- AI extension pushes the demand for the storage of ultra-high capacity to the unprecedented level
- External hard disk shipping may take another six to ten weeks
- Western Digital increases all HDD prices and quotes “unprecedented demand” across its portfolio
The rapid growth of inference AI services exerts extraordinary pressure on the storage market, especially for ultra-high capacity hard disk drives, new research has warned ..
Hyperscale Cloud service providers such as Google and Oracle are expanding aggressively AI-Infrastructure and focusing on high-preparation applications.
A recent Trendforce Investigation has now demanded that the massive amounts of data generated by AI further strive for the global infrastructure for the storage of data center.
AI -datavolener Strain Global Storage Infrastructure
This creates an increase in demand for storage solutions that can handle massive data sets, which places the largest HDDs under heavy load.
Nearby HDDs, traditionally the backbone of large -scale data storage, are now facing a serious shortage of supply.
This shift pushes high -performance, but SSDs with higher costs in the limelight, with shipments of QLC SSDs with high capacity expected to see rapid growth in 2026.
Trendforce Says limited production growth among HDD producers have left them unable to handle the fast, AI-driven spikes in stock needs.
Therefore, the management times for Nearline HDDs are ballooned from just a few weeks to over 52 weeks, which further extended storage holes for cloud service providers.
Currently, 30TB HDDs like Seagate Exos Mozaic+ will remain easily accessible, but for 32TB and larger models, users will have to wait more than a year.
There are also shipping and logistics problems that aggravate supply restrictions, which leads Western Digital to warn that external hard disk shippings can take much longer than usual.
The company plans to increase the use of sea freight and potentially add six to ten weeks to transit times.
To tackle these problems, North American CSPs had already planned to increase the SSD adoption of Warm Data workloads.
The severity of the current HDD deficit has also caused some providers to consider implementing SSDs, even for cold data.
But SSDs are more expensive and have smaller capabilities, although they offer faster reading/writing speeds and using approx. 30% less power than nearby HDDs.
It will not be financially careful to use an SSD for cold data that is rarely accessed, but archived in the long term.
Trendforce Recommends that CSPS planning to use QLC SSDs for cold data to update data systems, check software compatibility and carefully track costs to stay within the budget.
That said, suppliers are not expected to lower prices much, and a round of price negotiations is likely, with Enterprise SSD contract prices predicted to rise 5-10% in the 4th quarter of 2025.
To make things worse, a price increase for HDDs is on the way. Western Digital has announced that the prices of all HDD products will increase gradually, with effect immediately.
The company quotes “unprecedented demand” across its portfolio as the main reason for these increases and emphasizes that investment in advanced innovation is a primary factor.
Rising costs not only affect large corporate installations, but also smaller organizations seeking the best HDD for storage -intensive applications.
All of these factors indicate that the AI-driven storage deficiency will continue to affect purchase strategies well into 2026.
Via Trendforce
