Toshiba to Mass-Produce HAMR HDDs with Double Capacity in 2028, Targeting 20% Global Market Share
Toshiba has announced plans to begin mass production of next-generation hard disk drives (HDDs) featuring significantly higher storage capacity in the second half of fiscal year 2028. The move aims to capture growing demand for high-capacity data storage driven by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and global data center infrastructure.
The project will be led by Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage, a Toshiba subsidiary based in Kawasaki, Japan. The next-generation HDDs will adopt Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, which uses a laser to momentarily heat a highly localized area of the disk. This process temporarily reduces magnetic coercivity, enabling much higher recording density.
According to Toshiba, HAMR technology can more than double storage capacity compared with Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR), the technology currently used in the company’s mass-produced HDDs.
40TB HDDs to Enter Mass Production from FY2028
Toshiba plans to initially mass-produce high-capacity HDDs with a storage capacity of 40 terabytes (TB). Small-scale production for customer evaluation is scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2027, followed by full-scale mass production in fiscal year 2028.
In parallel, the company will invest in expanding HDD manufacturing capacity in the Philippines and China to meet rising global demand.
AI and Data Centers Drive Demand for High-Capacity HDDs
According to the 2025 White Paper on Information and Communications, the global data center market is expected to grow to USD 624.1 billion by 2029, approximately 1.7 times the size of the market in 2023. One of the key growth drivers is the increasing need to store massive volumes of data for AI training and processing, which continues to support demand for large-capacity HDDs.
Industry Shift Toward HAMR Accelerates
Against this backdrop, the HDD industry is accelerating its transition toward HAMR technology. In 2024, Seagate Technology began mass production of HAMR-based HDDs through a partnership with Sony Semiconductor Solutions, which supplies the semiconductor lasers essential to the technology.
Meanwhile, Western Digital (WD) is also expected to source semiconductor lasers from Sony Semiconductor and aims to commercialize HAMR HDDs as early as 2027.
Toshiba Aims to Expand Global HDD Market Share
Toshiba currently holds approximately 17% of the global HDD market on a unit basis and is targeting an increase to more than 20% by 2030. While higher-capacity HDDs are expected to come at a higher price point, they offer significant advantages, including greater storage density within the same data center footprint and reduced overall power consumption, contributing to improved efficiency of digital infrastructure.
Source: Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun
