Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today announced it is appointing Mike Cordano as the company's executive vice president of worldwide sales, effective immediately. Cordano will succeed Mike Bokan, who announced a few months ago his intention to retire from Micron in fiscal 2025 after more than twenty-eight years with the company. Bokan will support Cordano over the next several months to ensure a seamless transition. Cordano will report directly to Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO of Micron.

Cordano joins Micron with a 30-year track record of success in executive leadership, driving innovative business development, and executing successful go-to-market strategies. His experience includes over 8 years at Western Digital (WD), where he held ever-increasing executive positions, including President and Chief Operating Officer and President of the Hitachi Global Storage Technology (HGST) subsidiary. Immediately before the acquisition by WD, he held the position of Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at HGST. Most recently, he was the Founder and Partner of Prime Impact Capital.

Since its introduction in 2004, millions around the world have trusted WD My Passport drives to store and back up their lives' most precious memories and valuable data. To commemorate this milestone anniversary of its most popular drive, Western Digital Corp. is launching the WD My Passport Ultra, 20th Emerald Anniversary Edition. Over the lifetime of the My Passport drives, Western Digital has provided approximately 180 exabytes of data storage for users worldwide, equivalent to up to 18 billion hours of HD video, up to 46 trillion photos, or up to 35 trillion songs.

Prior to the initial introduction of the WD My Passport drive, users had limited options when it came to taking important files with them on the go, having to sacrifice a power outlet and downtime to add and transfer data. In 2004, My Passport delivered a streamlined solution: portable products that offered an impressive amount of storage for many types of digital files - including videos, music, photos, and documents. What started as a simple solution with 40 GB capacity has increased by up to 150 times to now having the world's highest capacity 2.5" portable hard drive with 6 TB of storage, meeting the needs of the modern digital consumer.

More than just storage, Western Digital HDDs are key enablers for businesses looking to optimize their infrastructure, lower TCO and future-proof their data strategies. Constantly innovating to meet the needs of our data-driven world, Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that it is now shipping the world's highest capacity UltraSMR HDD with up to 32 TB leveraging the time-tested, reliable energy-assisted PMR (ePMR) recording technology for hyperscalers, CSPs and enterprises. For those who want a drop-in ready HDD for today's data-intensive workloads, the company is also now shipping the world's highest-capacity ePMR CMR HDD with up to 26 TB for enterprise and channel customers. With the world's first commercially available 11-disk design and field-proven technology, these new drives reinforce Western Digital's commitment to delivering HDD technology that raises the bar on capacity, reliability and innovation.

The AI Data Cycle has emerged as a growth driver for the storage industry. As AI systems become more sophisticated, they process and generate vast amounts of data that must be stored efficiently. HDDs play a crucial role in this ecosystem, handling both the input side, where data is gathered, ingested and stored, and the output side, where AI content is generated and preserved. This dual role positions HDDs as a linchpin in the AI Data Cycle, ensuring that data is available when needed and stored with the lowest TCO.

TrendForce's latest reports reveal that the second quarter of 2024 saw a significant increase in demand for enterprise SSDs due to the increased deployment of NVIDIA GPU platforms and rising storage needs driven by AI applications, along with a surge in demand from server brands. The surge in demand for high-capacity SSDs for AI applications—coupled with suppliers' inability to adjust capacity in the first half of the year—resulted in a supply shortage that drove average enterprise SSD prices up by more than 25% QoQ. This price increase led to a revenue growth of over 50% for suppliers.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, demand from North American CSP customers continues to rise, and server brands show no signs of slowing down their orders, further boosting procurement volumes of enterprise SSD. With supply shortages persisting into the third quarter, TrendForce forecasts a 15% increase in contract prices compared to the previous quarter, with supplier revenues expected to grow by nearly 20%.

TrendForce reports that NAND Flash prices continued to rise in 2Q24 as server inventory adjustments neared completion and AI spurred demand for high-capacity storage products. However, high inventory levels among PC and smartphone buyers led to a 1% QoQ decline in NAND Flash bit shipments. Despite this, ASP increased by 15% and drove total revenue to US$16.796 billion, a 14.2% growth compared to the previous quarter.

