If price increases for SSDs were already becoming difficult to stomach, things are potentially set to become a lot worse throughout the year.
Reported by German outlet Heise (and shared by RockPaperShotgun), two out of the three big hard drive manufacturers globally have revealed that all 2026 stock has been sold, and that remaining stock for 2027 and 2028 is currently being earmarked for enterprise clients. During their respective earnings calls in January, both Western Digital and Seagate announced that all manufacturing capacity for the coming year had been allocated, and that production expansion is not being planned.
Seagate CEO William Mosley says the company is already taking orders for the first half of 2027, and that "multiple cloud customers are discussing their demand growth projections for calendar 2028." Western Digital's CEO Tiang Yew Tan made similar remarks, stating that the company has "robust commercial agreements with three of our top five customers--two through calendar year 2027 and one through calendar year 2028."
Similarly to the demand around RAM and DRAM chips used in SSDs, the demand for storage, both SSDs and slower HDDs, is being driven by data centres around the world being used to store massive amounts of AI model data as the industry continues rapidly expanding. With these manufacturers prioritising enterprise clients, consumer availability will be heavily impacted, with minimal stock and ballooning prices.
It's become such a worrying issue that Sony is reportedly considering delaying the next PlayStation beyond 2028 as the future remains uncertain, while Nintendo ponders a potential Switch 2 price increase in the near future. It's also the reason why we don't yet have a release date or price for Valve's Steam Machine, as fluctuating prices make it difficult to confirm.
Source
Reported by German outlet Heise (and shared by RockPaperShotgun), two out of the three big hard drive manufacturers globally have revealed that all 2026 stock has been sold, and that remaining stock for 2027 and 2028 is currently being earmarked for enterprise clients. During their respective earnings calls in January, both Western Digital and Seagate announced that all manufacturing capacity for the coming year had been allocated, and that production expansion is not being planned.
Seagate CEO William Mosley says the company is already taking orders for the first half of 2027, and that "multiple cloud customers are discussing their demand growth projections for calendar 2028." Western Digital's CEO Tiang Yew Tan made similar remarks, stating that the company has "robust commercial agreements with three of our top five customers--two through calendar year 2027 and one through calendar year 2028."
Similarly to the demand around RAM and DRAM chips used in SSDs, the demand for storage, both SSDs and slower HDDs, is being driven by data centres around the world being used to store massive amounts of AI model data as the industry continues rapidly expanding. With these manufacturers prioritising enterprise clients, consumer availability will be heavily impacted, with minimal stock and ballooning prices.
It's become such a worrying issue that Sony is reportedly considering delaying the next PlayStation beyond 2028 as the future remains uncertain, while Nintendo ponders a potential Switch 2 price increase in the near future. It's also the reason why we don't yet have a release date or price for Valve's Steam Machine, as fluctuating prices make it difficult to confirm.
Source