AI inflated the demand for HDD around the world – Seagate and Western Digital reported on a sharp increase in revenue

The segment of the hard drives, which has been declared “dead” more than once, is experiencing another Renaissance. Spurred by the growing requirements for the volume of drives by processing centers, the leading manufacturers of hard drives, Seagate and Western Digital, again recorded a significant increase in sales.

Image Source: Computer Base

SEAGATE HDD sales increased by an impressive 57 % in the second quarter of the 2025 financial year (ended on December 31) compared to the same period last year – to $ 2.169 billion. In quantitative terms, sales increased by only 12 % and amounted to approximately 13 million units. At the same time, the average sales price of HDD increased by as much as 40 % and amounted to $ 167. That is, the demand for HDD high capacity increased sharply – the average amount of the drive increased to 11.6 TB compared to 8.2 TB a year earlier.

Financial indicators Seagate

About 87 % of SEAGATE HDD sales fell on mass models. Thanks to successful sales, the company increased its net profit to $ 433 million.

Financial indicators Western Digital

Western Digital has even better indicators over the past financial quarter. In quantitative terms, sales increased by 25 % and amounted to 13.5 million units. At the same time, the average price of drives increased to $ 172. The company’s revenue amounted to $ 2.409 billion, which is 76 % higher than for the same period of last year. According to the manufacturer, 69 % of the hard drives sold were on the cloud segment. The remaining sales in equal shares made up the Client and consumer models of the HDD. In combination with the Flash and SSD business, Western Digital increased its total income to $ 4.285 billion, and net profit to $ 594 million.

Image Source: Computer Base

Forecasts published in October last year by experts of the IEEE association regarding a significant increase in sales of HDDs no longer seem so unlikely in the light of the latest reports of manufacturers of these products. However, much depends on whether manufacturers can fully follow their road maps, annually increasing the HDD capacity and at the same time reducing the cost of 1 TB of disk space, since the development of solid -state drives (SSD) also does not stand still in this matter.

Roadmate of HDD development according to IEEE. Image source: IEEE

It was recently reported that Seagate began supplying HAMR-burning discs with a capacity of 36 TB with SMR-recording technology.