Western Digital exits SSD market, shifts focus to hard drives as SanDisk takes over NAND operations

[Skye Jacobs]

The big picture: Western Digital, a titan in the storage industry long renowned for its hard disk drives and solid-state drives, has officially separated its NAND flash memory business, effectively ending the company's direct involvement in SSD production and sales. Western Digital's exit from the market leaves behind a legacy of innovation and quality that has significantly impacted the PC gaming community.

This move, which had been in development for some time, was finalized last week. The SSD division has been fully spun off into SanDisk, leaving Western Digital to focus exclusively on hard disk drive technology. This separation marks a pivotal moment for the company, which has been a household name in both HDD and SSD markets, competing alongside industry giants like Samsung and Crucial.

For PC gaming enthusiasts, who have increasingly gravitated toward SSDs for their superior speed and performance, this development represents a bittersweet moment. Western Digital has produced some of the most popular SSDs in the gaming community, with the WD Black SN850X currently holding the title of best SSD for gaming. The iconic WD_Black design has become a staple in the industry, and its potential absence from future products marks the end of an era.

However, it's important to note that this corporate restructuring doesn't spell the end of SSD production altogether. SanDisk, which has already been overseeing flash memory-related operations since last year, will continue to manufacture and sell SSDs. The groundwork for this transition was laid in October 2023, allowing the industry ample time to prepare for the change.

The production of SSDs is expected to continue without significant disruption. Western Digital had been utilizing Kioxia's (formerly Toshiba) manufacturing facilities for NAND production, and this arrangement could continue under SanDisk's management.

Alternatively, SanDisk may partner with other manufacturers, such as Samsung, to meet production needs.

The most noticeable change for consumers will likely be the absence of the familiar WD branding on future SSD products. The industry will be watching to see how SanDisk brands its SSDs moving forward, given that simply replacing 'WD' with 'SD' could lead to confusion with SD cards used in cameras and handheld devices.

Meanwhile, Western Digital is focusing on the evolving opportunities in the HDD market. "As AI accelerates and impacts industries around the world, and as companies generate and store more data, HDD exabyte shipments are expected to increase," CEO Irving Tan said. He also points out that 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.

Tan said the near-term plan is to deliver HAMR when it reaches economic crossover. "Beyond HDD, our teams are exploring new growth opportunities that leverage our core capabilities in magnetics and materials science, and with their dedication, the possibilities for future applications of our technologies are truly endless."

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Western Digital exits SSD market, shifts focus to hard drives as SanDisk takes over NAND operations

 

[NumberNine]

Through the chaos of corporate restructuring we now have a company that is both 30 years old and brand new.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

While this is a bit weird to see WD stop making SSDs (well directly), it is also good for each company to focus on one thing rather than both doing SSDs. Better focus, allocation of resources, etc. This is one of those rare times where corporate restructuring actually makes sense and isn't just CEO hubris wasting time and resources.

(It's also good for stock prices as analysts prefer more focused product lines because it makes predicting future growth easier.)

 

[gdavid65]

"Coz AI"..

Will see how that goes hand in hand with the pop of the AI bubble...

 

[Burty117]

Ever since Western Digital started selling SMR Red drives, they're a storage company, they know that was a bad idea, I've never bought from them again after that, from what I've seen, they now hide the SMR drives by having near identical model numbers and just change a digit to display if its CMR or SMR.

Used to always buy Black drives for my PC's, even had some 10k Raptor drives before SSD's were a thing, such a shame.

 

[arrowflash]

From what I understand it's just rebranding, since WD SSDs are just rebadged Sandisk SSDs. It's actually nice to know Western Digital branding will focus solely on HDDs, it's another signal that spinning rust is far from dead.

 

[JohnRambo4]

That's sad. Always had good reliability with WD drives.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

One of the only SSD brands with decent reliability... what a shitty market.

 

[candle86]

Wait why aer the wondering how to rebrand them, I have a 128gb Sandisk SSD from 2015, it says Sandisk in orange font its not that hard.

 

[zamroni111]

Wdh? Wdf?

 

[zamroni111]

While this is a bit weird to see WD stop making SSDs (well directly), it is also good for each company to focus on one thing rather than both doing SSDs. Better focus, allocation of resources, etc. This is one of those rare times where corporate restructuring actually makes sense and isn't just CEO hubris wasting time and resources.

(It's also good for stock prices as analysts prefer more focused product lines because it makes predicting future growth easier.)

Sandisk is owned by wd

 

[zamroni111]

This is usually called "innovation" by marketing team.
Wd downgraded sandisk brand to consumer grade flash storage after buying sandisk but now puts back sandisk brand to how it was before acquisition.

 

[daffy duck]

SanDisk will immediately start to raise prices as a big thank you to WD. Another nard kick for consumers incoming.

 

[NerdyHulk666]

Sandisk is owned by wd

I mean, that was ultimately after the fact though.

From the start, every SSD that had a WD badge on it was just a SanDisk that was either rebadged or that the overlords told them they couldn't put their name on.

