Expect HDD, SSD shortages as AI rewrites the rules of storage hierarchy — multiple companies announce price hikes, too

AI-driven growth in the computing market is causing shortages in HDD and SSD storage, leading to price hikes by multiple companies. Hard drive vendors are struggling with manufacturing capacity, with lead times for high-capacity drives exceeding a year. The demand for "nearline" storage for generative AI workloads is increasing, pushing companies to develop SSD products for this purpose. While SSD prices are rising in the short term, the development of cost-effective nearline SSDs is expected to alleviate the storage crunch in the future.