Following SanDisk’s 10% NAND price hike and Micron’s week-long pricing freeze, Western Digital has become the third company to act, notifying customers that it will gradually raise prices on all HDD products effective immediately, according to industry sources.

According to the notice spotted by industry sources, Western Digital claimed that it has seen unprecedented demand for every capacity in its portfolio, and the company is investing to advanced innovation, which has prompted the price hikes.

Notably, the company also notes it will expand its usage of ocean freight, which could increase the product transit time by six to ten weeks. Western Digital also advises that clients should plan accordingly when placing orders.

The NAND giants’ moves, as TechNews reported, reflect structural shifts in high-capacity storage products amid the rapid rise of inference AI services. As global CSPs continue posting record revenues, tech giants like Google and Oracle are aggressively expanding AI infrastructure and pivoting toward high-performance inference applications, driving substantial growth in demand for high-capacity storage products.

Industry sources indicate that lead times for high-capacity HDDs have now extended to nearly one year. In response, memory suppliers are actively developing Nearline SSD products, aiming to narrow the current price gap with HDDs—from the current 4–5x down to around 3x—to encourage customer adoption.