Western Digital Has No More HDD Capacity Left, as CEO Reveals Massive AI Deals

[6Foot2]

Link: Western Digital Has No More HDD Capacity Left, as CEO Reveals Massive AI Deals; Brace Yourself For Price Surges Ahead! [wccftech.com]

 

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HDD capacity from one of the world's largest manufacturers has started to run dry, according to Western Digital's CEO, as major LTAs have been signed out.

 

Western Digital's Consumer Share Drops to 5%, as Enterprise Demand Gobbles Up the Supply

 

Well, the ongoing AI supercycle has disrupted supply chains, and we have talked about DRAM and NAND before, but it appears HDDs are also in significant demand: according to WD's CEO, Irving Tan, the manufacturer's entire capacity for this year is booked out. Speaking at the Q2 earnings call, Tan revealed that the focus has been on developing products that cater to the needs of enterprise customers. Given the pace of hyperscaler buildout, it's fair to say demand for HDDs will only increase going forward.

 

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Yeah, thanks, Erik. As we highlighted, we’re pretty much sold out for calendar 2026. We have firm POs with our top seven customers. And we’ve also established LTAs with two of them for calendar 2027 and one of them for calendar 2028. Obviously, these LTAs have a combination of volume of exabytes and price.

 

- WD's CEO

 

When we talk about major PC-first manufacturers pivoting towards AI, it is clear that demand is coming from the segment, as WD's VP of Investor Relations noted that the company's cloud revenue accounted for 89% of total revenue. In comparison, consumer revenue accounted for just 5%. When the numbers are too distant, as in WD's case, it makes sense on a business level to pivot towards enterprise demand while sidelining the client segment, as every other manufacturer is currently doing. And, in the case of Western Digital, well, this strategy is working for them ...

[paulkerton]

So the AI companies now have all the GPUs, RAM, SSDs and HDDs.

... whose now going to buy their products, if we can't buy a device to run them on?

I cannot wait for this ridiculous bubble to finally burst. Nvidia, Oracle and OpenAI in particular will be in big, big trouble with all this circular financing they've done.

Edited February 17 by paulkerton

[3s-gtech]

Waits for Windows 10 ESU to get a fourth year as a result...

[TechMonkey]

21 minutes ago, paulkerton said:

I cannot wait for this ridiculous bubble to finally burst. Nvidia, Oracle and OpenAI in particular will be in big, big trouble with all this circular financing they've done.

I'm waiting for the sequel to The Big Short, The AI Short.

[paulkerton]

2 minutes ago, TechMonkey said:

I'm waiting for the sequel to The Big Short, The AI Short.

Well the guy that film was based on has bought options against Nvidia and Palantir. 🫣

[TechMonkey]

I was going to ask if anyone knew how to bet against them.  I don't think I have enough money to ride them out though

[ITGuyNW]

I looked at storage prices the other day and it was ridiculous.

 

256 SSD now double the price. I wanted some old server memory which before Christmas was £20, now £50.