Western Digital CEO: AI inference is generating more data and requiring storage hence demand growth

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  January 30, 2026 at 21:16  |  3:51  |  CNBC
Speakers
Irving Tan — CEO, Western Digital

Summary

Western Digital CEO Irving Tan discusses how AI training and inference are generating more data and requiring more storage capacity. He explains Western Digital's focus on higher-capacity drives, hyperscale customers, and cloud migration, and cites 25% five-year exabyte demand growth. The company says it has longer-term contracts and is largely sold out for calendar 2026 with two of its five largest customers.

  • Western Digital reported a 25% year-over-year revenue jump amid AI demand.
  • CEO Irving Tan says AI training and inference require more data storage.
  • Western Digital is increasing drive capacity, from 24TB to 32TB and beyond, rather than adding unit capacity.
  • The company is focused on hyperscale customers and cloud storage migration.
  • Management sees exabyte demand growing at a 25% CAGR over five years.
  • Western Digital has longer-term contracts and is largely sold out for calendar 2026.
  • Higher-capacity drives are tied to margin expansion.
Ideas
Irving Tan CEO, Western Digital 0:38
AI storage demand drives Western Digital growth.
AI model training and increasingly pervasive inference are generating much more data, which requires more storage capacity. Western Digital is positioned front-and-center with hyperscalers, has pivoted engineering to their capacity and feature needs, and is meeting demand through higher-capacity drives, from 24TB to 32TB and next-generation products, rather than adding unit production capacity. This technology and areal-density innovation supports margin expansion. Management sees exabyte demand growing at a 25% CAGR over the next five years, has engaged in longer-term contracts, and says the company is largely sold out for calendar 2026 with two of its five largest customers, giving strong visibility.
WDC HIGH
Irving Tan CEO, Western Digital 0:42
AI-driven data growth requires more storage.
AI training and inference are creating growing volumes of data, and inference becoming more pervasive means much more data must be stored. Storage is increasingly moving to the cloud as enterprises shift from on-prem to use AI capabilities, and hyperscalers are the main locus of that demand. Management expects exabyte demand to compound at 25% annually over the next five years, supporting the broader data-storage sector.
STORAGE HIGH
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This CNBC video, published January 30, 2026, features Irving Tan discussing WDC, STORAGE. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Irving Tan  · Tickers: WDC, STORAGE