All NAND Flash suppliers returned to profitability starting in the second quarter and are expanding capacity in the third quarter to meet strong demand from AI and server markets. However, weaker-than-expected PC and smartphone sales in the first half of the year are likely to constrain NAND Flash shipment growth.

Western Digital, a leader in Flash and HDD data storage, is unveiling groundbreaking solutions and technology demonstrations at FMS 2024 that raise the bar for performance, capacity and efficiency for transformative AI Data Cycle workloads. These innovations cater to diverse market segments from hyperscale cloud to automotive and consumer storage. Attendees will also gain insights from a keynote address by Rob Soderbery, executive vice president and general manager of Western Digital's Flash Business Unit, on Tuesday at 3 PM. During the keynote, Soderbery will delve into the strategic advancements propelling the future of NAND, AI and data storage from the data center to the edge.

"As AI technologies advance and become increasingly embedded in the world around us, the demand for storage will only continue to grow," said Soderbery. "Western Digital's product and technology roadmaps are strategically aligned to ensure our customers have the most advanced, reliable solutions to stay ahead in the rapidly changing AI landscape. This holistic approach ensures that our customers receive the most power-efficient, high-performing and high-capacity solutions tailored to their specific needs. We are excited to showcase our full range of products and new technologies and demonstrate how they can transform AI now and into the future."

ORICO, an industry-leading brand in data storage solutions, is proud to announce the launch of Data Matrix. It's the world's first hybrid storage for revolutionizing instant post-production workflow. With its sleek, Apple-inspired design, it is set to attract content creators, filmmakers and professionals alike, who require high-performance storage solutions to manage 4K/8K content efficiently. Traditional storage solutions often suffer from frequent downtime, slow speeds, and limited space, failing to meet the urgent needs of modern content creators. In cooperation with West Digital (WD), ORICO has designed the Data Matrix to provide a one-stop, cost-efficient production service that balances high speed, large capacity, and strong flexibility. Also, address the concerns about high investment in every 256 GB upgrade for Mac users.

CFexpress Type-B slot delivers an impressive 1500 MB/s import speed during pre-production, reducing the Mac import time by 95%. The 312 MB/s SD V4.0 card reader supports UHS-II 4K video capture. After filming, Digital Imaging Technicians (DIT) can import the camera source files into Data Matrix, transcode videos, save and start 8K 3D video editing instantly. On-site personnel can immediately output the footage from the Data Matrix to a large screen via HDMI (8K @ 30 Hz) for detailed viewing and confirmation, resulting in clearer image quality. The team can also perform initial edits on-site using Thunderbolt 4/3/USB4 significantly reducing the post-production team's workload.To back the project, visit the Kickstarter page.

Western Digital Corp. (Nasdaq: WDC) today reported fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 financial results. "Our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 results are reflective of the diverse and innovative portfolio we have developed in alignment with our strategic roadmap. Together, with the structural changes we have made to strengthen our operations, we are benefitting from the broad recovery we are seeing across our end markets and structurally improving through-cycle profitability for both Flash and HDD," said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO.

"The emergence of the AI Data Cycle marks a transformational period within our industry that will drive fundamental shifts across our end markets, increasing the need for storage and creating new demand drivers. As we look ahead, we are confident in our ability to leverage our technology leadership position to capitalize on these exciting growth opportunities and deliver value for our customers," continued David Goeckeler.

Western Digital stealthily introduced a spacious 8 TB variant of its performance WD Black SN850X M.2 NVMe Gen 4 SSD. The drive debuted in 2022 and had topped off at 4 TB. The new 8 TB variant is priced at $849 for the bare drive (without heatsink, model number WDS800T2X0E), and $899 with the PS5-friendly heatsink (model: WDS800T2XHE). The drive combines an in-house controller by Western Digital, with KIOXIA-sourced 3D TLC NAND flash. We're not sure if it's using the same 112-layer BiCS5 that the 4 TB variant does.

