Seagate’s 32TB CMR drives reach the channel; WD targets 40TB

Seagate announced on 12 January 2026 that its 32TB capacity point was moving across three product families, Exos for servers and cloud, IronWolf Pro for NAS and SkyHawk AI for surveillance, with availability through authorised channel partners worldwide from 14 January. The announcement coincided with Intersec 2026 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, where Seagate showed the drives; UAE pricing in dirhams was not confirmed at launch. Recommended retail prices are 729.99 dollars for the Exos, 849.99 dollars for the IronWolf Pro and 699.99 dollars for the SkyHawk AI.

All three are conventional magnetic recording drives, which matters for RAID and NAS use. ServeTheHome’s examination of the Exos data sheet (model ST32000NM004K) shows ten platters in a helium-filled chassis on the same platform as the 30TB HAMR drives, areal density unchanged at 1,841 Gb per square inch, and peak throughput up from 275 MB/s to 285 MB/s; the extra capacity appears to come from outer tracks the 30TB model left unused. Seagate quotes a 2.5-million-hour MTBF for Exos and IronWolf Pro and a 550TB-per-year workload rating for IronWolf Pro. ServeTheHome also notes that the 30TB model was hard to find at any price, a reminder that nearline drives are now an allocated product.

Western Digital’s position

Western Digital has taken a different route to the same capacity band. On its fiscal fourth-quarter call on 5 August the company said it shipped 231 exabytes in the quarter, up 22% year on year, that its 40TB ePMR drives began shipping in the quarter, and that UltraSMR is planned to make up about 60% of nearline exabyte shipments by the end of fiscal 2027. Its first HAMR product, at 44TB, remains on track for the first half of calendar 2027, with customers seeking long-term agreements that run to 2029 to 2031. Quarterly revenue was 3.75 billion dollars, up 44%.

The channel picture is therefore uneven. 32TB CMR drives are shipping from Seagate in three lines; Western Digital’s 40TB ePMR drives are going to hyperscale customers first, and 44TB HAMR from either vendor is a 2027 product. For most buyers the decision is between the established 24TB class and the new 32TB Exos, and the deciding factor is slot count rather than price per terabyte.

What it means for buyers

If a 24TB-class drive such as the Exos X24 or the Ultrastar DC HC580 meets the capacity plan, it remains the easier part to source and to add to an existing array. Move to 32TB when the chassis slot count, not the per-drive price, is the constraint, and buy the full set for an array at once, since mixing a later firmware or platform revision into a RAID group creates support questions. Ask the supplier to confirm quantity and ship date rather than list availability, and record serial numbers against the invoice so that warranty status can be checked on Seagate’s or Western Digital’s tools later. InTechnologies supplies Seagate Exos and WD Ultrastar drives by model number and can quote the 32TB Exos alongside the 24TB parts.