The Quote That Should Scare You
“We’re pretty much sold out for calendar 2026.”
— Irving Tan, CEO of Western Digital, one of the world’s biggest hard drive makers
It’s February. The whole year’s supply of hard drives? Gone. Bought up. Reserved. Done.
The Cheat Sheet
Here’s what just happened:
- Western Digital — the company that makes a huge chunk of the world’s hard drives — announced on their earnings call that their entire 2026 production is sold out
- Their top 7 customers (read: AI giants) bought everything
- Three of those customers already locked in deals for 2027 and 2028
- Consumer hard drive sales now make up just 5% of WD’s total revenue
- Cloud/enterprise customers account for 89%
You, a regular person wanting a hard drive? You’re fighting over the last 5% of scraps.
Why This Hits Different
This isn’t just a hard drive story. This is AI eating the hardware supply chain alive.
We’ve already seen it with:
- RAM prices going up constantly because AI needs memory
- GPU shortages that never really ended
- Sony reportedly delaying the next PlayStation past 2027 because of AI-related component shortages
And now hard drives join the list. The thing is — SSDs are faster, sure. But when you need to store petabytes of AI training data, HDDs are still the cheapest option per terabyte. So AI companies are hoarding them like it’s 2020 and they’re rolls of toilet paper.
📖 The Full Story
Western Digital CEO Irving Tan dropped the bombshell during the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call. The entire calendar year 2026 production capacity for HDDs is essentially spoken for through firm purchase orders with their largest customers.
The situation goes deeper than just this year. WD has already secured long-term agreements extending into 2027 with two of their top customers, and one customer has commitments stretching into 2028. This means the shortage isn’t a temporary blip — it’s the new normal.
Hard drive prices are already at their highest point in two years, and there’s no relief in sight. The consumer market has become an afterthought — just 5% of Western Digital’s revenue now comes from regular consumers buying hard drives.
The ripple effects are massive. PC makers keep raising RAM prices. Console manufacturers are rethinking launch timelines. And anyone who needs bulk storage for personal use — NAS builders, data hoarders, home server enthusiasts — is about to feel the squeeze even harder.
The only thing that could reverse this trend? A pullback in AI investment. But with companies signing multi-year deals for storage capacity, that doesn’t seem likely anytime soon.
Your Move
If you’ve been putting off buying a hard drive or upgrading your NAS… stop waiting. Prices are only going up from here. Grab what you can at current prices before the next wave of increases hits.
Also worth considering: used enterprise drives are still floating around on eBay and r/homelabsales. AI companies are buying new capacity — the second-hand market might be your best friend for the next couple years.
Skip Section
Skip if: You’re cloud-only and don’t buy physical storage.
Read if: You own a NAS, build PCs, hoard data, or just wanted a bigger drive this year.
Source: Mashable
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