Overview
- Seagate, which told investors Monday it will not build new factories, saw shares fall about 7.5%.
- CEO Dave Mosley said new plants would take too long and could leave the company with excess capacity.
- The company laid out a technology-first path that lifts platter density to 4TB and then 5TB per platter and shifts drives to HAMR, a heat-assisted recording method now qualified at planned cloud customers with 50% exabyte crossover expected in the second half of 2026.
- Tight supply shapes operations, with recording head wafers taking more than nine months and drive assembly adding about one quarter, so Seagate now builds to order with visibility four to five quarters out.
- Valuation scrutiny has intensified, with STX trading at about 69.8 times earnings and insiders selling roughly $66.4 million over the past three months with no reported purchases.