New York, January 28, 2026, 18:52 EST — After-hours
Shares of Western Digital Corporation surged in after-hours Wednesday, riding a wave of buying across data-storage stocks amid new signals of AI-driven demand. The stock climbed 10.7%, closing at $279.70, after fluctuating between $261.64 and $292.79 during the session.
The shift is significant as Western Digital is set to release quarterly earnings on Thursday. The company has turned into a popular proxy for investors eyeing data-center spending. Storage might not grab headlines in the AI race, but it’s essential—it holds the data once training wraps up.
The rally is fueled partly by sympathy trading: Seagate surged 19.1%, while Sandisk gained roughly 9.6% in after-hours, drawing attention to hardware suppliers linked to cloud and AI infrastructure.
Seagate signaled a strong quarter late Tuesday, predicting third-quarter revenue and earnings that beat Wall Street estimates. The company cited robust demand tied to enterprises ramping up artificial intelligence workloads. CEO Dave Mosley highlighted the shift: “As AI applications amplify the creation and economic value of data, modern data centers increasingly need storage solutions that combine performance and cost-efficiency at exabyte-scale.” 1
Hard disk drives, or HDDs, rely on spinning disks to store vast amounts of data at a low cost. Seagate and Western Digital both supply these drives to cloud and enterprise data centers. Traders watch this sector closely, using it as a gauge for whether customers are locking in capacity and accepting higher prices.
Western Digital plans to report its fiscal second-quarter results after Thursday’s market close, with a conference call scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern. 2
Western Digital’s most recent quarterly update projected second-quarter adjusted earnings per share at $1.88, with a margin of error of 15 cents, and revenue near $2.9 billion, give or take $100 million, according to LSEG data reported by Reuters. (Adjusted figures usually exclude one-off items.) 3
Rate-sensitive growth stocks faced a tougher environment Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at 3.50%-3.75%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted, “The economy has once again surprised us with its strength.” 4
But this setup works both ways. Western Digital’s strong rally into earnings leaves little margin for error. If there’s any sign that cloud clients are delaying orders or pricing power is waning, the trade could reverse quickly.
Western Digital has fully exited the flash memory space following last year’s spin-off, refocusing solely on its hard-drive operations. This shift means its earnings now track more closely with HDD demand and the pace of data-center expansions. 5
Investors will turn their attention to Thursday’s report and the accompanying guidance on the conference call. Not far behind, there’s another key date: the company plans to host an Innovation Day event in New York on Feb. 3. 6
