Viewpoint: AI storage demand has not slowed down, cooling down can actually help fill the supply gap BlockBeats news, on October 24th, Kris Sennesael, CFO of Western Digital, stated that the momentum of expanding capital expenditures for ultra large scale cloud service provider customers has not wavered and has discussed storage supply demand for 2030-2031 with the company. He said that even if the momentum of AI development slows down, it may help companies catch up with the current supply-demand gap. Western Digital's latest quarterly performance exceeded expectations and raised its profit guidance. It is expected that the adjusted earnings per share for the second fiscal quarter will reach up to $6, higher than the average analyst expectation of $4.80. At the same time, the quarterly dividend will be increased by 17%. However, the company's capital expenditures have more than doubled compared to the same period last year, putting pressure on its free cash flow profit margin and raising concerns in the market about the sustainability of AI data center investments. Western Digital's stock price closed down about 3% on Friday. [Original link]