Not content with hoarding all the RAM, AI companies are buying up hard drives too, with one major manufacturer admitting it’s run out of stock.
It’s ironic that gaming companies like Sony and Microsoft have expressed a keen interest in implementing modern AI tech into their gaming consoles when that very same technology stands to make the consoles increasingly difficult to manufacture.
AI companies have been buying up so much memory that there’s barely any stock to go around. So much so, that the next generation of consoles may be delayed by several years, with reports that Sony is considering pushing the PlayStation 6 into 2029.
It’s not just a danger to future consoles but current ones too, which may become more expensive due to the shortages. Not even hard drives are safe, as Western Digital, one of the world’s largest hard drive manufacturers, has admitted it’s completely run out of stock for the rest of the year.
Previously, it’s only been RAM which has been suffering from stock shortages, but anything that’s used for AI data centres is becoming a problem.
As part of an earnings call with investors, Western Digital CEO Irving Tan said: ‘We’re pretty much sold out for calendar 2026,’ with most of the company’s stock allocated to its ‘top seven customers’ (as transcribed by TweakTown).
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89% of Western Digital’s total revenue comes from cloud related businesses, while just 5% comes from regular consumers. And with the company’s top customers already having secured long term agreements for 2027 and 2028, enterprise customers are clearly being prioritised.
That makes console and commerical PC manufacturers a low priority, with ordinary customers right at the back of the queue.
Naturally, what stock is left is becoming more expensive and while this means regular people are being priced out of PC parts and potentially new consoles (with Nintendo already considering raising the price of the Switch 2), other gaming companies similarly lack the parts needed to manufacture their own hardware.
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Take Valve, for example. It’s already had to delay plans for its Steam Machine hardware, explicitly blaming the memory shortages, which could in turn make it even more expensive.
Those same shortages are also affecting Steam Deck stocks. Granted, the Steam Deck remains a niche piece of hardware (as of February 2025, it’s only sold about four million units), but anyone who’s been saving up the money to buy one is now struggling, at least in the US.
It’s not completely sold out in the UK yet, but Valve’s website does warn that the ‘Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages.’
Additionally, the cheapest option – which costs £349.99 and has an LCD screen and 256 GB of storage – is ‘no longer in production, and once sold out will no longer be available.’ So, once that’ runs out’s gone, you’ll need to fork over at least £479.99 for a new Steam Deck.
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