Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital have outlined their roadmaps for high-capacity hard disk drives, targeting capacities beyond 100TB in the coming decade. Each company is pursuing a different technology path to achieve these milestones.
Seagate ships 44TB HAMR drives to cloud providers
Seagate is now shipping 44TB drives based on its Mozaic 4 platform to select cloud service providers. The company plans to start qualification shipments of 50TB drives using the next-generation Mozaic 5 platform in late 2027. Further down the road, Seagate aims for 60TB drives by 2029-2030, 80TB or more in 2031, and approximately 100TB in the early 2030s. Toshiba is sampling 30TB to 34TB shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives using its FC-MAMR technology, and targets around 40TB by 2027, with HAMR drives later this decade. Western Digital is shipping 40TB ePMR SMR drives in 2026, and plans volume production of 40TB and 44TB HAMR drives around 2027. Its roadmap includes 60TB drives by 2028-2029, approximately 100TB in 2029-2030, and over 140TB in the 2030s.
HDD Capacity Roadmap Comparison
| Spec | Seagate | Toshiba | Western Digital |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current shipping capacity | 44TB (Mozaic 4 HAMR) | 28TB (M12 FC-MAMR CMR) | 40TB (ePMR SMR) |
| Near-term target (2027) | 50TB (Mozaic 5) | ~40TB (FC-MAMR/HAMR) | 40-44TB (HAMR) |
| Mid-term target (2028-2030) | 60TB (by 2029-2030) | HAMR later this decade | 60TB (by 2028-2029) |
| Long-term target (2030s) | ~100TB (early 2030s) | Not specified | ~100TB (2029-2030), 140TB+ (2030s) |
Western Digital is also developing multi-actuator designs to boost performance, targeting 8x bandwidth and 4x I/O scaling. The company is working on power-optimized drives for 'active cold' storage, which cut power consumption by roughly 20%. Seagate already offers its Mach.2 dual-actuator drives that double per-TB IOPS.
The HDD industry is seeing strong demand for high-capacity drives, driven by data center and AI storage needs. According to Hoya CEO Eiichiro Ikeda, 3.5-inch substrates achieved double-digit growth, and demand is expected to increase further. Hoya is preparing to enhance supply capacity and will begin shipping glass substrates to a second customer in the latter half of fiscal 2026, with volume increasing substantially in fiscal 2027. The exact unit sales of HDDs in calendar 2025 are unknown, but reports from Hoya and Resonac indicate an increase compared to 2024.
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