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Western Digital shares fell sharply on Friday, October 2, after reports that Toshiba plans to expand hard-disk drive production capacity, raising concerns about future competition in a market where supply constraints have supported pricing.
Toshiba expansion puts supply in focus
Toshiba plans to invest about ¥60 billion to double its HDD production capacity by fiscal 2027, according to Nikkei reporting cited by Investing.com and other outlets. The expansion is expected to center on Toshiba’s Philippines operations and target demand from AI data centers.
Investing.com reported Western Digital was down 7.9% in premarket trading following the news. In later market data displayed on the article page, the stock was down 9.89%; Seagate was also lower. The two companies are directly exposed to HDD supply, while some flash-memory peers were comparatively less affected, the report said.
Potential effect remains uncertain
Investors may be weighing whether Toshiba’s planned capacity increase could ease tight HDD supply and put pressure on industry pricing. The scale and timing of any effect on Western Digital’s revenue or margins have not been established. The company’s move lower came as the broad U.S. market was higher, according to Investing.com’s report.
