The selling prices of RAM and SSD storage have risen sharply this year due to high demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) data center sector. As a result, the selling prices of smartphones, tablets, TVs and computers have also increased this year. Next to receive the surprise price increase is HDD storage. Western Digital in its financial report published this week said that all of its HDD production capacity for 2026 has been sold out even though it is still February.
Of these orders, 89% are for enterprise customers and only 5% are from consumers. Since enterprise customers generate the highest revenue and demand, this raises concerns that Western Digital will follow Micron in ending Crucial's memory products for consumers.
Although HDDs are no longer as fast as SSDs, they are still an option for NAS systems and those who want to store data in larger capacities than SSDs. If you are planning to buy portable storage, now is the best time because prices are increasing every week.
