Oh great: HDD prices surge to highest point in 2 years with demand from China and the US

Well, this won't end well... HDD prices are rocketing upwards, with prices on mechanical HDDs rising the highest they've been in the last 2 years.

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According to new reports from Nikkei, the demand for HDDs is through the roof, with contract HDD prices rising 4% quarter-over-quarter, the highest figure in the last 8 quarters (two years). The demand is coming mostly from large-scale data center build outs across the planet, with HDD requirements used more in US-based facilities.

AI needs as much data as it can get, with cloud service providers (CSPs) using HDDs the most, as they're the most cost-effective and efficient medium for storage.

• Read more: Return of 4GB RAM in smartphones by 2026 amidst DRAM crisis, microSD slots make a comeback

The data required for AI systems scales up beyond terabytes and into exabytes, where it hosts data scaped from the internet, backups of processed data, inference logs, and so much more. Similar to AI memory, HDDs have seen gigantic adoption recently, putting suppliers under immense pressure.

In a new report from DigiTimes, the Taiwanese media outlet reports: "meanwhile, demand for high-capacity nearline HDDs used in data centers remains robust, with prices for nearline HDDs rising by about 4% quarter-over-quarter. According to TrendForce, despite manufacturers operating at full utilization rates, supply continues to lag behind the expanding storage requirements of US-based CSPs, especially as AI, cloud computing, and data-intensive workloads continue to scale".

• Read more: SK hynix internal analysis warns DRAM supply growth will be tight until 2028
• Read more: Samsung shifts focus from HBM to DDR5: DDR5 = FAR more profits than HBM
• Read more: RAM shortages are here until 2028: 64GB DDR5 = $500, 256GB DDR4 = $3000+
• Read more: Epic Games CEO: RAM prices a 'real problem for high-end gaming for several years'

Storage giants Phison and Transcend have been sending out the warning signals of impending shortages for a little while now, so it looks like 2026 could be a real rough year between RAM + SSD + HDD price increases and shortages.