Sony Halts Memory Card Sales Due to Global Semiconductor Shortage

The culprit behind Sony's sweeping memory card suspension isn't a factory fire or a logistics breakdown. It's AI.

Sony Japan announced on March 27, 2026 that it was temporarily suspending acceptance of orders for virtually its entire CFexpress and SD memory card portfolio, effective immediately, citing a global shortage of semiconductors driven in part by surging demand for data center SSDs tied to AI infrastructure buildout. The company's statement was unambiguous: "Due to the global shortage of semiconductors (memory) and other factors, it is anticipated that supply will not be able to meet demand for CFexpress memory cards and SD memory cards for the foreseeable future. Therefore, we have decided to temporarily suspend the acceptance of orders from our authorized dealers and from customers at the Sony Store from March 27, 2026 onwards."

Regarding a resumption of order acceptance, Sony stated it will "consider it while monitoring the supply situation" and will announce updates separately on its product information pages.

The scope of the suspension is broad. The freeze covers all of Sony's memory card lines, including CFexpress Type A cards in 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, and 1920GB capacities, and CFexpress Type B cards in 480GB and 240GB. Sony's full SD card range is also affected, including the 256GB, 128GB, and 64GB TOUGH-branded cards and the lower-end plainly-branded Sony SD lineup.

For photographers working in demanding production environments, the Type A cards are particularly notable. Sony's own Alpha cameras, including the A1 and A7S III, were built around CFexpress Type A as a native format, making Sony-branded cards a natural and often preferred choice in professional rental houses and broadcast workflows. Seeing the 1920GB Type A card among the suspended SKUs underscores how complete this pause really is.

Rapid AI data center expansion has been consuming massive amounts of DRAM and NAND, redirecting fabrication capacity away from consumer and prosumer storage segments. The downstream effect on CFexpress and SD markets, which already operate on thinner margins and smaller production runs than high-volume SSD products, has been building throughout 2025 and into 2026. Sony's decision to halt new orders rather than ration existing inventory signals how acute that pressure has become.

The practical fallout for photographers extends beyond a single brand. If the world's largest consumer electronics company cannot secure enough NAND to fill orders for its own memory cards, prices and lead times across competing CFexpress manufacturers are unlikely to remain stable. Pros shooting high-bitrate raw or ProRes workflows who have been running lean card inventories may want to act before those ripple effects fully materialize.

Sony framed the suspension as a supply-driven operational pause rather than a permanent market exit, and the company did not announce a timeline for when orders would resume. Until the supply situation clarifies, the safest assumption is that it will not be brief.