Only NOW are we getting actual "SanDisk" labled NVMe drives.....

Just like every other storage company WD has gobbled up in recent, only SanDisk gets to live and essentially do their own thing as before now. (I'm still mad about HGST. WD don't even have decency to change the lables. It's literally just HGST's drive with WD's name printed on THEIR designed label now. Same with the SSDs, only they had "both" varieties in name and nothing else.)

If there was ever a proper use of the term "toxic" I feel this is it. SanDisk is lucky they didn't get cannibalized like the spinning disk crowd. Bad enough they had to suffer a quality drop in their own stuff, also after WD took over.

 

[ChipBoundary]

"Coz AI"..

Will see how that goes hand in hand with the pop of the AI bubble...

You're joking, right? You cannot be that ignorant. Companies are replacing their entire development teams with AI. AI hasn't even begun, its still in its fledgling stage and it is already better than humans in almost every way, plus it will only get better.

 

[Liranan]

You're joking, right? You cannot be that ignorant. Companies are replacing their entire development teams with AI. AI hasn't even begun, its still in its fledgling stage and it is already better than humans in almost every way, plus it will only get better.

Ask your beloved 'better than humans' 'AI' what a woman is and enjoy the genius that it spews forth. And then let that genius of an AI run maternity wards, what a sight that would be to behold, the chaos would be glorious as the woke crowd (who can't figure out whether their mother or father gave birth to them) would get exactly as they deserve.

 

[Gars]

Bad focus on the market
same as Maxtor and Quantum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_hard_disk_manufacturers
guess whos next

 

[hackbod]

Ask your beloved 'better than humans' 'AI' what a woman is and enjoy the genius that it spews forth. And then let that genius of an AI run maternity wards, what a sight that would be to behold, the chaos would be glorious as the woke crowd (who can't figure out whether their mother or father gave birth to them) would get exactly as they deserve.

Okay the comment about AI being "already better than humans in almost every way" was wacky, but this is a really odd way to argue against that.

What would you want to see an AI answer in response to "what is a woman" that would better show it being as good as humans?

 

[DaemonByte]

You're joking, right? You cannot be that ignorant. Companies are replacing their entire development teams with AI. AI hasn't even begun, its still in its fledgling stage and it is already better than humans in almost every way, plus it will only get better.

Maybe bad companies are. AI is not replacing developer teams. It's at best a useful productivity enhancer. Even the people who make "developer replacement" agents are still hiring human devs

 

[DaemonByte]

I understand just the 1 company focusing on hdd and one on ssd. That's logical. I don't understand why you'd undermine a strong brand in the ssd space by removing it. Surely you just let sandisk make the drives and use WD branding? Even if you want to use a licencing deal to balance the paperwork

 

[mcnabney]

So they are dumping the stronger brand name in the market for the weaker brand name. It is the same company and the cost savings of segmenting models by brand is hardly new. GM designed one car and slapped different cosmetics on them to sell firebirds/camaros, Enclave/Traverse/Acadia, Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade.

The HDD industry exists on borrowed time. Their prices haven't gone down for years and NAND keeps getting cheaper.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Sandisk is owned by wd

Yes, I know. That's why I called this move corporate restructuring in my comment.

 

[StupidPeopleSuk]

Used to always buy Black drives for my PC's, even had some 10k Raptor drives before SSD's were a thing, such a shame.

Ah, the 10k Raptor...how well it did back in the day, they were the 1st HDD's that actually made a significant difference in overall system performance, even though the 7200's were still held in such an elevated position over the older 5400 drives....

But I have stayed with WD ever since they released the 1st Black X series, and am now running multiple 850's in multiple rigs, as well as using them exclusively in machines I build for my clients... NEVERANOTTAPROBLEMO

 

[RudyBob]

This is about the biggest so what in weeks

 

[ChipBoundary]

Maybe bad companies are. AI is not replacing developer teams. It's at best a useful productivity enhancer. Even the people who make "developer replacement" agents are still hiring human devs

Yes, they are. It is literally happening to one of my best friends, right now. His ENTIRE development team is being replaced by Copilot right now and he is not alone. They are making him pave the way for his AI replacement and this is a government contractor. He's been notified that other government contractors are doing the same thing. He's searching for other employment, but in the meantime he keeps working for the paycheck.

This isn't rare or unique. They may retain a senior developer or two to verify the code that the AI is producing, but entire teams are factually being replaced all over the place. Now, let me be clear, I am not claiming this is good, bad, or indifferent. I'm merely stating what is factual.

Now, ultimately, all developers will be replaced. In fact, almost all jobs will be replaced with AI. Overall they make less mistakes than humans, even now, and the ceiling on their efficiency and efficacy is effectively infinite as far as humans are concerned. This is the new industrial revolution and many, many, many jobs are going to disappear.

The moment your company starts integrating AI in even the smallest of ways, immediately start training a new skill set, because you will eventually be replaced by automation.