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AI

AI is making demands; Micron’s G9 NAND SSDs deliver

Micron Technology | August 2025

A group shot of the Micron 6600, 7600, 9650 products

The AI revolution is no longer a distant promise: It’s here — reshaping industries, redefining user experiences and rearchitecting the very infrastructure that powers our digital world. From generative models that compose symphonies to real-time inference engines that drive autonomous systems, AI workloads are pushing the boundaries of what data centers must deliver. And at the heart of this transformation lies a foundational shift in data storage technology.

It’s clear: The next generation of AI demands a new class of SSDs, solutions that can keep pace with the exponential growth in data, the increasing complexity of models, the velocity of training and inference, and the energy demands of hyperscale AI. 

Micron’s 9th generation NAND SSD portfolio — the world’s first PCIe® Gen6 Micron 9650 NVMe SSD, the high-capacity 6600 ION NVMe SSD and the versatile Micron 7600 NVMe SSD, all of which are built on the G9 NAND architecture — are engineered precisely for this moment.

Why now? Because AI workloads are fundamentally different. They are not just larger — they are more dynamic, more parallel and more latency-sensitive than traditional enterprise applications. 

Training a large language model (LLM), for example, involves ingesting petabytes of data and executing billions of operations across GPU clusters. Inference, on the other hand, requires lightning-fast access to vector databases and low-latency response times for real-time decision-making. These demands expose the limitations of legacy storage and elevate the need for SSDs that are purpose-built for AI.

Welcome additions to the Micron AI family of products

Micron G9 NAND SSDs — specifically the 9650, 6600 ION and 7600 — represent a strategic leap forward. 

Let’s start with the performance leader, the Micron 9650 SSD. Built on Micron’s industry-leading G9 TLC NAND, this world’s first PCIe Gen6 SSD delivers up to 28 GB/s sequential reads and 5.5 million IOPS (input/output operations per second) random reads, as well as 14 GB/s sequential writes and 900,000 IOPS random writes. These results make it an ideal match for GPU-accelerated workloads like TensorFlow®, PyTorch® with CUDA®-X libraries, RAPIDS, Apache Spark with GPU acceleration, and NVIDIA® GPU Direct Storage. Its six-plane architecture ensures that data flows at the speed of compute, eliminating bottlenecks and maximizing throughput. With capacities up to 30.72TB and endurance options tailored for both read-intensive and mixed-use scenarios, the 9650 is not just fast, it’s also adaptable.

But performance alone isn’t enough. AI-scale environments also demand density and power efficiency. That’s where the record-setting Micron 6600 ION comes in. This ultradense G9 QLC (quad-level cell) NAND-based SSD redefines what’s possible in hyperscale storage. With capacities reaching 122TB in an E3.S form factor — and a roadmap to 245TB in an E3.L — it enables up to 4.88PB per 2U server. That’s transformative: It means fewer drives, less rack space, dramatically lower power consumption and improved total cost of ownership (TCO). In fact, compared to traditional HDDs, the 6600 ION delivers 3.4 times the density and 3,000 times the IOPS,1 making it a compelling choice for AI data lakes, model repositories and archival inference datasets.

Then there’s the Micron 7600, the mainstream Gen5 SSD that brings high performance to a broader set of workloads. With up to 12 GB/s reads, 2.1 million IOPS and sub-1ms latency at QD256 (queue depth of 256), it’s optimized for AI inference, OLTP (online transaction processing) databases and edge deployments. Its efficiency — measured in IOPS per watt — enables older drives to be consolidated and reduces the energy footprint of data center operations.

Together, these SSDs form a unified portfolio that addresses the full spectrum of AI infrastructure needs, from high-performance training to cost-effective storage and real-time inference. And they do so with a common architectural foundation — Micron’s industry-leading G9 NAND. 

This consistency matters. It simplifies qualification, streamlines deployment and ensures predictable performance across diverse environments. For more details and specifications about our portfolio of SSDs, check out our blog, “Micron G9 NAND-based SSDs set the pace for AI and cloud.”

A strategic differentiator for AI data centers

But this isn’t just about specs; it’s also about strategy. As AI becomes central to business innovation, the infrastructure behind it must evolve. Storage is no longer an afterthought; it’s a performance enabler, a cost driver and a competitive differentiator. Micron understands these capabilities. That’s why we’re not just building SSDs — we’re architecting solutions that align with the future of compute.

The reality is that AI workloads will only grow more demanding. Consider large-scale inference use cases, such as real-time fraud detection in financial systems or instant voice synthesis for next-gen customer service. Such uses rely on lightning-fast access to massive datasets and require SSDs that can deliver ultrahigh IOPS without latency bottlenecks. Even more cutting edge are AI-driven genomics pipelines that analyze terabytes of sequencing data in moments or dynamic recommendation engines that personalize user experiences in milliseconds across millions of users. These applications don’t just need storage, they also demand storage that’s purpose-built for the unique intensity, concurrency and responsiveness of AI inference, where every microsecond matters.

Models will get larger, training will become more complex, inference will get faster, data will get denser, and power efficiency will be more vital than ever. The winners in this space will be those who anticipate these future shifts and begin building for them today. 

Micron’s G9 NAND SSDs are a testament to that foresight. When it comes to data storage and movement in a data center, there is no one-size-fits-all solution; they require a full hierarchy of memory and storage solutions to meet the demands of these intense AI workloads. From Micron’s high-bandwidth memory, HBM4, to the 6600 ION SSD, Micron builds our solutions for AI. 

As we look ahead, the conversation must continue. How do we balance performance with sustainability? What new form factors will emerge to support AI at the edge? How will storage evolve to support technologies like federated learning and distributed AI? These are the questions we must explore — together.

Micron is proud to lead this dialogue. We invite our partners, customers and industry peers to join us in shaping the future of AI infrastructure — because the journey is just beginning, and the possibilities are extraordinary.

To learn about our complete portfolio of data center SSDs, visit Data center SSD storage solutions | Micron Technology, Inc.

1 HDD comparison is based on 42U rack with 36U allocated for server/storage. Each 2U accommodates 40 Micron 6600 ION SSDs (122.88TB each) or 100 HDDs in 5U server/storage bay and a theoretical quantity of 720 HDDs.