- Western Digital has confirmed that AI companies have booked all of its HDD supply for 2026.
- WD is one of the biggest HDD manufacturers, so this could lead to a massive shortage.
- The upcoming shortage is expected to drive prices even higher.
The AI boom has created a really unfortunate situation in which PC component prices are surging to levels never seen before. RAM, SSDs, and GPUs have already been affected, but hard drives could soon experience massive price hikes as well.
Western Digital, one of the largest HDD manufacturers, has stated that it has run out of supply and that all orders are booked for this year. This is expected to lead to price increments with HDDs soon.
Why it matters: At this point, no PC component seems to be regularly priced. This has created a major crisis that isn’t expected to go away until demand and supply reach equilibrium.
In its latest Earnings Call, Western Digital CEO Irving Tan was asked about the memory situation and how it is affecting HDDs. To which he replied that all of WD’s HDD stock has been sold to AI data centers.
We’re pretty much sold out for calendar ’26. We have firm POs with our top seven customers. And we’ve also established LTAs with two of them for calendar year ’27 and one of them for calendar year ’28.
The worrying sign is that the company is fully booked for 2026, but some of its agreements extend to 2027 and 2028, signalling that the shortage could last longer than expected, so things aren’t getting any better.
HDD prices have already seen a somewhat of a hike, although it isn’t as significant as SSD or RAM. However, since the largest manufacturer is fully booked for the year, we could see prices surge even higher in the future.
What are your thoughts on Western Digital running out of HDD supply? Let us know your opinions in the comments or join the discussion at the official Tech4Gamers Forum.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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