SSDs Have Become More Expensive Than Gold by Similar Weight
Tom's Hardware editors conducted an unusual study, inspired by a post on Reddit. Due to the prolonged shortage of memory chips caused by the AI boom, prices for high-capacity SSDs have soared to historic highs, making it time to compare the cost of storage drives with the price of real gold.
Currently, 1 gram of gold is valued at approximately $148. The average weight of an M.2 format NVMe drive (without a heatsink) is about 8–8.2 grams (for 4 TB and 8 TB models, respectively). Thus, the "gold equivalent" of one SSD costs about $1184. At the same time, the average price tag for an 8 TB SSD now exceeds $1500.
However, yes, 4-terabyte solutions are still cheaper than their weight equivalent in gold.