Toshiba expands Philippine HDD production for 30TB and 40TB drives

Philippine capacity expansion

Toshiba has spent approximately ¥60 billion ($380 million) to expand hard drive assembly capacity in the Philippines, doubling its nearline HDD production capacity in fiscal 2027 compared with fiscal 2025, according to Nikkei. The company has added manufacturing lines at its Laguna Technopark facility to build nearline drives and prepare for next-generation HDDs with up to 40% more storage capacity per drive.

The first shipments from the new lines have already been made, indicating that they are at least partly qualified and that the ramp of next-generation drives can begin. The project is Toshiba's first substantial HDD manufacturing investment in around five years.

Automation and nearline demand

Toshiba plans to add more automation to cleanroom operations and drive inspection. The company expects this to improve manufacturing yields as output increases and to reduce the requirement for additional employees by 40%.

The expansion comes as demand for nearline drives rises sharply. Seagate and Western Digital have seen strong demand for 30TB and 40TB-class HDDs from the AI sector. Toshiba currently offers 24TB CMR and 28TB SMR drives, but it has sold every unit it produced in recent quarters.

High-capacity roadmap and market target

Plans call for next-generation 30TB-class HDDs in 2027. The report links the capacity increase to the M12-series, which uses microwave-assisted magnetic recording, has up to 11 platters and offers capacities over 30TB. Toshiba has also reiterated plans for 40TB-class drives with up to 12 platters in 2027, although it remains uncertain whether the company will formally introduce those models in that calendar year as the nearer-term ramp focuses on the 30TB-class M12-series.

Longer term, Toshiba intends to continue investing in manufacturing to begin volume production of 65TB-class HDDs around 2030, followed eventually by 100TB-class drives. It expects the new lines and next-generation products to help increase its market share from around 10%, measured by exabytes shipped, to 30% in the medium term. These drives are intended to address growing storage requirements in AI and other large-scale data centers.

Sources: Nikkei