Posted on 02/15/2026 10:21:13 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Western Digital has run out of Hard Disk Drive capacity through 2026, with CEO Irving Tan confirming the company is sold out to its top customers as artificial intelligence and enterprise demand consumes storage at unprecedented levels. The shortage has driven HDD prices to their highest point in two years, according to wccftech.com, which reported on Western Digital's Q2 earnings call.
Firm orders through 2028
Speaking during the company's Q2 earnings call, Tan revealed the extent of Western Digital's committed capacity. "As we highlighted, we're pretty much sold out for calendar 2026. We have firm POs with our top seven customers. And we've also established LTAs with two of them for calendar 2027 and one of them for calendar 2028," he said. These long-term agreements combine both volume commitments measured in exabytes and pricing structures.
The shortage reflects a fundamental shift in Western Digital's business model. Cloud revenue now accounts for 89% of total revenue, whilst consumer revenue has dropped to just 5%. This dramatic change highlights how AI infrastructure demand is reshaping the storage industry.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at tbreak.com ...
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How, exactly, does AI destroy your electric bills? Mine are very steady month to month for several years now. Maybe it’s a state government regulation thing.
One can tell the whole story from a movie, that would take 2 hours to watch and thousands of hours to make, on a handwritten A4 sheet of paper. All the memory needed is superfluous
There have been 500,000+ “feature films” made. Assuming each film is 90 minutes, it would take approx 85 years to watch all of them 24/7. Let someone else store all the data.
I’m old enough to remember that!
I think I dozed off trying to read that. I did make an honest attempt though.
Maryland the data centers and the electricity purchases from out of state suppliers.
It’s a real thing.
Sadly.
Rapid expansion of data centers, driven by AI and cloud computing, is significantly increasing electricity demand in Maryland and the surrounding PJM grid region. This surge, particularly in Northern Virginia and expanding into Maryland, is forcing higher capacity prices and leading to sharply rising electric bills, with warnings of future rate hikes and potential grid stress.
WBAL-TV
WBAL-TV
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Data Center Impact on Maryland Electricity
Rate Hikes: Electricity bills for many Marylanders have risen sharply, with forecasts suggesting additional increases as data centers drive up demand. Some estimates warned of potential $70 monthly increases for consumers, driven by, among other factors, the need for increased, expensive grid infrastructure.
Grid Capacity: The PJM Interconnection grid is facing immense strain, with massive new data center developments and a forecasted 32-gigawatt increase in peak load by 2030. This has raised concerns about long-term reliability.
Regulatory Action: Maryland legislators and regulators are considering measures to protect ratepayers, including potential moratoriums on new data center projects until their impact on the grid is better understood.
Infrastructure Costs: While data centers are a massive source of tax revenue and development, they are challenging the traditional energy grid’s capacity, with studies showing power prices in, for example, Baltimore have increased significantly, partly due to increased infrastructure costs, such as the proposed 67-mile high-voltage line
AI depends on a large quantity of data. But much of that data is redundant. AI should be tasked with the job of removing the redundancy from its own data storage.
I’m glad I live in the best state in the union ...
I wish I did.
This is a nightmare.
😕
You have an excellent home page, btw.
thanks ... I haven’t touched it for many years ...
I’m glad I switched over (mostly) to SSDs and NVMes, although maybe they have gone up too.
I do have a couple of old dual-boot laptops that have Windows on HDD, and Linux on SSD but I rarely use the laptops, and even more rarely do I boot Windows.
I have laptops from 2012 that I added 2 8gb ram sticks to. Don’t even use those laptops. Maybe I can gut them and make some quick $$$$
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