Huawei has introduced three new solid-state drive products designed for AI computing at an event in Shanghai.

The Shenzhen-based company said its OceanDisk EX 560, SP 560, and LC 560 models aim to address data storage bottlenecks in data centers, including slow inference speeds and limited data capacity.

Huawei described the products as “AI SSDs,” a term it said it defined to highlight their focus on storage issues in AI workloads.

OceanDisk EX 560 and SP 560 are expected to be commercially available by year-end, and are already in use by clients in sectors including internet, healthcare, and finance, according to Huawei.

The LC 560 model offers a maximum capacity of 245 terabytes.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Storage economics transformed from luxury to necessity for AI applications

The launch of AI-specific storage reflects a dramatic shift in how companies approach memory costs versus performance.

When Dataram introduced the first commercial SSD in 1976, it cost $9,700 for just 2MB of storage—equivalent to $36,317 in today’s money2. Even by 1988, flash storage cost $5,000 for 16MB2.

Today, Huawei’s OceanDisk LC 560 offers 245 terabytes of capacity and can improve AI data processing efficiency by 6.6 times while reducing space usage by 85.2%1. This represents roughly 12 million times more storage capacity than those early SSDs, at a fraction of the relative cost.

This transformation makes specialized AI storage economically viable where it wasn’t before. The “memory wall” and “capacity wall” problems Zhou Yuefeng described, where AI training requires massive, efficiently-accessible data, can now be addressed with purpose-built solutions1.

2️⃣ Trade restrictions accelerating vertical integration in Chinese tech companies

Huawei’s AI SSD launch exemplifies how US export controls are pushing Chinese companies toward comprehensive in-house technology stacks.

The company is simultaneously developing AI memory to replace high-bandwidth memory (HBM) while launching these new storage products—both efforts aimed at reducing dependence on Western technology suppliers3.

This mirrors Huawei’s broader organizational changes, including restructuring its cloud computing unit to merge key departments and prioritize AI-related business4. The cloud unit had been seeking profitability after previous losses, making this strategic pivot particularly significant.

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