As the founder of two Fortune-500 hard disk drive companies, Finis Conner has watched HDDs operate like commodities for decades—but the AI boom changes everything. This article explores Conner’s perspective that “the role of HDDs in AI is as fundamental as batteries are to EVs,” and this creates an enormous opportunity for HDD firms to claim their strategic value as innovators for the new era of AI. Most hard disk drive industry analysts view HDDs as commodities.
business slump, the on-allocation HDD cycle we’re experiencing now is particularly powerful. In a September 2023 article, Conner predicted that it would take time to bring the HDD supply chain and distribution engines back online in the wake of the pandemic, and it could trigger an on-allocation supply squeeze for drives. As it came to pass, AI’s ravenous hunger for storage has quickly eaten through the pandemic-era surplus, sparking this on - allocation supply squeeze.
Has Made the Present HDD Supply Shock Even Stronger