UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended July 1, 2022

Or

For the transition period from to

Commission file number: 1-8703

WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (408) 717-6000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ý No ¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No ý

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ý No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ý No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ý

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ý

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on December 31, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $17.0 billion, based on the closing sale price as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

There were 314,492,541 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, outstanding as of the close of business on August 11, 2022.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

Part III incorporates by reference certain information from the registrant’s definitive proxy statement (the “Proxy Statement”) for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the 2022 fiscal year. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K, the Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as part hereof.

WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION

INDEX

Unless otherwise indicated, references herein to specific years and quarters are to our fiscal years and fiscal quarters, and references to financial information are on a consolidated basis. As used herein, the terms “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company,” “WDC” and “Western Digital” refer to Western Digital Corporation and its subsidiaries, unless we state, or the context indicates, otherwise.

In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we make references to our website at www.westerndigital.com. References to our website through this Form 10-K are provided for convenience only and the content on our website does not constitute a part of, and shall not be deemed incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

WDC, a Delaware corporation, is the parent company of our data storage business. Our principal executive offices are located at 5601 Great Oaks Parkway, San Jose, California 95119. Our telephone number is (408) 717-6000.

Western Digital, the Western Digital logo, SanDisk and WD are registered trademarks or trademarks of Western Digital or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks, registered trademarks and/or service marks, indicated or otherwise, are the property of their respective owners.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Any statements that do not relate to historical or current facts or matters are forward-looking statements. You can identify some of the forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking words, such as “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “estimate,” “continue,” “potential,” “plan,” “forecast,” and the like, or the use of future tense. Statements concerning current conditions may also be forward-looking if they imply a continuation of current conditions. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning:

*•*our market position and portfolio synergies;

*•*our product plans and business strategies, including our ongoing review of strategic alternatives;

*•*consumer trends and market conditions, market opportunities and our market position;

• expectations regarding the global macroeconomic environment, including with respect to economic volatility and uncertainty, declines in consumer confidence and economic growth, customers reducing their inventories, rising interest rates and fuel prices, inflation, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;

*•*expectations regarding supply chain conditions and constraints;

*•*expectations regarding demand trends and market conditions for our products and expected future financial performance;

*•*expectations regarding our product momentum and product development and technology plans;

*•*expectations regarding capital expenditure plans and investments;

*•*expectations regarding our Flash Ventures joint venture with Kioxia Corporation (“Kioxia”), the flash industry and our flash wafer output plans and sources of funding for related expenditures;

• expectations regarding our effective tax rate and our unrecognized tax benefits; and

*•*our beliefs regarding our capital allocation plans and the sufficiency of our available liquidity to meet our working capital, debt and capital expenditure needs.

These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, represent the most current information available to the Company as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. You are urged to carefully review the disclosures we make concerning risks and other factors that may affect the outcome of our forward-looking statements and our business and operating results, including those made in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and any of those made in our other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this document. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect new information or events after the date of this document or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

PART I

General

Western Digital Corporation (“Western Digital”) is on a mission to unlock the potential of data by harnessing the possibility to use it. We are a leading developer, manufacturer, and provider of data storage devices based on both flash-based products (“Flash”) and hard disk drives (“HDD”) technologies. With dedicated business units driving advancements in NAND flash and magnetic recording technologies, we create and drive innovations needed to help customers capture, preserve, access, and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data.

Founded in 1970 in Santa Ana, California, Western Digital is now a Standard & Poor’s 500 (“S&P 500”) company headquartered in San Jose, California. We have one of the technology industry’s most valuable patent portfolios with approximately 13,500 active patents worldwide. We have a rich heritage of innovation and operational excellence, a wide range of intellectual property (“IP”) assets and broad research and development (“R&D”) capabilities. The strong growth in amount, value, and use of data continues, creating a global need for larger, faster and more capable storage solutions.

