Toshiba to double HDD capacity for AI data centres
Toshiba plans to double its production capacity for hard disk drives (HDDs) used in AI data centres within fiscal 2027, compared with 2025 levels, Nikkei reports. The company will invest around JPY 60 billion (about USD 380 million) in expanding its plant in the Philippines.
The investment comes as storage is under pressure from both sides. Evertiq has previously reported that the memory market has changed structurally because of AI, with no meaningful relief expected before the end of 2027. On the storage side, TrendForce described the surge in NAND flash demand as structural, not temporary, and expected the market to stay tight throughout 2026. Part of that demand came from cloud providers shifting orders to enterprise SSDs because hard drives were in short supply. Hard drives remain the cheaper option, though. According to Nikkei, SSDs cost around 20 times more per unit of storage.
In the midst of all this, Toshiba is making its first major HDD investment in around five years. Alongside new production lines, the Philippine plant will also make products that raise the storage capacity per drive by as much as 40%. Toshiba also plans to automate inspection and cleanroom operations at the site. According to Nikkei, the automation is expected to improve yields while cutting the extra staffing needed for the expansion by about 40%.
Toshiba is one of three companies that dominate the HDD market, alongside the US-based Western Digital and Seagate Technology. Measured by storage capacity, Toshiba’s market share is just over 10%, and the company aims to reach 30% in the medium term. In April, Toshiba began sampling its M12 nearline drives with capacities of 30–34TB. According to Nikkei, Toshiba will continue to invest towards mass production of 65TB-class drives in 2030 and, eventually, 100TB-class drives.
Demand is growing fastest for nearline HDDs, the high-capacity tier between faster online storage and slower offline storage. In January, Seagate said its nearline capacity for 2026 was already sold out.
According to IDC figures cited by Nikkei, annual global data generation will quadruple from 2024 levels to 718 zettabytes in 2030. Around 60% of that data is expected to be stored on HDDs.
The competition is investing too. Western Digital plans to invest USD 1 billion in Japan over five years through 2030, in next-generation technology, recruitment and collaboration with research institutions and universities.
