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When do we start boycotting any companies that behave like this? We need a fucking class-action lawsuit against this behavior.
Even if you boycott WD, the AI companies are spending 18x more than the entire consumer market.
This is where any sensible country would call for antitrust.
The externalities and consequences from this are going to fuck up the world economy, hard.
WD? They are already not planning to sell to us.
I guess AI companies? I'm already not buying anything from them. They also supposedly operate at a loss. I guess all the AI tech bros pay them, but they aren't easy to persuade otherwise.
Never, because the entire tech sector is a cartel and nobody else produces this tech at this capacity and capability. You basically have to completely swear off of electronics and the Internet entirely.
At this point it’d be all of them, but unless you’re running a data center buying drives by the hundreds or thousands there’s not a lot of impact you can make.
Ummm.. we're kinda being forced to boycott already so what does calling it intentional change?
I think it's a post-bubble-pop boycott. These manufacturers are not ramping up production because they know the demand won't be permanent. So when things return to normal, whenever that is, we continue to not buy their products.
The problem is this relies on two things One - people actually remembering Two - Data centers, enterprises, and OEMs, who make the large majority of HDD purchases also boycott.
check your ETFs if you invest in those
look where they invest
What does a boycott achieve, exactly? What are you suing them for, exactly?
Big tech is gradually seizing all means of computation. Fuck that.
I'm not sure buying all the RAM, SSD and HDD capacity for years is gradual.
But I do agree it's a problem.
They are rehashing Rockefeller's method. Rockefeller got ahead in oil by making it impossible for his competitors to do business. He would buy all the available drilling equipment and oil barrels even if he used only a fraction of them. Basically denying his competitors the ability to properly drill or store oil for processing and sale.
HDs are too slow for AI itself, so I can only assume that this is an indication of just how much data those AI services are farming from people.
Western Digital just gets added to the list of companies that won't get a penny from me. When they inevitably try and come back begging for sales from the consumer market.
While you're here, could I ask for a short list? I'm buying a few replacement parts right now and I'm already avoiding Crucial
I've only got 3 at the mo. Western Digital, Crucial and Nvidia.
Nvidia is mainly because of their price gouging and general fuck you to gaming.
HP has been on my list for a very long while
There won't be any companies left.
They're literally making sure that we gamers/consumers cannot own a PC and must rent from the cloud.
They're going to innovate so hard with that extra security and all their inventory already sold, right?? 2x production next year, amazing new features?
Hah... Haha... Hah... Ha... sigh
This gonna go with all of the unused nvidia cards in the corner until they can find enough electricity?
Sorry no, the CEO is lying.
What the financial accounts show is that orders for the calendar year have been filled. Orders are NOT sales.
The company prepares a manufacturing budget for the year and has to fill the orders usually by March, otherwise the budget needs to be redrafted.
It is normal for orders to be filled by this time of the year.
Orders can be withdrawn, and frequently are, the buyer has to pay a financial penalty but they usually just add this to their sales price.
The other BS story about only 5% of sales going to consumers is also a lie. Most sales are to PC manufacturers and merchants, that is not AI firms - there are NO hard drives in data centres, they are miles too slow !
there are NO hard drives in data centres, they are miles too slow !
I suppose that might true of some data centres, but certainly not all. Backblaze and the Internet Archive are obvious counterexamples.
Interesting points otherwise, though.
Dot com bubble people:
*first time?
I was there, Aragon... three thousand years ago...
A year ago I felt like I never needed to purchase hardware again. In the last few months it's been constant. This sucks.
Ignorant loaded question, are there no other sellers to fallback on?? WD or Seagate or nothing for this world?? Where is the foreign competition? Europe, Asia, anywhere... Or has WD/Seagate effectively captured the global market?
I used to be saving a lot of money. But with this shit I need to buy another 8tb HDD while I still can.
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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