We are a customer-focused organization that has developed deep relationships with industry leaders to continue to deliver innovative solutions to help users capture, store and transform data across a boundless range of applications. With much of the world’s data stored on Western Digital products, our innovation powers the global technology ecosystem from consumer devices to the edge to the heart of the cloud. We enable cloud, Internet, and social media infrastructure players to build more powerful, cost effective and efficient data centers. We help original equipment manufacturers (“OEM”) address storage opportunities and solutions to capture and transform data in a myriad of devices and edge technologies. We have also built strong consumer brands with tools to manage vast libraries of personal content and to push the limits of what’s possible for storage. At Western Digital, we continue to transform ourselves to address the growth in data by providing what we believe to be the broadest range of storage technologies in the industry with a comprehensive product portfolio and global reach.

Industry

We operate in the data storage industry. The ability to access, store and share data from anywhere on any device is increasingly important to our customers and end users. From the intelligent edge to the cloud, data storage is a fundamental component underpinning the global technology architecture. Our strengths in innovation and cost leadership, diversified product portfolio and broad routes to market provide a foundation upon which we are solidifying our position as an essential building block of the digital economy. There is tremendous market opportunity flowing from the rapid global adoption of the technology architecture built with cloud infrastructure tied to intelligent endpoints all connected by high performance networks. The value and urgency of data storage at every point across this architecture has never been clearer.

The growth in computing complexity, cloud computing applications, connected mobile devices and Internet connected products, and edge devices is driving unabated growth in the volume of digital content to be stored and used. This growth has led to a creation of new form factors for data storage. The storage industry is increasingly utilizing tiered architectures with HDD, solid state drives (“SSD”) and other non-volatile memory-based storage to address an expanding set of uses and applications. We believe our expertise and innovation across both Flash and HDD technologies enable us to bring powerful solutions to a broader range of applications. We continuously monitor the full array of storage technologies, including reviewing these technologies with our customers, to ensure we are appropriately resourced to meet our customers’ storage needs.

Competition

Our industry is highly competitive. We compete with manufacturers of Flash and HDD for cloud, client, and consumer end markets. In Flash, we compete with vertically integrated suppliers such as Kioxia, Micron Technology, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SK hynix, Inc., Solidigm, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. and numerous smaller companies that assemble flash into products. In HDD, we compete with Seagate Technology plc and Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation.

Business Strategy

Our overall strategy is to leverage our innovation, technology and execution capabilities to be an industry-leading and broad-based developer, manufacturer and provider of storage devices and solutions that support the infrastructure that has enabled the unabated proliferation of data. We believe we are the only company in the world with large-scale capabilities to develop and manufacture a portfolio of integrated data storage solutions that are based on both Flash and HDD technologies. We strive to successfully execute our strategy through the following foundational elements in order to create long-term value for our customers, partners, investors and employees:

• Innovation and Cost Leadership: We continue to innovate and develop advanced technologies across platforms for both Flash and HDD to deliver timely new products and solutions to meet growing demands for scale, performance and cost efficiency in the market.

• Broad Product Portfolio: We leverage our capabilities in firmware, software and systems in both Flash and HDD to deliver compelling and differentiated integrated storage solutions to our customers that offer the best combinations of performance, cost, power consumption, form factor, quality and reliability, while creating new use cases for our solutions in emerging markets.

• Operational Excellence: We are focused on delivering the best value for our customers in cloud, client and consumer end markets through a relentless focus on appropriately scaling our operations across both Flash and HDD technologies to efficiently support business growth; achieving best in class cost, quality and cycle-time; maintaining industry leading manufacturing capabilities; and having a competitive advantage in supply-chain management.

Our strategy provides the following benefits, which distinguish us in the dynamic and competitive data storage industry:

• a broad product portfolio that differentiates us as a leading developer and manufacturer of integrated products and solutions based on both Flash and HDD, making us a more strategic supply partner to our large-scale customers who have storage needs across the data infrastructure ecosystem;

• efficient and flexible manufacturing capabilities, allowing us to leverage our Flash and HDD R&D and capital expenditures to deliver innovative and cost-effective storage solutions to multiple markets; and

• deep relationships with industry leaders across the data ecosystems that give us the broadest routes to market.

