Seagate CEO sees ‘no limit’ to storage technology as streaming, AI beckon

Seagate CEO Dave Mosley said he sees no limit data storage technology amid a surge in innovation in disc drive capability.

“There was a time 25 years ago when people talked about the super paramagnetic limit, and they came up with a number, and we blew right through it,” he said at Semafor World Economy.

The AI boom is causing a resurgence in technology innovation in storage, with promising areas such as the use of lasers and other components to help boost capacity.

“Right now, it’s actually kind of exciting,” he said. “Tech is a little cooler now than it used to be and we’re not in the doldrums any more.”

Mosley compared the current supply chain challenges to 2011 when flooding in Thailand caused disruptions.

When Mosley started in the tech industry decades ago, Seagate’s storage drives held less than one gigabyte of data. It now offers new products that can hold roughly 40 terabytes — more than 40,000 times greater — to address the needs of AI data centers and video streaming on mobile devices.

Seagate has rolled out drives built with its heat-assisted magnetic recording technology, which creates smaller and more densely packed data bits to enhance storage.

While AI may cost some software programmers their jobs, it’s likely that many of them could become entrepreneurs that will help storage technology advance, he said.