Western Digital unveils AI-focused storage roadmap at Innovation Day 2026

Western Digital has announced a customer-driven storage roadmap aimed at reshaping hard drive technology for AI workloads, outlining advances in capacity, performance, power efficiency and intelligent platforms to support the rapidly expanding AI-driven data economy.

Western Digital (WD) used its Innovation Day 2026 to outline a sweeping overhaul of its storage strategy, positioning the company as a long-term infrastructure partner for enterprises and hyperscalers navigating the data demands of artificial intelligence. The company revealed a new customer-centric roadmap designed to reengineer hard disk drives (HDDs) to meet AI-era requirements around scale, efficiency and performance.

The announcements come amid surging global demand for storage as AI models generate and consume massive volumes of data. WD said its focus has been on delivering predictable capacity growth, improved performance, lower power consumption and faster qualification cycles, while minimising disruption to customer operations.

Capacity roadmap targets 100TB and beyond

At the core of WD’s roadmap is its dual technology approach combining energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR) and heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). The company announced that its 40TB UltraSMR ePMR HDD, currently the highest-capacity drive of its kind, is undergoing hyperscale qualification, with volume production planned for the second half of 2026.

WD also confirmed that HAMR-based HDDs are now in qualification, with ramp production expected in 2027. Looking further ahead, the company plans to extend ePMR-based drives to 60TB while keeping power consumption flat, and scale HAMR technology to 100TB by 2029. Both technologies share a common architecture, enabling smoother customer transitions and greater manufacturing efficiency.

Performance and power innovations for AI workloads

To address AI performance requirements, WD introduced new HDD architecture innovations designed to narrow the gap between traditional hard drives and flash storage. These include High Bandwidth Drive Technology, which allows parallel read-and-write operations across multiple heads, and Dual Pivot Technology, which improves sequential input-output performance without sacrificing capacity.

WD said the combined effect of these innovations could deliver up to four times higher sequential I/O, supporting high-capacity AI workloads while maintaining favourable cost economics. High Bandwidth Drive Technology is already in customer validation, while Dual Pivot-enabled drives are expected in 2028.

The company also unveiled power-optimised HDDs aimed at bridging the gap between warm and cold data tiers. These drives are designed to reduce energy consumption while maintaining sub-second access for AI-generated cold data, with customer qualification expected in 2027.

Platforms expansion and customer-centric strategy

WD announced an expansion of its Platforms business, including plans for an intelligent software layer with an open API, targeted for launch in 2027. The platform is intended to help mid-scale enterprises achieve hyperscale-like storage efficiency without major architectural changes.

“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,” said Irving Tan, Chief Executive Officer at WD.

“WD Innovation Day is where our customer-centric business transformation meets our breakthrough technology for the AI era,” said Ahmed Shihab, Chief Product Officer at WD.

Industry analysts also welcomed the shift. “WD's Innovation Day revealed a company that has genuinely transformed its strategy around customer infrastructure needs,” said Ed Burns, HDD Research Director at IDC.