As AI Data Surges, WD Outlines a New Path to Economically Scalable Storage Infrastructure

At AI Infrastructure Summit, WD will highlight how AI-driven data growth is reshaping infrastructure requirements at scale

As AI moves from experimentation to deployment, organizations are confronting a new infrastructure reality: while compute cycles are temporary, the data AI creates continues to accumulate. As that data compounds, the ability to store, manage and access it economically is becoming a critical consideration for long-term AI success.

At AI Infrastructure Summit, September 15-17 in Santa Clara, Calif., Tim Rausch, SVP of HDD Development at WD, will discuss how AI is reshaping infrastructure requirements and why economically scalable capacity is emerging as a foundational element of the AI era.

The session builds on findings from the recently released IDC white paper, sponsored by WD, Built for Scale: The Enduring Role of HDDs in the AI Era, which found that:

• 61% of surveyed organizations experienced data growth of 25% or more over the past year due to AI
• 74% expect data volumes to grow 25% or more over the next three years
• 85.4% reported growth in data lake volumes over the past 12 months

During the keynote, Rausch will share WD’s vision for helping customers manage AI’s growing data footprint while balancing capacity, performance, power efficiency and economics at scale. He will also discuss innovations designed to support the next generation of AI infrastructure as organizations seek to retain more data, derive more value from it and scale AI with confidence.

• WHAT: Reinventing Storage for AI at Scale
• WHO: Tim Rausch, SVP, HDD Development, WD
• WHEN: Sept. 16, 2026 | 3:50pm
• WHERE: AI Infrastructure Summit | Santa Clara, Calif. | Main Stage

In addition to the keynote, WD will showcase its enterprise storage portfolio in booth # 605. The demos will highlight how WD is helping hyperscalers, CSPs, neo clouds and data center customers achieve the capacity, efficiency, and economics required for AI infrastructure at scale.

Source: IDC White Paper, Sponsored by Western Digital Corporation, Built for Scale: The Enduring Role of HDDs in the AI Era, Doc. #US54789026, September 2026.

About WD

WD, also known as Western Digital, builds the storage infrastructure that powers certainty in the AI-driven data economy. At the forefront of innovation, WD partners with the world's leading hyperscalers, cloud service providers, and enterprises to enable reliable storage solutions that are proven and trusted at scale. Driven by a culture of innovation and execution, WD helps customers store, protect, and use the world's data with confidence. Follow WD on LinkedIn and learn more at www.wd.com.

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