Western Digital claims performance figures of up to 7200 MB/s sequential reads, up to 6600 MB/s sequential writes, and up to 1.2 million IOPS 4K random reads/writes. The read speed is a touch lesser than the 7300 MB/s max sequential reads of the 4 TB variant. The write endurance of the 8 TB variant is rated at an impressive 4,800 TBW. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor the drive takes advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 interface. Western Digital is backing these drives with 5-year warranties.

Western Digital has released a new budget friendly SSD that got a serious jump in model number, since the company decided to call it the SN5000. Its predecessor is the SN580 launched just under a year ago and price wise, it's the better option of the two. The new SN5000 uses the same BiCS 5 TLC NAND as the SN580 on the 500 GB to the 2 TB SKU, but according to Anandtech, the 4 TB uses BiCS 6 QLC NAND. The SN5000 is still a PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe drive, but the overall performance has been significantly improved. If we use the 1 TB SKU for comparison, then the sequential read speeds have gone up by 1 GB/s from 4150 MB/s to 5150 MB/s. The sequential write speed is up 750 MB/s from 4150 MB/s to 4900 MB/s.

As for random performance, the read IOPS are up from 600K IOPS to 730K IOPS and the write IOPS are up slightly from 750K to 770K. The 4 TB QLC SKU is said to deliver even better performance with the exception of the random read IOPS. The 1 TB SKU is said to have a write endurance of 600 TBW, but the 4 TB SKU only offers 1200 TBW. That's 0.33 drive writes per day (DWPD) for the 1 TB SKU vs. 0.16 DWPD for the 4 TB SKU, showing the weakness of the QLC NAND. A new feature for the SN5000 series compared to previous WD Blue NVMe drives is support for TGC Pyrite 2.01 encryption. The WD SN5000-series starts at US$70 for the 500 GB model, going up to US$80 for 1 TB, US$140 for 2 TB and topping out at US$280 for the 4 TB model. WD only seems to have the 500 GB model in stock, with all the others being available in 3-4 weeks time. All SKUs come with a five year warranty.

With the explosion of digital content, people need bigger and more robust solutions to help access and preserve it all. Western Digital today is introducing a portable HDD expansion across its WD, WD_BLACK and SanDisk Professional product lineups, boasting the world's highest storage capacity in a 2.5" portable HDD. The WD My Passport portable HDD line, WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive and SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD will all now be available in 6 TB capacities.

"Expanding our portfolio with the world's first 2.5" 6 TB portable hard drive is an incredible technological achievement, and it enables us to continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible," said Nitin Kachhwaha, Director of Product Management at Western Digital. "Offering up to 6 TB in such a small form factor and accessible price point gives everyone - from students, gamers, professional videographers, and more—greater flexibility to create and keep even more of their essential content in one portable drive."

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) has expanded its SanDisk portfolio with the new 8 TB SanDisk Desk Drive, its highest capacity yet on an external desktop solid state drive (SSD). Featuring the speed and reliability of an SSD, this new class of drives gives content creators and business professionals an easy way to back up and access their high-resolution photos, videos and files quickly in a single, convenient location. From photo and video pros to tech enthusiasts, there are a growing number of digital creators generating massive amounts of content who need flexible high-capacity storage solutions to do more, faster.

"As digital content creation continues to soar, there is an increasing need for high-performing and high-capacity storage solutions to help manage and preserve it. Expanding our SSD portfolio is the first step in offering creators backup solutions that deliver the speed and flexibility they need to unlock their creativity," says Susan Park, Vice President, Consumer Solutions, Western Digital. "By next year, we expect to double the capacity of the SanDisk Desk Drive from 8 TB to 16 TB on a single desktop SSD."

Western Digital Corp. today reported fiscal third quarter 2024 financial results.