In June 2022, we announced that we are reviewing potential strategic alternatives aimed at further optimizing long-term value for our stockholders. The Executive Committee of our Board, chaired by our CEO, is overseeing the assessment process, and the potential strategic alternatives include, among other things, options for separating our Flash and HDD business units.

Technology

Flash Technologies. Flash products provide non-volatile data storage based on flash technology. We develop and manufacture solid state storage products for a variety of applications including enterprise or cloud storage, client storage, automotive, mobile devices and removable memory devices. Over time, we have successfully developed and commercialized successive generations of 3-dimensional flash technology with increased numbers of storage bits per cell in an increasingly smaller form factor, further driving cost reductions. We devote significant research and development resources to the development of highly reliable, high-performance, cost-effective flash-based technology and are pursuing developments in next generation flash-based technology capacities. We are leveraging our expertise, resources and strategic investments in non-volatile memories to explore a wide spectrum of persistent memory and storage class memory technologies. We have also initiated, defined and developed standards to meet new market needs and to promote wide acceptance of flash storage standards through interoperability and ease-of-use.

Hard Disk Drives. HDD products provide non-volatile data storage by recording magnetic information on a rotating disk. We develop and manufacture substantially all of the recording heads and magnetic media used in our HDD products. We have led the industry in innovation to drive increased areal density and high-performance attributes. Our improvements in HDD capacity, which lower product costs over time, have been enabled largely through advancements in magnetic recording head and media technologies. Our multi-year product roadmap for high-capacity HDD, which combine ePMR, OptiNAND, UltraSMR and triple stage actuators to deliver a cutting edge portfolio of drives, in commercial volumes, at a wide variety of capacity points, puts Western Digital in great position to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the large and growing storage markets We invest considerable resources in R&D, manufacturing infrastructure and capital equipment for recording head and media technology, as well as other aspects of the magnetic recording system such as HDD mechanics, controller and firmware technology, in order to secure our competitive position and cost structure.

Our products generally leverage a common platform for various products within product families, and in some cases across product families, resulting in the commonality of components which reduces our exposure to changes in demand, facilitates inventory management and allows us to achieve lower costs through purchasing economies. This platform strategy also enables our customers to leverage their qualification efforts onto successive product models.

Our Data Solutions

Our broad portfolio of technology and products address multiple end markets and are comprised of the Western Digital®, SanDisk® and WD brands®. In 2022, we refined the end markets we report to be “Cloud”, “Client” and “Consumer”.

Cloud represents a large and growing end market comprised primarily of products for public or private cloud environments and enterprise customers, which we believe we are uniquely positioned to address as the only provider of both flash and hard drive products. We provide the Cloud end market with an array of high-capacity enterprise HDD and high-performance enterprise SSD, and platforms. Our capacity enterprise helium hard drives provide high-capacity storage needs and low total cost of ownership per GB for the growing cloud data center market. These drives are primarily for use in data storage systems, in tiered storage models and where data must be stored reliably for years. Our high-performance enterprise class SSD include high-performance flash-based SSD and software solutions that are optimized for performance applications providing a range of capacity and performance levels primarily for use in enterprise servers and supporting high volume on-line transactions, data analysis and other enterprise applications. We also provide higher value data storage platforms to the market.

Through the Client end market, we provide our OEM and channel customers a broad array of high-performance flash and hard drive solutions across personal computer (“PC”), mobile, gaming consoles, automotive, virtual reality headsets, at-home entertainment, and industrial spaces. We provide numerous data solutions that we incorporate into our client’s devices, which consist of HDD and SSD desktop and notebook PCs, smart video systems, gaming consoles and set top boxes, as well as flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs and other portable and wearable devices, automotive applications, Internet of Things, industrial and connected home applications. Our HDD and SSD are designed for use in devices requiring high performance, reliability and capacity with various attributes such as low cost per gigabyte, quiet acoustics, low power consumption and protection against shocks.

