WD is operating in a crowded storage landscape, focusing on cost-effective HDDs for massive data centers rather than consumer markets.

Consumer storage sales have dwindled to roughly 5% of WD’s revenue as enterprise demand, particularly AI-related, takes precedence.

AI-driven demand is tightening memory and storage supply, pushing up prices for RAM, processors, and related hardware, and affecting consumer devices like game consoles and PCs.

The overall picture is a persistent supply-demand imbalance in memory and storage driven by enterprise and AI-sector needs, with potential implications for prices and availability in the consumer market.

The article offers practical guidance by listing current external drive options and representative prices to help readers plan purchases.

Despite solid SSD growth, HDDs remain the most cost-effective option for data centers, sustaining pressure on supply and prices in the broader market.

Additional HDD developments and future technology goals are noted, but the core story centers on current capacity constraints and AI-driven demand.

WD has declared a full capacity sell-out for 2026, with more than ten months remaining in the year.

Without a shift in investor sentiment, AI-related demand could sustain the supply constraints and higher prices for consumers, with no near-term reversal foreseen.

CEO Irving Tan notes firm purchase orders from the top seven customers and long-term agreements into 2027 and 2028, signaling multi-exabyte volumes and pricing commitments.

Enterprise demand dominates WD’s business, with about 89% of revenue coming from cloud and enterprise customers and long-term capacity deals extending into 2027 and 2028.

Exabyte-scale agreements with fixed pricing indicate strong long-term revenue visibility and a potential AI supercycle effect on storage supply chains.