Western Digital, now rebranded as WD, hosted an exclusive media roundtable in New Delhi to outline its long-term vision for supporting the rapidly growing AI and data-driven economy. Digital Terminal attended the session, which was led by senior WD leaders including Nigel Edwards, Vice President WW Channel Sales & Marketing, and Owais Mohammed, Sales Director for India, Middle East, and Africa.
The session highlighted how WD is strengthening its position as a critical storage infrastructure partner for hyperscalers, enterprises, and emerging digital businesses, at a time when AI, cloud computing, and advanced analytics are generating data at an unprecedented scale.
Clear Roadmap Towards 100TB and Beyond
During the roundtable, WD outlined an ambitious capacity roadmap aimed at meeting future data demands. The company confirmed that its 40TB UltraSMR ePMR hard drive, currently the world’s highest-capacity HDD, is undergoing customer qualification, with volume production scheduled for the second half of 2026.
In parallel, WD’s Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology is advancing steadily, with ramp production expected in 2027 and capacities projected to approach 100TB by 2029. This roadmap reflects WD’s focus on pushing the physical and technological limits of magnetic storage.
Commenting on the occasion, Owais Mohammed, Sales Director India, Middle East, and Africa, Western Digital said, “As India emerges as one of the key players in the global AI and data-centre ecosystem, data growth is accelerating rapidly. Our focus is on supporting this growth with scalable, reliable HDD-based storage and platforms that enable India’s expanding AI and data-centre infrastructure to grow sustainably and efficiently.”
Nigel Edwards, Vice President, Worldwide Channel Sales and Marketing, Western Digital, said, ‘I am delighted to be in India and engage with such a dynamic media community. We are encouraged by the strong opportunities for WD in the Indian market. As the country accelerates its adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies, we see significant growth potential for our advanced HDD solutions in supporting next-generation digital infrastructure."
Strengthening Performance for AI Workloads
Addressing the rising performance demands of AI training, inference, and analytics, WD leaders highlighted new High Bandwidth Drive and Dual Pivot design technologies as a major part of the company’s roadmap.
These innovations currently deliver up to two times higher bandwidth, with a roadmap to scale up to eight times in the future. They also enable up to two times improvement in input-output performance. This performance uplift allows HDDs to support AI workloads at traditional hard drive economics, reducing customer dependence on high-cost flash storage.
Driving Power Efficiency at AI Scale
Power consumption and sustainability were also key topics during the interaction. WD shared that its new HDD designs consume nearly 20 percent less power, helping data centres manage operating costs as storage footprints expand.
By narrowing the gap between warm and cold storage tiers, these power-optimised drives enable customers to build more cost-efficient storage layers. Leaders noted that this approach supports lower total cost of ownership while aligning with long-term sustainability objectives.
Platform Expansion to Simplify Deployment
Beyond hardware innovation, WD executives outlined plans to expand the company’s platform capabilities. A new intelligent storage solution, built on open-API software, is being developed to bring hyperscale-grade economics to fast-growing AI customers.
This platform will accelerate deployment, reduce qualification risks, and eliminate the need for major architectural changes. The goal is to help enterprises and service providers scale infrastructure faster while maintaining operational stability.
Repositioning for the AI-Driven Data Economy
The roundtable also highlighted WD’s broader transformation into a storage infrastructure partner for the AI era. Nearly 90% of the company’s revenue is now tied to AI and cloud workloads, reflecting the scale of this shift.
Roadmap for the Years Ahead
As data volumes continue to surge, WD’s roadmap-driven approach positions it to play a central role in shaping next-generation storage infrastructure for the global AI ecosystem.
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