The Consumer end market is highlighted by our broad range of retail and other end-user products, which capitalize on the strength of our product brand recognition and vast points of presence around the world. We provide consumers with a portfolio of HDD and SSD embedded into external storage products and removable Flash, which include cards, universal serial bus (“USB”) flash drives and wireless drives, through our retail and channel routes to market. Our external HDD storage products in both mobile and desktop form factors provide affordable, high quality, reliable storage for backup and capacity expansion that are designed to keep digital content secure. We offer client portable SSD with a range of capacities and performance characteristics to address a broad spectrum of the client storage market. Our removable cards are designed primarily for use in consumer devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, imaging systems, cameras and smart video systems. Our USB flash drives are used in the computing and consumer markets and are designed for high-performance and reliability. Our wireless drive products allow in-field back up of created content, as well as wireless streaming of high-definition movies, photos, music and documents to tablets, smartphones and PCs.

Research and Development

We devote substantial resources to the development of new products and the improvement of existing products. We focus our engineering efforts on optimizing our product design and manufacturing processes to bring our products to market in a cost-effective and timely manner. For a discussion of associated risks, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Patents, Licenses and Proprietary Information

We rely on a combination of patents, trademarks, copyright and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures and licensing arrangements to protect our IP rights.

We have approximately 13,500 active patents worldwide and have many patent applications in process. We continually seek additional United States (“U.S.”) and international patents on our technology. We believe that, although our active patents and patent applications have considerable value, the successful manufacturing and marketing of our products also depends upon the technical and managerial competence of our staff. Accordingly, the patents held and applied for cannot alone ensure our future success.

In addition to patent protection of certain IP rights, we consider elements of our product designs and processes to be proprietary and confidential. We believe that our non-patented IP, particularly some of our process technology, is an important factor in our success. We rely upon non-disclosure agreements, contractual provisions and a system of internal safeguards to protect our proprietary information. Despite these safeguards, there is a risk that competitors may obtain and use such information. The laws of foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business may provide less protection for confidential information than the laws of the U.S.

We rely on certain technology that we license from other parties to manufacture and sell our products. We believe that we have adequate cross-licenses and other agreements in place in addition to our own IP portfolio to compete successfully in the storage industry. For a discussion of associated risks, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10‑K.

Manufacturing

We believe that we have significant know-how, unique product manufacturing processes, test and tooling, execution skills, human resources and training to continue to be successful and to grow our manufacturing operations as necessary. We strive to maintain manufacturing flexibility, high manufacturing yields, reliable products and high-quality components. The critical elements of our production of Flash and HDD are high-volume and utilization, low-cost assembly and testing, strict adherence to quality metrics and maintaining close relationships with our strategic component suppliers to access best-in-class technology and manufacturing capacity. We continually monitor our manufacturing capabilities to respond to the changing requirements of our customers and maintain our competitiveness and position as a data technology leader.

Flash and HDD manufacturing are complex processes involving the production and assembly of precision components with narrow tolerances and rigorous testing. The manufacturing processes involve a number of steps that are dependent on each other and occur in “clean room” environments that demand skill in process engineering and efficient space utilization to control the operating costs of these manufacturing environments. We continually evaluate our manufacturing processes in an effort to increase productivity, sustain and improve quality and decrease manufacturing costs. For example, we are taking aggressive actions to restructure our client HDD manufacturing footprint in light of ongoing trends in the HDD Client market as PCs shift from using HDD to Flash technology. We continually evaluate which steps in the manufacturing process would benefit from automation and how automated manufacturing processes can improve productivity and reduce manufacturing costs. We also leverage contract manufacturers when strategically advantageous.

Our vertically integrated, in-house assembly and test operations for our HDD products are concentrated in Prachinburi and Bang Pa-In, Thailand; Penang, Johor Bahru, and Kuching, Malaysia; Laguna, Philippines; Shenzhen, China; San Jose and Fremont, CA, USA.

