We're living in wonderful times, when all the most amazing advances are linked to AI, but everything that goes wrong is also AI's fault!
For several weeks now, rumors have been circulating about a possible increase in the cost of SSDs. Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix, the main manufacturers of Flash memory chips - which are at the heart of SSDs - have reportedly been forced to increase their prices to cope with considerable demand that they are unable to satisfy. It's a classic supply-demand mismatch that often comes at a good time for the major market players concerned.
It's a similar story for hard disks (or HDDs). As yet, we have no official confirmation from Western Digital, and no information about the other HDD giant, Seagate. However, ComputerBase points out that a letter has been sent by Western Digital executives to their main customers. The letter explains that " to ensure growth and the continued pursuit of excellence ", the company is obliged " to progressively increase prices on all HDD products, effective immediately ". The increase in question is not quantified, but other rumours suggest a rise of around 10% over the next few weeks.
TrendForce estimates current delivery times for hard disks at 52 weeks © TrendForce
If TrendForce is to be believed, Western Digital's problem is nothing really new, and is a direct consequence of the lack of investment in production expansion over the last few years. In fact, the market is currently shaken by an ever-increasing demand for hard disks to equip ever more numerous/imposing data servers and ever more complex artificial intelligence models. Western Digital in turn finds itself unable to supply the demand, and to make matters worse, even if an increase in production could be organized, it would be some time before we saw its impact.
Indeed, TrendForce points out that, for security reasons, shipping by sea is still the preferred mode of transport for the hard disk industry, rather than by air. In fact, TrendForce quotes delivery times of around 52 weeks. Yes, 52 weeks, or exactly one year! For SSDs, the bottleneck would be much lighter. However, estimated at 8 weeks, it would still be enough to prevent prices from stabilizing, even though the top executives at Sandisk, one of the leading SSD producers, are said to have sent the same type of letter to their partners as Western Digital.
