AI Gives New Life to Hard Drives: HDD Manufacturers Rush to Expand Capacity

The AI boom has revived demand for hard disk drives (HDDs) in server infrastructure, as relatively cost-effective storage for massive data volumes remains essential. In the last quarter, nearline HDD prices rose 10% sequentially, with up to 60% of such products purchased by US cloud giants Google, Microsoft, and Amazon (AWS). The market is divided among Western Digital and Seagate (over 40% each) and Toshiba (17%). All three are ramping up production of server HDDs exceeding 40 TB. Western Digital plans to start such drives in H2 2024 and target 100 TB by 2029 using HAMR technology. Seagate already ships drives up to 44 TB and aims for 100 TB via higher areal density. Toshiba offers 30-34 TB drives with MAMR technology and expects to exceed 40 TB next year. While SSDs are crucial for fast processing, HDDs remain vital for cold storage, driving demand for components like magnetic heads, disks, glass substrates, flex circuits, and PCBs. Resonac will increase magnetic disk capacity at its Singapore complex by 31%. HOYA will build a new glass substrate plant in Vietnam by 2028. TDK announced in May expansion of magnetic head and actuator production for the server segment.