"As evidenced by our excellent third quarter results, Western Digital continues improving through-cycle profitability and dampening business cycles by leveraging our strategy of developing a diversified portfolio of industry-leading products across a broad range of end markets," said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO. "We are in the early innings of unlocking the full potential of this company, and as industry supply and demand dynamics continue to improve, we will remain disciplined around our capital spending and focused on driving innovation and efficiency across our businesses. We are confident in our strategy and the actions we have taken to-date, which successfully position us to capitalize on the promising growth prospects that lie ahead."

At the NAB Show 2024, in Las Vegas, Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) is unveiling an exciting lineup of technologies and new storage solutions designed for today's and tomorrow's complex media and entertainment (M&E) workflows. Western Digital continues to focus on creating what's next with advanced solutions that address a broad range of growing content needs.

The increasing demand for rich and engaging content, with higher resolutions and more frames per second, is generating the need for faster, more flexible high-capacity storage solutions to help streamline workflows and keep up with high-pressure project demands. For every step of the workflow - from capture and transfer to archive - Western Digital is committed to advancing technology to help professionals and creators get work done faster and more efficiently, ultimately saving time and money, so they can focus on their creativity.

TrendForce reports that anticipation of NAND Flash price hikes into Q2 has motivated certain suppliers to minimize losses and lower costs in hopes of returning to profitability this year. Kioxia and WD led the charge from March, boosting their capacity utilization rates to nearly 90%—a move not widely adopted by their competitors.

TrendForce points out that to meet the demand surge in the second half of the year, especially given Kioxia and Western Digital's currently low inventory, the production increase is mainly targeting 112-layer and select 2D products. This strategy is expected not only to secure profitability within the year but also to contribute to a projected 10.9% rise in the annual NAND Flash industry supply bit growth rate for 2024.

Western Digital Corp. ("Western Digital" or "the Company") today provided an update on its previously announced plan to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies. On track for the second half of calendar year 2024, significant progress towards the completion of the separation is underway with key transactional projects including global legal entity establishment, customer and supplier contract transfers, final stage preparation for government filings, and initial executive leadership appointments for both HDD and Flash companies post-separation.

Announced on October 30, 2023, Western Digital plans to separate its HDD and Flash businesses, creating two independent, public companies with market-specific, strategic focus. The company's separation will better position each franchise to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, extend respective market leadership positions, and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures.

Japan's Jiji news agency has cottoned onto a major computer memory industry rumble—a Friday Reuters report suggests that Kioxia has offered an olive branch to SK Hynix, perhaps in a renewed push to get its proposed (and once rejected) merger with Western Digital over the finishing line. The South Korean memory manufacturing juggernaut took great issue with the suggested formation of a mighty Japanese-American 3D NAND memory chip conglomerate—SK Hynix's opposition reportedly placed great pressure on Western Digital (WD), and discussions with Kioxia ended last October.

Kioxia is seemingly eager to resume talks with WD, but requires a thumbs up from SK Hynix—according to Jiji's insider source(s), the Tokyo-headquartered manufacturer is prepared to offer its South Korean rival a nice non-volatile memory production deal. Kioxia's best Japanese 3D NAND fabrication facilities could play host to SK Hynix designs, although it is too early to tell whether this bid has been accepted. The Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants are set to receive a 150 billion yen Government subsidy—Kioxia and WD's joint venture is expected to move into cutting-edge semiconductor production. The Japanese government is hoping to secure its native operations in times of industry flux.

Western Digital Corp. today reported fiscal second quarter 2024 financial results. "Western Digital's second quarter results demonstrate that the structural changes we have put in place over the last few years and the strategy we have been executing are producing significant outperformance across our flash and HDD businesses," said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO. "We are seeing our efforts come to fruition as our financial performance met, or exceeded, the non-GAAP guidance ranges we provided in October, and I am confident that our strategy of managing inventory proactively, offering a broad range of products, closely controlling our product cost through focused R&D and manufacturing, and bolstering the agility of our business will allow us to improve through-cycle profitability and dampen business cycles into the future."

