Yep, it's a bit slimy - throw a bunch of unrelated stuff into an article, put "AI" in the headline, and bake it in the oven. SSD and HDD increases have been getting signaled in quarterly investor calls for the past 9 months - the "why's" are nuanced and mostly related to manufacturing overshoot in 2023 - and aren't meaningfully related to "the AI boom". The article author does not provide any evidence or explanation for how AI is supposed to be related. But, mission accomplished because we're here talking about it.Material and production costs going up goes directly onto product, not really any shocker.
But i suppose the AI headline gets more clicks than the already extensively covered actual main reasons.