Seagate joins the HDD price hike party, blames AI for spike in demand 4 comment bubble on white Expect ongoing supply shortages this year, say storage analysts iconDan Robinson Tue 23 Apr 2024 // 18:15 UTC Seagate has joined Western Digital in increasing the prices of hard drives, with rising demand due to the huge data requirements of AI taking the blame. AI is also behind a rapid growth in orders for Enterprise solid state drives (SSDs). One of the big three makers of traditional rotating hard disk drives (HDDs), Seagate informed customers that it is increasing prices effective immediately for new orders, but also for any changes to orders that are "over and above" previously committed volumes. This was disclosed in a letter from the company seen by analyst Trendforce, and comes just a couple of weeks after rival manufacturer Western Digital sent out a similar letter to customers informing them of price hikes.