Western Digital confirms HDD and NAND flash shortages, warns partners of higher pricing

Industry-wide supply issues could raise HDD pricing by as much as 10%, potentially more for NAND

Following last year's reports of a "potential" NAND shortage, and with the recent Taiwan Earthquake further disrupting the tech industry's supply chain, Western Digital has officially informed its partners that it will "continue to implement price increases on flash and hard drive products this quarter." These increases started on April 8th [h/t Trendforce, original source TechNews.TW].

The following screenshot shows the official letter that was sent to partners and provided to TechNews.TW. The original coverage posits that the booming AI market is most likely responsible for the surge in demand that WD refers to in the message.


Scott Davis, Senior VP of WD's Channel and Regional OEM Sales, likely sent this notification to direct business partners. However, it's certainly just as important for consumers moving into 2024. Higher-than-expected demand combined with supply constraints have pushed us out of the era of dirt-cheap storage now, as was rumored last fall. Hopefully, the increased prices won't last too long.

TechNews.TW's sources point toward HDD pricing increasing by as much as 10%, with a minimum 5% pricing increase expected. There are no hard numbers for NAND flash pricing, but NAND prices were already heading up and we expect further pricing increases could be in line with HDDs, if not worse.