As we step into 2025, the market for HDD (Hard Disk Drive) mechanical hard drives has witnessed a continuous uptrend in prices. The contract price in the fourth quarter surged by around 4% compared to the previous quarter, marking the most significant increase in nearly two years (eight quarters). This price escalation can be attributed mainly to two factors: adjustments in China's IT application innovation industry procurement strategies and the expansion of AI infrastructure in the United States. In China, the demand for localization spurred a rebound in HDD installations. Meanwhile, in the US, the construction of AI infrastructure led to supply constraints in high-bandwidth memory and enterprise-grade DRAM, subsequently passing on cost pressures to HDD manufacturers.

Recently, the Seagate IronWolf Pro series 32TB hard drive made an unofficial appearance on the Japanese Akihabara market. Although not officially launched, it is speculated that the listing might be the result of a leak by dealers, with the product targeting the high-end NAS (Network Attached Storage) market. This hard drive, bearing the model number ST32000NT000, boasts a SATA 6Gbps interface, a spinning speed of 7200RPM, and a 512MB cache. It delivers continuous read/write speeds of up to 285MB/s, consumes 8.3W of power, and is priced at approximately 6,160 yuan (excluding tax, or over 7,000 yuan when including tax).

Previously, Seagate had already introduced the 32TB Exos series hard drive for the enterprise market. The IronWolf Pro series, on the other hand, represents the largest capacity hard drive available for the consumer market, and as such, commands a higher premium. On the domestic market, the Seagate 30TB IronWolf hard drive is priced at 7,499 yuan. Given this, the expected price for the official 32TB version is anticipated to exceed 7,999 yuan.