Micron launches first PCIe 6.0 SSD aimed at AI data centers
- The first PCIe 6.0 SSD is commercially available for hyperscale AI environments
- Micron 9650 targets AI inference with sequential reads up to 28 GB/s
- Storage performance shifts to accelerator-powered data pipelines in hyperscale data centers
Micron said its 9650 NVMe SSD has entered mass production, making it the first PCIe 6.0 SSD on the market, although the customer list is likely limited to hyperscalers and giant AI data center operators rather than regular enterprise buyers.
The drive arrives as storage architecture adapts to support AI inference workloads that require faster, more predictable data access.
PCIe 6.0 doubles the bandwidth compared to PCIe 5.0, and the Micron 9650 uses that headroom to push sequential read speeds up to 28,000 MB/s. Sequential write performance hits 14,000 MB/s, while random read performance is listed at 5.5 million IOPS and random writes at 900,000 IOPS.
No general purpose storage
The 9650 NVMe SSD is not focused on general purpose storage. The player is designed for environments where AI models operate continuously at scale, extracting data quickly enough to avoid blockages in pipelines that rely on retrieval-augmented generation and large pop-ups.
As data flows more and more directly between storage and accelerators, higher PCIe bandwidth reduces CPU involvement and eliminates transfer bottlenecks.
Power efficiency plays a role in this equation because data centers cannot simply add performance without considering power limits.
Micron claims the 9650 delivers better performance per watt than PCIe 5.0 drives at similar power levels, including approximately double the sequential read efficiency.
The idea is to increase useful work without pushing installations beyond existing energy envelopes.
Cooling requirements are also changing as storage performance increases alongside GPUs. The Micron 9650 supports both air- and liquid-cooled configurations for setups where airflow alone is not enough to manage the heat in dense AI racks.
Micron spent approximately 18 months validating interoperability in the PCIe 6.0 ecosystem, performing tests with switches, retimers, and extended cable configurations before putting the drive into production.
The memory giant has already showcased the drive at several industry events, including DesignCon, FMS 2025 and SC25, to demonstrate how it works within complete systems rather than in isolated tests.
With mass production underway and testing underway with hardware partners and major AI data center customers, Micron’s 9650 marks the first real step toward PCIe 6.0 storage for AI inference systems.
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