Toshiba expands Philippines HDD plant to double nearline drive output
The company is scaling production and higher-capacity drives to keep up with data center demand and lift its share of shipped capacity.
Toshiba is investing about ¥60 billion ($380 million) to expand its HDD assembly plant in the Philippines, aiming to double nearline drive output by fiscal 2027 versus fiscal 2025 to meet surging data center demand. New manufacturing lines at the Laguna Technopark site are already shipping drives, and are designed for next‑generation M12‑series nearline HDDs that can boost per‑drive capacity by up to 40% using MAMR and up to 11 platters. Toshiba plans to launch 30TB‑class drives in 2027, followed by 40TB‑class models with up to 12 platters the same year, and is targeting 65TB‑class HDD volume production around 2030, with a roadmap that eventually reaches 100TB. The company is also adding more automation to cleanroom and inspection steps to raise yields and cut incremental staffing needs by 40%. By scaling production and rolling out higher‑capacity models, Toshiba aims to grow its HDD market share, measured in exabytes shipped, from roughly 10% today to about 30% in the medium term.
Why it matters
For data center buyers, Toshiba is signalling more supply of nearline HDDs and a faster path to larger capacities. The expansion also means the company can grow output without adding staff at the same pace, which should help it ramp production more quickly while it works toward a bigger share of exabytes shipped.
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Sources
- Tom's Hardware