Hard Drives Were Supposed to Lose the Storage War, but AI Demand Is Now Pushing Their Biggest Suppliers Years Ahead
TechRadar, Thursday, October 8th, 2026
AI data centers favor cheap HDD capacity over SSDs, prompting Toshiba's $380M plan to nearly double AI storage drive output by FY2027.
TechRadar Pro reports that AI is giving hard drives a second wind as data centers need huge amounts of affordable storage, with SSDs costing roughly 20 times more per unit of storage.
Toshiba, which holds just over 10% of the HDD market by capacity, will invest about $380 million in its first major expansion in about five years, nearly doubling AI and cloud drive capacity in the Philippines by fiscal 2027.
New lines will produce drives holding up to 40% more data, with 65TB-class drives targeted around 2030 and 100TB later.