Oh boy, sorry to anyone looking to upgrade their PC storage anytime soon. Western Digital, one of the biggest brands out there for hard drives, SSDs, and other storage options, has announced that it has already sold out of hard drives for 2026.
This comes from the company's CEO Irving Tan, who in a recent earnings call (via Tom's Hardware), confirmed that there are long-term agreements put in place for the next couple of years. The primary reason behind this almost immediate sell out and the hefty backlog is data centres, as the AI sector's demand continues to grow in an increasingly concerning level for consumers.
We can see why companies like WD, Nvidia, and AMD are focusing primarily on enterprise clients and the Cloud, though, as this is where most of the business is coming from nowadays. VP for investor relations Ambrish Srivastava said that 89% of Western Digital's revenue came from its Cloud business, while only 5% was brought about by its consumer sector.
It's a difficult pill to swallow for consumers just trying to have affordable PC parts, but the businesses will follow the money. Right now, it's all being thrown at the AI sector and data centres like a horse that is guaranteed to win a race. As we know in the betting world, though, nothing is a dead cert.