Ventures with Kioxia

Substantially all of our flash-based supply requirements for Flash is obtained from our ventures with Kioxia, which provide us with leading-edge, high-quality and low-cost flash memory wafers. While substantially all of our flash memory supply utilized for our products is purchased from these ventures, from time-to-time, we also purchase flash memory from other flash manufacturers. While we do not unilaterally control the operations of our ventures with Kioxia, we believe that our business venture relationship with Kioxia helps us reduce product costs, increases our ability to control the quality of our products and speeds delivery of our products to our customers. Our business ventures with Kioxia are located primarily in Yokkaichi and Kitakami, Japan, and our in-house assembly and test operations are located in Shanghai, China and Penang, Malaysia.

We and Kioxia currently operate three business ventures in 300-millimeter flash-based manufacturing facilities in Japan, which provide us leading-edge, cost-competitive flash-based memory wafers for our end products. Through Flash Partners Ltd., Flash Alliance Ltd., and Flash Forward Ltd., which we collectively refer to as Flash Ventures, we and Kioxia collaborate in the development and manufacture of flash-based memory wafers using semiconductor manufacturing equipment owned or leased by each of the Flash Venture entities. We hold a 49.9% ownership position in each of the Flash Venture entities. Each Flash Venture entity purchases wafers from Kioxia at cost and then resells those wafers to us and Kioxia at cost plus a small mark-up. We are obligated to take our share of the output from these ventures or pay for variable costs incurred in producing our share of Flash Ventures’ flash-based memory wafer supply, based on our three-month forecast, which generally equals 50% of Flash Ventures’ output. In addition, we are obligated to pay for half of Flash Ventures’ fixed costs regardless of the output we choose to purchase. We are also obligated to fund 49.9% to 50.0% of each Flash Ventures entity’s capital investments to the extent that the Flash Ventures entity’s operating cash flow is insufficient to fund these investments. We co-develop flash technologies (including process technology and memory design) with Kioxia and contribute IP for Flash Ventures’ use.

The agreements governing the operations of the Flash Venture entities also set out a framework for any investment by the joint venture partners in flash manufacturing capacity. Since its inception, Flash Ventures’ primary manufacturing site has been located in Yokkaichi, Japan. The Yokkaichi site, which is owned and operated by Kioxia, currently includes five wafer fabrication facilities. We have jointly invested, and intend to continue to jointly invest, with Kioxia in manufacturing equipment for the Yokkaichi fabrication facilities. We also have agreements that extend Flash Ventures to a wafer fabrication facility located in Kitakami, Japan, referred to as “K1”, which is operated by Kioxia Iwate Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kioxia. The primary purpose of K1 is to provide clean room space to continue the transition of existing flash-based wafer capacity to newer technology nodes. K1 is now fully operational. In January 2022, we entered into additional agreements regarding Flash Ventures’ investment in a new wafer fabrication facility currently under construction in Yokkaichi, Japan, referred to as “Y7”, which upon completion will be the sixth wafer fabrication facility at the Yokkaichi site. The primary purpose of Y7 is to provide clean room space to continue the transition of existing flash-based wafer capacity to newer flash technology nodes. The first phase of construction of Y7 is complete and output is expected to commence in the first half of 2023.

For a discussion of risks associated with our business ventures with Kioxia, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Materials and Supplies

Our Flash consists of flash-based memory, controllers and firmware and other components. Substantially all of our flash-based memory is supplied by our business ventures with Kioxia. Controllers are primarily designed in-house and manufactured by third-party foundries or acquired from third-party suppliers. We believe the use of our in-house assembly and test facilities, as well as contract manufacturers, provides flexibility and gives us access to increased production capacity. We have developed deep relationships with these vendors and Kioxia to establish continuous supply of flash-based memory and controllers.

HDD consists primarily of recording heads, magnetic media, controllers and firmware, and a printed circuit board assembly. We design and manufacture substantially all of the recording heads and magnetic media required for our products. As a result, we are more dependent upon our own development and execution efforts for these components and less reliant on recording head and magnetic media technologies developed by other manufacturers. We depend on an external supply base for all remaining components and materials for use in our HDD product design, manufacturing, and testing. We believe the use of our in-house manufacturing, assembly and test facilities provides the controls necessary to provide the demanding capabilities, performance and reliability our customers require.

