(Credit: Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
AI demand has pushed RAM prices higher since last year, leading to supply shortages. The same trend appears to be hitting hard disk drives now, with leading HDD manufacturer Western Digital confirming that its supply for this year is already sold out.
“We’re pretty much sold out for calendar 2026. We have firm POs [purchase orders] with our top seven customers,” Irving Tan, WD CEO, said during the company’s latest earnings call.
A significant chunk of WD’s revenue comes from enterprise clients. About 89% came from cloud businesses, and just 5% came from regular consumers, said Ambrish Srivastava, the company’s vice president for investor relations.
Things don’t look promising for consumers looking for WD hard drives in the near future. Seven of WD’s top clients have placed orders for this year, two for next year, and one for 2028. With more AI companies buying PC components in bulk, manufacturers are also likely to prioritize their needs over others going forward. We have seen a similar trend with memory products. Micron recently exited the consumer market to focus on supplying AI data centers.
The reason for HDD demand, on the other hand, may partly be driven by rising SSD costs over the last few months. As Tom’s Hardware points out, SSDs now cost 16 times more than HDDs for the same storage capacity, and data centers may be tempted to use a mix of both.
For consumers, the situation could push PC prices up by at least 15% and smartphone prices up by around 10% this year, according to TrendForce. HP, Dell, and Lenovo have already announced price hikes, while Samsung has hinted at similar.