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There is ongoing debate about the fact that many well-known global companies continue to operate in Russia despite sanctions. The SSD market is no exception.
In today’s computing landscape, SSDs have become essential. They improve operating system performance, reduce loading times, enhance gaming experiences, and speed up working with large files. Additionally, SSDs play a crucial role in servers and cloud storage, significantly improving data access speeds.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the SSD market in the country was structured as follows:
At the start of the full-scale war, many global brands voiced their support for Ukraine, withdrawing from the Russian market, closing official offices, and halting product sales. This included SSD manufacturers. It seemed like a clear and expected response, but the reality turned out to be more complicated.
According to official data from Futuresource-consulting, the Russian SSD market for PCs and laptops has been dominated by three brands over the past two to three years. Leading the market is Taiwanese hardware manufacturer ADATA, holding around 30% of total SSD sales. In second place is another Taiwanese company, Apacer Technology Inc., with a market share of 10–15%. Rounding out the top three is the American brand Patriot Memory, which accounts for 10% of sales. Notably, while many major players exited the market, ADATA remained, while Apacer and Patriot entered during the war.
Over the past year, 4.8 million SSD units were sold in Russia. The three aforementioned brands accounted for at least 2.3 million of those sales, securing nearly half of the market. Taxes from these sales contributed to the Russian budget, which in turn funded military operations and missile production used against Ukrainian cities. Despite publicly stating their intent to exit the Russian market and support Ukraine for over two years, these companies have continued their operations there.
The situation in the Enterprise SSD market is even more concerning. These drives are used in servers and cloud storage and can also have military applications, posing a direct threat to Ukraine and its civilian population. The undisputed leader in this segment is the Taiwanese company Transcend Information, which holds approximately 30% of the market for server SSDs. This is a significant share, especially given that Russian corporations frequently cite a shortage of such solutions. In effect, Transcend continues to supply nearly a third of Russia’s enterprise SSD demand.
For the companies mentioned above, it’s simply business. Therefore, before building your PC or replacing a laptop drive, consider the fact that some continue to do business with our adversary.
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