Seagate has quietly shipped limited samples of its new 40-terabyte hard drives, marking a significant step forward in storage technology.

The 40TB drives use Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, specifically Seagate’s Mozaic 4+ platform, achieving 4TB per platter across ten platters.

This innovation promises substantial gains in storage capacity and efficiency, especially for data centres handling large-scale operations.

At a recent investor conference, Seagate’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr John Morris, confirmed that engineering samples have already been delivered to select customers.

“We do plan to initiate qualifications next quarter, continuing into 2026, where we will bring a broad portion of our customer base onto the Mozaic 4 platform,” he said.

Full production and commercial availability depend on the pace at which data centres integrate and validate the new drives.

The company aims to shift a significant proportion of its exabyte-level shipments to HAMR-based drives, which offer improved capacity and operational efficiency.

Seagate CEO Dr Dave Mosley highlighted the benefits for data centres: “Ten disks give you 40 terabytes, offering better efficiencies at the fleet level, which is how our customers think.”

Looking ahead, Seagate plans to expand capacity further, targeting 44TB drives by 2027 and 50TB models by 2028.

These ambitions reflect ongoing challenges in scaling HAMR technology, with the 50TB drive launch delayed from an original 2017 projection to 2026.

These ultra-high-capacity drives primarily target enterprise and data centre clients, rather than typical consumer markets, due to their specialised nature and cost.

Seagate’s early shipments underscore its technical lead in the race for the largest hard disk drives, though commercial rollout remains cautious amid the complexities of advanced storage technologies.