A terabyte‑sized M.2 SSD now sells for almost a thousand dollars when its capacity reaches 16 TB

News: Solid-state drive Exascend PE4 – 16 TB for almost $16,000

On Amazon’s marketplace the SSD Exascend PE4 with a capacity of 16 TB is available at $15,935. This equates to a unit cost of about $996 per TB, making it one of the most expensive drives on the market.

Key specifications
Parameter Value Format
M.2 NVMe (2280) Interface PCIe 4.0 x4 Read speed up to 3,270 MB/s Write speed up to 2,980 MB/s

Although its speed is not the highest among modern SSDs, the main “reason” for such a capacity is sheer size. For the M.2 2280 form factor a specific value of 15.36 TB is listed, and the manufacturer’s page also mentions U.2 and E1.S formats.

Target market
Exascend markets this drive as enterprise equipment:

- Server workloads;
- Data‑center environments with limited space;
- NAS devices;
- Workstation caching.

It is not a “consumer” SSD, and the price is justified in that context.

Market comparison
At Computex 2024 AGI and Patriot showcased 16 TB M.2 drives. At that time 8‑TB models were priced around €2,000, leading to expectations that 16‑TB versions would cost roughly twice as much. Since then the market has shifted significantly: current price estimates turned out to be too optimistic, and Exascend presents a more realistic price range.

Bottom line: The Exascend PE4 is a high‑capacity enterprise SSD with moderate speed, costing almost $16,000. Its price is justified by its target audience and the formats available for server and data‑center solutions.