Hard drives were once considered “legacy technology,” but a massive market shift has sent prices climbing to their highest levels in two years. In this video, we dive into the “collateral damage” of the AI boom and how unexpected government policies in China are causing a global hard drive shortage. What’s driving the price spike?
The AI Data Center Boom: Hyperscale operators are devouring high-capacity “nearline” HDDs for bulk storage and backups as AI workloads scale at a historic pace.
China’s Domestic PC Shift: New government procurement policies favor domestic CPUs and operating systems, which has unexpectedly boosted HDD adoption due to concerns over SSD “bit rot” and long-term data retention.
Supply Chain Strain: HDD manufacturers are already running at full utilization. Scaling up isn’t easy because production is constrained by specialized components like read/write heads and precision media, unlike the faster-ramping flash memory market.
The DRAM Crisis: Hard drives rely on DRAM for cache memory, and with the AI sector consuming the global supply of memory, manufacturing costs for HDDs are being pushed even higher.
Analysts note that data center infrastructure spending is now a major driver of U.S. GDP growth, and “spinning rust” is quietly holding the entire AI boom together. Is the era of cheap bulk storage over?
Tags: HDD price spike, hard drive shortage 2025, AI infrastructure, data center storage, China PC market, SSD vs HDD data retention, nearline hard drives, tech supply chain, DRAM price increase, Tom’s Hardware, spinning rust, AI data center demand, storage market news, NAND flash vs HDD Stay updated on the latest tech industry news by liking and subscribing! #HDD #TechNews #ArtificialIntelligence #PCBuilding #DataCenter #Storage #ChinaTech #HardDrivePrices