• Second quarter revenue was $3.03 billion, up 10% sequentially (QoQ). Cloud revenue increased 23% (QoQ), Client revenue decreased 2% (QoQ) and Consumer revenue increased 15% (QoQ).
• Second quarter GAAP earnings per share (EPS) was $(0.87) and Non-GAAP EPS was $(0.69), which includes $156 million of underutilization-related charges in Flash and HDD.
• Expect fiscal third quarter 2024 revenue to be in the range of $3.20 billion to $3.40 billion.
• Expect Non-GAAP EPS in the range of $(0.10) to $0.20, which includes $30 to $40 million of underutilization-related charges in HDD.

TrendForce reports a pivotal shift in the NAND Flash market for 3Q23, primarily driven by Samsung's strategic decision to reduce production. Initially, the market was clouded by uncertainty regarding end-user demand and fears of a subdued peak season, prompting buyers to adopt a conservative approach with low inventory and slow procurement. However, as market leaders like Samsung implemented substantial production cuts, buyers' attitudes shifted toward a more aggressive procurement strategy in anticipation of a market supply decrease. This led to a stabilization and even an uptick in NAND Flash contract prices by quarter-end, driving a 3% QoQ increase in bit shipments and culminating in a total revenue of US$9.229 billion, marking an approximate 2.9% increase.

The story unfolds with Kioxia and Micron—the only two to witness a dip in revenue rankings this quarter—while Samsung maintained its robust performance. Despite sluggish demand in the server sector, Samsung's fortunes rebounded thanks to a boost in consumer electronics, especially with high-capacity products in PCs and smartphones. Samsung emerged from a trough in Q3, with strategic inventory replenishments fueling further strategic stocking, and a shift in operational focus toward maximizing profit. This led to a minor 1-3% decrease in shipped bits, but a 1-3% increase in ASP, stabilizing Q3 NAND Flash revenue at US$2.9 billion.

As new applications, use cases and connected devices multiply, Western Digital's enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDDs) remain critical for helping data center customers design more cost-efficient, scalable and sustainable infrastructure. When combined with the emergence of generative AI and the multitude of innovative applications it is enabling, the demand for high-capacity, low-power and reliable storage is poised to surge.

Western Digital leverages numerous technology innovations - ePMR, OptiNAND, UltraSMR and more - to deliver predictable capacity growth in scalable, highly reliable products. Western Digital is now shipping its new 10-disk 24 TB CMR HDD family for hyperscale, cloud and enterprise data center customers. Sampling since August, the new 28 TB SMR HDD is also ramping, adding to the company's SMR leadership position and momentum as its 26 TB SMR HDD exabyte shipments reached nearly half of its data center exabytes shipped in the first quarter fiscal year 2024.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) ("Western Digital" or "the Company") today announced its Board of Directors has unanimously approved a plan to separate its HDD and Flash businesses. Creating two independent, public companies with market-specific, strategic focus, the company's separation will better position each franchise to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, extend respective leadership positions, and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures. The transaction also provides strategic optionality for both businesses. The separation is intended to be structured in a tax-free manner and is targeted for the second half of calendar year 2024.

"Our HDD and Flash businesses are both well positioned to capitalize on the data storage industry's significant market dynamics, and as separate companies, each will have the strategic focus and resources to pursue opportunities in their respective markets. Importantly, separating these franchises will unlock significant value for Western Digital shareholders, allowing them to participate in the upside of two industry leaders with distinct growth and investment profiles," said David Goeckeler, CEO, Western Digital. "We have already laid important groundwork by building market-leading portfolios and enhancing the operational efficiency of each business, including the creation of separate Flash and HDD product business units and separating operational capabilites over the past several years. Additionally, we now have strong product, operational, and financial leadership in place to execute this plan successfully. Each business is in a solid position to succeed on its own, and the actions we are announcing today will further enable each company to drive long-term success in the years to come."

