Macronix Phases Out Nintendo Switch Game Card ROM, Now 5% of Sales
Macronix chairman Miin Wu said ROM fell to 5% of sales from 26% as NT$37.8 billion in capex goes to NOR and NAND flash for data centers, the Taipei Times reported. Nintendo has not commented.
Chips & Power DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
Macronix's NT$37.8 billion capex, none of it for ROM, as reported by the Taipei Times.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Macronix International is phasing out ROM chip production, the part used in Nintendo Switch game cards, to make more NOR and NAND flash for data centers, chairman Miin Wu said on the company's third-quarter earnings call, according to the Taipei Times as cited by Tom's Hardware and Engadget.
ROM fell to 5% of Macronix sales in the third quarter from 26% a year earlier, per the Taipei Times.
Illustration (AI-generated)
ROM, the read-only memory used in Nintendo Switch game cards, fell to 5% of Macronix's third-quarter sales from 26% a year earlier, according to Tom's Hardware and Engadget. Analyst David Gibson of MST Financial said Macronix will launch no new ROM products and that the third quarter is the last in which it reports ROM sales separately. Engadget reported record quarterly net profit of $337 million.
Wu tied the shift to AI infrastructure demand. The Taipei Times quoted him saying the move is not due to slowing NOR flash demand, and Engadget relayed his remark that customers are demanding more NOR flash for data centers. In effect, fab capacity at one of the largest NOR flash makers is moving away from a consumer part and toward data-center flash.
Where Macronix's NT$37.8 Billion Capex Goes
Macronix's capital expenditure plan is NT$37.8 billion, per Tom's Hardware citing the Taipei Times, with none of it for ROM. The first phase, NT$22 billion, expands manufacturing capacity. A further NT$15.8 billion goes to NAND flash used in eMMC (embedded storage) and 3D NAND.
What the ROM Phase-Out Means for Flash Supply and Nintendo
For buyers of NOR and NAND, the signal is that a major supplier is allocating new capacity to data-center demand, which is already straining everyday storage supply, a theme in Sandisk's data center sales. For Nintendo, the effect is indirect. Tom's Hardware reports that Nintendo does not buy from Macronix directly: fabless designer MegaChips designs Nintendo's ROM chips and outsources manufacturing, and Macronix accounted for 67.8% of MegaChips' outsourced manufacturing purchases in its 2022 report. ROHM and LAPIS Semiconductor still supply ROM chips to Nintendo, per Tom's Hardware.
Switch 2 Impact and Other Open Questions
There is no stated end date for ROM shipments, and neither Nintendo nor MegaChips has commented in the reports we read. The sources also differ on the Switch 2: Engadget says its cards use NAND, a segment Macronix is not leaving, while Tom's Hardware, citing Gibson, says Macronix makes the ROM chips for both consoles. Tom's Hardware's view that game cards may get pricier or shift to download-key Game-Key cards is its own inference, not a company statement.
