place the order with the form factor fixed (E3.S, E3.L and U.2 are not interchangeable without the right backplane) rather than holding out for lower prices that the published forecasts do not predict before 2027. InTechnologies can quote Solidigm, Micron, Kioxia and Samsung enterprise SSDs by part number.