Seagate's rival Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) expanded into first-party flash chips and SSDs to counter that secular trend. Inflation and higher interest rates made the sector's pricier "hypergrowth" stocks look a lot less appealing, and many investors rotated toward cheaper value plays. Over the past few years, HDDs have faced a lot of competition from flash-based, solid-state drives (SSDs), which are smaller, faster, more power efficient, and less prone to damage.