Thanks a lot, AI: Hard drives are already sold out for the entire year, says Western Digital

Western Digital, a major hard drive manufacturer, announced on its recent quarterly earnings call that it is essentially sold out of storage capacity for the entirety of 2026, with over ten months remaining in the year. CEO Irving Tan stated that most of this capacity has been allocated to their top seven enterprise customers, some of whom already have agreements extending into 2027 and 2028. This massive demand surge is primarily driven by AI companies, which are consuming vast amounts of computer hardware, causing shortages and price hikes across the tech industry, affecting everything from processors to RAM. Consequently, the consumer market now represents only 5 percent of Western Digital's revenue, indicating that hardware shortages and increased prices for average consumers are likely to persist as AI demands continue to escalate.

(Source：Mashable)