Aug 6, 2026 · 7 min
AI Buildout Keeps Hard Drives Central to Cloud Storage
BONUS: Western Digital CEO Irving Tan Talks AI Storage Demand
The interview tests whether hard drives can meet accelerating AI storage needs as investors weigh near-term expectations against longer-term infrastructure demand.
- 1AI’s data accumulation is sustaining storage demand even as investor expectations soften in the near term.
- 2Western Digital is expanding capacity while engineering higher-density drives and coordinating deployment timelines with customers.
- 3Long-term agreements through 2029 and beyond reinforce hard drives’ continuing role in cloud and AI infrastructure.
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Irving Tan argues that hard drives remain central to cloud and AI infrastructure, with roughly 80% of that storage residing on them.
The brief
Western Digital CEO Irving Tan discusses strong quarterly performance with Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow, while investors look past near-term expectations to sustained AI-driven storage demand.
The interview separates storage from compute and memory: as data accumulates, cloud and AI systems still need more capacity, making demand, pricing, and manufacturing expansion central questions.
Tan describes the engineering challenge of bringing 40-terabyte drives to market, including advances in media and head design and close customer integration of new generations.
Long-term agreements extending through 2029 and beyond show how customers forecast storage needs across the infrastructure stack, with volume commitments tied to base and tiered pricing.
Tan’s sharpest argument is that hard drives remain foundational rather than obsolete, holding roughly 80% of cloud and AI storage as the buildout accelerates.
Featuring
Irving TanMentioned
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