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.”
