An investor asked Nintendo about the impact of memory price at today’s shareholders meeting (image below). The gist is that they’ve secured enough for this fiscal year’s production target, but the higher cost will affect this FY’s financial performance.
Nintendo’s inventory data bore that out (img 1 below). At the end of March, they held ¥221B/$1.37B of raw materials (img 2). I only track this from 2011, but believe that it’s the highest in company history. Considering that Nintendo forecasts to sell less hardware units this FY, this much raw materials isn’t just for production but also to ensure cost stability.
The company also kept a massive amount of finished goods for 18 months straight (img below)—first stockpiling for the Switch 2 launch, and then hoarding likely to front-run further component price increases.
[Originally posted on 2026-06-26 Pacific Time]
[Update on 2026-07-03] Replaced unofficial Q&A transcript with the official version published today.
