NOR Flash Memory Market Size (2024 - 2029)

NOR Flash Memory Market Analysis

The NOR Flash Memory Market size is estimated at USD 2.69 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 3.60 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 6.01% during the forecast period (2024-2029). In terms of shipment volume, the market is expected to grow from 4.48 billion units in 2024 to 7.76 billion units by 2029, at a CAGR of 11.63% during the forecast period (2024-2029).

The NOR flash memory sectors are witnessing a rapid growth rate due to their demand growth in various applications from automotive to consumer electronics. NOR flash is a memory and one of the types of non-volatile storage technologies.

• Consumer electronics devices have long been an integral part of modern lifestyles. Driven by the increasing demand for smartphones, smart TVs, and smart home appliances, the global consumer electronics market has regained its momentum over the past two years.
• However, the worldwide smartphone demand observed a noteworthy decline in 2023 compared to 2022 due to ongoing inflation, decreased consumer spending, and a weaker consumer outlook, which is expected to hamper the NOR flash memory market. The ASP of NOR flash declined significantly owing to growing stockpiles and demand. Due to weak demand in the end-user consumer electronics market as a result of sluggish economic growth, rising geopolitical tensions, and seasonal fluctuations in the industry, downstream inventory issues trickled to upstream memory chip suppliers, impacting both product demand and prices.
• On the contrary, the market is expected to recover slightly in FY 2024 owing to increased demand for 5G smartphones and growing 5G network connectivity across the nations. The increased proliferation of 5G smartphones and an increasing number of data centers worldwide drive the market’s growth. Given the capabilities and attractiveness of flash memory to the consumer market, it is clear why demand for it has rapidly grown.
• Research and development costs are anticipated to increase with the growing end-user requirements for NOR flash memory. Vendors such as Micron announced an investment of USD 15 billion to build a new fabrication facility for memory manufacturing in Boise, Idaho.
• Moreover, the company plans to co-locate the new manufacturing fab with Micron’s R&D center at its headquarters to enhance technology deployment and improve time to market with operational efficiency. This will cater to industries like automotive, data centers, and memory applications in artificial intelligence and 5G. This indicates the costly setup for the research and development and fabrication process and drives the challenges.
• Looking forward to the future, the global economic environment is still highly uncertain, and the memory industry is waiting to bounce back after bottoming out in the business cycle. Thus, major suppliers of NOR flash memory are working toward strengthening their R&D and increasing their revenue share for automotive products, especially EVs, as the direction of these trends is not expected to change due to geopolitical tensions or market downturns.

NOR Flash Memory Industry Segmentation

NOR flash is a memory and one of the types of non-volatile storage technologies. It is used for applications where individual bytes of data need to be written and read. The products are built to offer lower memory densities compared to NAND and enhance the power consumption in end-user devices. The market is defined by the revenue accrued by products offered in the market by the vendors.

The NOR flash memory market is segmented by type (serial NOR flash and parallel NOR flash), by end-user application (consumer electronics, communication, automotive, industrial, and other end-user applications), by density (2 MEGABIT and LESS NOR, 4 MEGABIT and LESS (>2 MB) NOR, 8 MEGABIT and LESS (>4 MB) NOR, 16 MEGABIT and LESS (>8 MB) NOR, 32 MEGABIT and LESS (>16 MB) NOR, 64 MEGABIT and LESS (>32 MB) NOR), and other densities), and by geography (Americas, Europe, Japan, China, and the Rest of the World). The report offers market forecasts and sizes in terms of volume (shipment units) and value (USD) for all the segments.