Western Digital Corp. (Nasdaq: WDC) today reported fiscal first quarter 2024 financial results. "Western Digital's fiscal first quarter results exceeded our expectations as the team's efforts to bolster business agility and develop differentiated and innovative products across a broad range of end-markets have resulted in sequential margin improvement across flash and HDD businesses," said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO. "Our Consumer and Client end markets continue to perform well and we now expect our Cloud end market to grow going forward. Our improved cost structure positions Western Digital to capitalize on enhanced earnings power as market conditions continue to improve."

• First quarter revenue was $2.75 billion, up 3% sequentially (QoQ). Cloud revenue decreased 12% (QoQ), Client revenue increased 11% (QoQ) and Consumer revenue increased 14% (QoQ).
• First quarter GAAP earnings per share (EPS) was $(2.17) and Non-GAAP EPS was $(1.76), which includes $225 million of underutilization-related charges in Flash and HDD.
• Expect fiscal second quarter 2024 revenue to be in the range of $2.85 billion to $3.05 billion.
• Expect Non-GAAP EPS in the range of $(1.35) to $(1.05), which includes $110 to $130 million of underutilization-related charges in Flash and HDD.

The drawn out merger talks between Kioxia and Western Digital's memory and NAND flash manufacturing businesses appears to have hit an unexpected bump on the road, in the shape of SK Hynix according to the Nikkei. As it happens, SK Hynix holds an indirect stake in Kioxia and as such, they need to approve the merger for it to be able to happen. Today, SK Hynix is the second biggest manufacturer of NAND flash, somewhat behind Samsung, but if the Kioxia WD merger were to take place, SK Hynix would be pushed into a third place in the market, which wouldn't benefit the company.

As such, SK Hynix is trying to push for a rather odd option for Kioxia, where SK Hynix wants Japanese SoftBank—who owns among other things, Arm—to step in as a partner with Kioxia. However, what SK Hynix seems to have forgotten is that WD's memory chips are made in the same fab as Kioxia's and it's highly unlikely that WD would be keen on seeing this last minute proposal by SK Hynix play out. The Kioxia WD merger would result in a new company where Kioxia would own 63 percent and WD 37 percent, based on current assets. However, WD is meant to add further capital to the merger, so it can get a 50.1 percent stake in the final company for its shareholders, with Kioxia ending up with 49.9 percent.

To help consumers get the most out of their handheld gaming PC experience, WD_BLACK from Western Digital is introducing a new premium, high-performance M.2 2230 solution architected for today's handheld PC gamer. Building upon the WD_BLACK legacy of performance storage for all kinds of competitive gamers, the company is introducing the WD_BLACK SN770M NVMe SSD. According to a recent Gartner report, the handheld gaming console market is expected to reach 14.8M by 2027. As the mobile gaming market continues to grow and more AAA titles are released, new and innovative storage solutions are being released and developed to ensure mobile gamers are able to make the most of their on-the-go gaming experience.

"With game sizes continually becoming larger, it's easy for handheld game consoles to fill up over time with new games and regular updates," said Eric Spanneut, vice president of client SSDs for Western Digital. "The new WD_BLACK SN770M NVMe SSD boosts available storage up to 2TB2 and is specifically designed to handle the peak performance of demanding games for handheld gaming PCs."

Over the past few months there have been reports of issues with SanDisk portable SSDs and Western Digital released a firmware update in May that was meant to prevent the drives from "unexpectedly disconnect from a computer". However, it appears that this firmware update didn't solve the problem and Western Digital is now being taken to court over drives not just having disconnect issues, but also randomly failing. The court case is expected to become a class action suit, as the plaintiff claims that the issue of failing drives affect tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people in the USA.

The models included in the complaint includes the SanDisk Extreme Pro, Extreme Portable, Extreme Pro Portable and WD My Passport SSD. A further firmware update was released in July, which is said to have made the issues even worse, with data being lost on drives or being inaccessible to drive owners. In some cases the drives go into read only mode, but sometimes this means that the drives become inaccessible to the OS, which in turn also means dataloss to the user. Time will tell how this plays out, but it's not looking great for Western Digital, but it wouldn't be the first time a storage device maker has been taken to court over failing products.