At its Innovation Day 2026, Western Digital (WD) unveiled new storage technologies for the AI era, including high-capacity HDDs, performance and power advancements, and an intelligent platform to improve storage economics for AI-scale workloads.
Rebranded as WD, the company now focuses on AI and cloud workloads, high-capacity storage, performance optimization, and power efficiency to meet the growing requirements of AI-driven data infrastructure.
Capacity Innovation: Clear Path to 100TB+
WD’s dual ePMR and HAMR roadmap enables continuous capacity growth:
- Hyperscalers and enterprises can adopt either technology on their own timeline with predictable capacity planning and seamless scaling, enabling continuous capacity growth on a trusted architecture.
- The dual-path approach allows greater manufacturing efficiency and smoother customer transitions.
Performance Architecture: Closing the Flash Gap
Two innovations enable AI workloads to run efficiently on HDDs, reducing reliance on flash storage:
- High Bandwidth Drive Technology: Reads and writes simultaneously from multiple heads, delivering 2x bandwidth now, with potential for 8x in the future.
- Dual Pivot Technology: Adds independent actuators for up to 2x sequential IO gains while maintaining capacity in the 3.5-inch form factor.
Combined, these technologies increase sequential IO up to 4x, supporting 100TB HDDs while maintaining IO per TB performance.
Power-Optimized HDDs: Bridging Warm and Cold AI Data Tiers
Designed for active cold data, power-optimized drives:
- Consume 20% less power, reducing the gap between warm and cold storage tiers.
- Provide sub-second access for AI workloads.
- Maintain the standard 3.5-inch form factor for integration.
This design lowers operating costs and enables economically sustainable AI-scale storage.
Platform Expansion: Simplifying AI Storage Deployment
WD’s intelligent software layer will:
- Extend hyperscale storage efficiency to customers at 200+ PB scale.
- Accelerate adoption across UltraSMR, ePMR, HAMR HDDs, and flash platforms.
- Reduce qualification risks and speed time-to-value without requiring infrastructure changes.
This platform makes hyperscale storage economics accessible to mid-scale AI customers while simplifying deployment and integration.
Availability
- 40TB UltraSMR ePMR HDD: In hyperscale qualification; volume production expected H2 2026.
- HAMR HDDs: Qualified for ramp production in 2027; expected to scale to 100TB by 2029.
- ePMR 60TB: Projected using HAMR innovations without additional power.
- High Bandwidth Drives: Already with customers for validation.
- Dual Pivot HDDs: Expected availability in 2028.
- Power-Optimized HDDs: Customer qualification expected in 2027.
- Intelligent software layer (Platform Expansion): Expected launch in 2027.
Speaking at the event, Irving Tan, Chief Executive Officer at WD, said:
For the past year, WD has remained continuously focused on execution and accelerating innovation, which has enabled us to truly reimagine the hard drive to meet the requirements of AI. Today, we are showcasing technology that reflects our deep connection to our customers and how we are meeting demand for capacity, scale, quality, enhanced performance, and ease of technology adoption.
Speaking on the roadmap, Ahmed Shihab, Chief Product Officer at WD, said:
WD Innovation Day is where our customer-centric business transformation meets our breakthrough technology for the AI era. We’ve organized around how customers build and scale AI infrastructure. WD is challenging conventional storage assumptions and removing the complexity and cost barriers that limit their AI-driven growth. Our capacity, performance, power efficiency, and platform innovations solidify our position as the innovation partner for the AI-driven data economy.