AI boom locks up Seagate hard drive supply until 2028 - Bangkok Post
Seagate Technology, the world’s largest hard disk drive (HDD) manufacturer, has revealed that the majority of its high-capacity data centre drives are sold out until 2028, with some clients locking in supply agreements extending as far as 2030.
Speaking during an earnings call on Oct 27, Seagate chief executive Dave Mosley attributed the unprecedented backlog to surging storage demand from artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing firms.
Data centres require vast capacity to store AI training datasets, processing outputs and long-term archival information, where HDDs retain a significant cost-per-terabyte advantage over solid-state drives (SSDs).
Demand has outpaced the industry’s ability to scale up output. Seagate noted that expanding manufacturing capacity is not merely a matter of installing additional machinery due to the complex production process.
Instead, the company is focusing on heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology to increase storage density per magnetic platter rather than simply increasing unit volume.
Seagate is a major employer in Thailand, with about 18,000 people — nearly half its global workforce — employed at its plants in Samut Prakan and Nakhon Ratchasima).
Seagate is currently ramping up production on its Mozaic 4 platform, which supports capacities of up to 44 terabytes (TB), while developing the next-generation Mozaic 5 platform capable of exceeding 50TB.
Customer qualification shipments for Mozaic 5 are scheduled to begin in late 2027 ahead of a commercial rollout in 2028, though mass production is not expected until 2029.
Meanwhile, surging HDD prices show no signs of easing in the near term. Seagate indicated that robust demand and rising costs for certain components continue to drive prices upward, with no clear timeline for when rates might stabilise as the firm prepares to negotiate pricing terms for 2028 delivery contracts.
While the pre-booked inventory consists primarily of enterprise and data centre drives rather than standard consumer models, the supply crunch underscores the AI sector’s sweeping impact across the storage market — a trend that could soon push retail HDD prices higher for everyday buyers.
