Overview
- Western Digital’s CEO Irving Tan said the company is “pretty much sold out” for calendar 2026 and has long‑term agreements with two customers for 2027 and one for 2028.
- Seagate’s Dave Mosley reported nearline capacity is fully allocated through 2026 and said the company expects to start taking orders for the first half of 2027 in the coming months.
- The squeeze is driven by AI data centers and cloud providers concentrating demand on high‑density 18TB–22TB hard drives used for large‑scale storage.
- Analysts say little open production remains for discretionary buyers, pressuring mid‑size enterprises and standard server refresh plans as prices rise and channel availability tightens.
- Some organizations are delaying projects or pivoting to SSDs despite higher costs, and any manufacturing adjustments will take time to relieve the shortage.