AI is making digital storage hugely expensive
AI is drastically changing the creative industries and work in 2026, but a lesser realised effect is how it is also reshaping storage markets, with direct consequences for photographers.
Two of the world’s largest hard drive manufacturers, Western Digital and Seagate Technology, recently announced during their Q2 earnings calls that they are fully sold out for 2026.
Western Digital CEO Tiang Yew Tan said, “We’re pretty much sold out for calendar year 2026,” while Seagate CEO William Mosley added, “Our nearline capacity is fully allocated through calendar year 2026.”
And although retail shelves remain stocked for SSDs and other forms of storage for now, the trend is clear - manufacturers are increasingly prioritising high-volume, long-term contracts with enterprise and AI clients over consumer retail demand, which is starting to inflate prices for consumers.
It's likely change anytime soon either - Tan explained that Western Digital has contracts with three of its top five clients extending as far as 2028, and Mosley said Seagate’s demand visibility is strong through 2027.
The effects of this shift are already apparent in Australia, with storage and memory prices climbing sharply over the past year.
Jason Puschmann, founder and managing director at reseller Computer Alliance, told CRN Australia this week that “a 4 TB Samsung SSD used to cost close to $500 and now it retails for $1,149. If you need to purchase RAM, a 16 GB component was priced at $60, now they’re selling for $200 to $300.”
These increases also affect the cost of high-capacity drives and memory, as well as SD cards essential for photographers handling large RAW files and 4K or 8K video.
Rising prices are not the only challenge. AI infrastructure is consuming increasing amounts of RAM and NAND flash memory, components critical to both enterprise computing and high-speed storage. In turn, this makes SSDs and hard drives more expensive and potentially harder to source.
It's worth noting that the challenges aren't across the board, at least for now. Major hard drive manufacturer Toshiba has remained largely silent on its capacity, and SanDisk, which split from Western Digital in 2025, has not reported capacity limitations for its consumer SSDs.
For photographers, backing up large photo libraries or shooting high-resolution video now carries a higher cost, and the market shifts don't appear to be changing anytime soon. If you've been holding off getting that new SSD, now might be the time to buy.