Macronix is gradually phasing out ROM production, according to CEO and chairman Miin Wu. The Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer is Nintendo’s main supplier of ROM chips for Switch cartridges, though the change does not mean cartridge production will stop immediately.
Macronix disclosed the shift in its Q3 2026 results, shared on October 27. Wu said demand for NOR memory used in data centers was the main driver of the company’s record-high net profit of roughly $337 million for the quarter. He also reported that ROM sales had fallen 39% over the past year.
ROM chips made up 5% of Macronix’s memory sales in Q3 2026, down from 26% in Q2 2025. The company has begun redirecting production toward NOR flash solutions for data centers and NAND, which it describes as a growth area. Q3 is also the last quarter for which Macronix will report ROM sales separately, according to analyst David Gibson.
Macronix is not the only supplier of ROM chips for Nintendo Switch cartridges, so its decision is not an immediate end to physical games. Switch 2 cartridges are also described as unaffected: they use NAND flash memory supplied by ROHM Semiconductor.
The shift comes as digital purchases account for a growing share of Nintendo software sales. Gibson said digital sales represented 61.5% of the company’s software sales from April to June 2026, up 2.2 percentage points from the year-on-year figure at the end of 2025.
Sources: Kotaku.