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Seagate suggests AI is causing a carbon crisis for the industry

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The need for data comes with a need for data storage.

Seagate
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Just like cryptocurrency put a new strain on the GPU market, AI is starting to push into the demands of data storage companies. Recently, at Computex 2025, Seagate came forward with a panel showcasing new developments for the upcoming year. According to Digitimes, Seagate also used the opportunity to express growing concern about the impact AI is having on the tech industry and potentially developing into what they describe as a "carbon crisis".

Seagate also provided some figures for those interested in exactly how big the impact appears to be. It claims the hard drive industry as a whole is only able to create 1 to 2 zettabytes of storage each year, with 1 zettabyte being the equivalent of 1 trillion GB. However, this is only a small portion of how much data is expected to be created.

Digitimes explained how Seagate surveyed 1,000 IT professionals, 72% of whom are planning to use or are already using artificial intelligence in their respective fields. 90% of those who claim to currently use AI also believe that data storage is critical for improving the performance of AI. Seeing the rising demand, Seagate responded with research and found that HDDs have lower carbon footprints than your typical SSD.

As such, Seagate had a demo set up at its booth showing off prototype hard drives. The demo featured hard drives fixed up with NVMe interfaces. They connected directly to Nvidia GPUs using data processing units (DPU). This represents just one of many potential avenues that can be taken to change how storage is handled for data centers and more, potentially making systems easier to manage.

It's hard to tell exactly how things will shake out in the world of data storage, but there's definitely change on the horizon. As demands increase for lower carbon footprints, data centers will need to respond in a way to meet legal requirements while also providing the hardware support needed to cater to growing AI demands.

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Ash Hill
Ash Hill
Contributing Writer

Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SomeoneElse23
    "The need for data comes with a need for data storage."

    Therein lies the problem.
    We don't need AI.
    Reply
  • ejolson
    The way I see it AI has already become so smart that's it's impossible for people to assess how smart it really is.

    On the other hand, there has to be some form of storage that is better than either SSD or HDD.

    Since they're renewable and encourage growing more trees, maybe green washing could also make paper tapes and punch cards more marketable to environmental nerds.
    Reply