Western Digital has announced separating its Flash business. In a statement, Irving Tan, Chief Executive Officer of Western Digital, said, “Today marks a new milestone for Western Digital – with our company separation now complete, we are once again fully focused on our pioneering hard disk drive (HDD) business.”

In addition, Tan said, “Our rich history of delivering top-notch HDD innovation has defined us for decades, and I am excited for us to further deepen our commitment to delivering the best storage capabilities to our customers going forward.

Western Digital, for many years, has already created a solid reputation for its advanced HDD technology. The separation of its flash business means the company will be able to flex its muscle further on its HDD business. Western Digital has over 40,000 employees across 22 countries.

With the spin off, the flash memory business will operate as Sandisk Corporation.

AI to Fuel Growth

In a statement, Western Digital’s Tan underscored how AI accelerates and impacts industries around the world. Thus, as companies generate and store more data, HDD exabyte shipments are like to increase. “In addition, much of the data stored by cloud service providers, such as native cloud application data, AI data lakes, media, and machine learning data, runs on HDDs.”

Because of its focus on HDDs, Tan said it will enable it to maintain its position as the formidable partner of hyperscalers and cloud service providers. Moreover, they will continue to support OEMs that rely on cutting-edge solutions.

As companies generate and store more data, growing use cases such as text-to-image GenAI workloads, text-to-video applications and a rising demand for massive data lakes to fuel AI models are expected to increase HDD exabyte shipments. Quoting company data, it will likely peg a 23% CAGR from 2024 to 2028.

Western Digital remains steadfast in addressing the ever-growing data demands of the cloud and enterprise markets, delivering the scalability, TCO and sustainability needed to store the majority of the world’s generated data, which is expected to grow three times between 2023 and 2028.

Next-Generation Technology

Tan emphasized Western Digital’s differentiated portfolio of scalable capacity. Thus, ensuring its customers that they can expand their capacity points to achieve maximum value. Specifically, he identified the industry’s move towards HAMR technology.

HAMR technology is a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. Industry estimates said around 2030, this technology will enable the company to build 80TB to 100TB HDDs. HAMR is a technology that increases the storage capacity of HDDs because it uses a laser to heat a small area of the disk, making it easier to write data in smaller regions.

Western Digital is already in full swing testing the company’s HAMR development with two major hyperscale customers which it did not identify. With the company’s differentiated portfolio of scalable capacity across ePMR and UltraSMR technologies, and with UltraSMR gains extending to HAMR, Western Digital is enabling its customers to plan long-term while leveraging expanding capacity points available. This helps ensure a predictable, scalable economic transition for customers while achieving maximum value as their data center environments evolve.

Independent Company

With the spin off, the flash memory business will operate as Sandisk Corporation. The independent company has actually trading at Nasdaq Stock Market starting Monday, February 24, with the ticker symbol SNDK.

David Goeckeler, Chief Executive Officer of Sandisk said, “Everything starts with innovation and NAND is an incredible enabler. Because we operate in strong and growing markets, there is a tremendous opportunity to expand our role as a globally leading Flash memory innovator.

Western Digital and Kioxia, a Japanese NAND Flash company, enjoy manufacturing partnership for several years. In October 2022, the two companies opened a state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facility Fab7 at Yokkaichi Plant in Mie Prefecture with total investments of one trillion Japanese yen.

Earlier media reports in 2021 said Western Digital and Kioxia have been in discussion for a possible merger, however this has been stalled several times.

Early this month, Kioxia and Sandisk announced a pioneering state-of-the-art 3D flash memory technology, setting the industry benchmark with a 4.8Gb/sec NAND interface speed.

Kioxia and Sandisk also shared plans for the upcoming 9th generation 3D flash memory. Enabled by their unique CBA technology, the companies can combine the new CMOS technology with an existing memory cell technology to deliver capital-efficient, high-performance, low-power products. Both companies remain committed to developing cutting-edge flash memory technologies, offering tailored solutions to meet customer needs, and contributing to the advancement of the digital society.

27 February 2025