Chinese manufacturer YMTC has entered the global top three NAND flash suppliers for the first time, driven by increased shipments and a growing demand for enterprise SSDs, despite ongoing US trade restrictions.
YMTC has broken into the top three NAND flash suppliers worldwide for the first time, according to Counterpoint Research data cited by TechPowerUp. The Chinese manufacturer accounted for 14% of global NAND shipments in the second quarter of 2026, putting it behind Samsung on 25% and SK hynix, including Solidigm, on 22%.
That rise marks a sharp gain in physical output. YMTC increased NAND shipments by 22% year on year and by 5% from the previous quarter, helped by a market in which vendors with large volumes have been best placed to benefit. The company’s ascent also reflects a broader shift in the industry, where demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure has pushed enterprise SSDs to take a much larger share of NAND consumption.
According to Tom’s Hardware, enterprise SSDs accounted for 48% of all NAND bits shipped in the second quarter, up from 26% a year earlier. That change matters because enterprise products carry higher margins than consumer storage. YMTC remains heavily exposed to the latter, which helps explain why its position in revenue is weaker than its standing in unit shipments. In sales terms, it ranks fifth rather than third.
That gap also reflects the constraints imposed by US trade restrictions. Since late 2022, YMTC has been on the US Commerce Department’s Entity List, limiting access to advanced fabrication tools and effectively shutting it out of Western enterprise markets, according to Tom’s Hardware. The company has continued to expand regardless, mass-producing 267-layer 3D NAND and developing chips with more than 300 layers, while also building out capacity in Wuhan and planning further facilities.
Reports from DigiTimes, as cited by Tom’s Hardware, suggest YMTC is aiming for a 15% share of NAND production by the end of 2026 and is preparing a trial line using only Chinese-made manufacturing tools. That would underline how quickly the company has scaled despite sanctions, but it would not by itself solve the strategic challenge posed by enterprise demand. If AI-led spending keeps pushing the market further towards high-end SSDs, YMTC will still need a stronger foothold in that segment to defend its place among the industry’s leaders.
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