SanDisk projects KV cache to drive 35% of AI data center NAND workloads by 2030

SanDisk, a company recently spun off from Western Digital, projects that KV cache will drive 35% of all AI data center NAND flash workloads by 2030. The company anticipates that KV cache alone could generate demand for 75 to 100 exabytes of additional NAND by 2027, with that demand potentially doubling by 2028.

KV cache stores key-value pairs generated during AI model processing to prevent redundant computation. As AI models manage longer context windows and more simultaneous users, storage requirements are increasing. SanDisk aims to address this by offloading KV cache to NAND flash storage, rather than relying solely on high-bandwidth memory or DRAM. To support these workloads, the company showcased PCIe Gen5 enterprise drives with capacities up to 256 TB.