We generally retain multiple suppliers for our component requirements but, for business or technology reasons, we source some of our components from a limited number of sole or single source providers. For a discussion of associated risks, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Sales and Distribution

We sell our products to computer manufacturers and OEMs, cloud service providers, resellers, distributors and retailers throughout the world. We maintain sales offices in selected parts of the world including the major geographies of the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Our international sales, which include sales to foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies but do not include sales to U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies, represented 71%, 78% and 72% of our net revenue for 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Sales to international customers are subject to certain risks not normally encountered in domestic operations, including exposure to tariffs and various trade regulations. For a discussion of associated risks, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We perform our marketing and advertising functions internally and through outside firms utilizing both consumer media and trade publications targeting various reseller and end-user markets. We also maintain customer relationships through direct communication and by providing information and support through our website. In accordance with standard storage industry practice, we provide distributors and retailers with limited price protection and programs under which we reimburse certain marketing expenditures. We also provide distributors, resellers and OEMs with other sales incentive programs.

For each of 2022, 2021 and 2020, no single customer accounted for 10% or more of our net revenue.

Seasonality

We have historically experienced seasonal fluctuations in our business with higher levels of demand in the first and second quarters as a result of increased customer spending. Seasonality can also be impacted by the growth in emerging markets and macroeconomic conditions. For a discussion of associated risks, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Service and Warranty

We generally warrant our newly manufactured products against defects in materials and workmanship from one to five years from the date of sale depending on the type of product, with a small number of products having a warranty ranging up to ten years or more. Our warranty obligation is generally limited to repair or replacement. We have engaged third parties in various countries in multiple regions to provide various levels of testing, processing, or recertification of returned products for our customers. For additional information regarding our service and warranty policy, see Part II, Item 8, Note 1, Organization and Basis of Presentation, and Note 5, Supplemental Financial Statement Data, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Human Capital Management

We have been on a journey to transform the Company and redefine the data storage market. Our employees are paramount to our success. To this end, our people strategy is grounded in the intention to hire, engage and retain the best talent to support our vision of creating breakthrough innovation that enables the world to actualize its aspirations. In 2022, we hired a new Chief People Officer to help accelerate the transformation of our human resources function to be more people-centric and to drive better outcomes for the business. We employ approximately 65,000 people worldwide, and our diverse team spans 38 countries. By geography, approximately 86% of our employees are in Asia Pacific, 12% in the Americas, and 2% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We want to leverage the power and potential of diversity. We are committed to promoting an inclusive environment where every individual can thrive through a sense of belonging, respect and contribution.

Our Employee Resource Groups (“ERGs”) help create an inclusive culture that embraces the uniqueness of our employees. We have several ERG communities, focusing on women, LGBTQ+, racial and ethnic minorities, military and people with disabilities. In 2022, we were once again recognized by Human Rights Campaign Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality 2022. We also received the Above and Beyond Award and the Pro Patria Award from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve for our support of employees who serve in the U.S. National Guard and Reserve.

We are committed to hiring inclusively, providing training and development opportunities and ensuring equitable pay for employees, and we are continuing to focus on increasing diverse representation at every level of our company. As of July 1, 2022, four of the nine members of our Board of Directors were women, and women represented 26% of our management positions and 23% of our technical staff. Additionally, members of Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx or other racially or ethnically diverse communities, represented 60% of our U.S. management positions. We believe that developing a diverse talent pool of new college graduates is essential, and we saw percentage point increases of 2.5 for women, 1.4 for Hispanic/Latinx and 1.0 for multiracial representation among our new college graduates in 2022. For additional detail about our workforce, we encourage you to review our Sustainability Report, which we publish annually and make available on our corporate website. Nothing on our website shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

In 2022, we launched a self-identification initiative that invited employees to share more about who they are across dimensions of gender, gender identity, veterans and disabilities. Participation was optional, data was protected and the results were anonymized. We believe an in-depth understanding of our employee population will enable us to better engage and retain our talent.

Compensation and Benefits

We believe in the importance of investing in our people, and we do that through a robust Total Rewards program. We benchmark our compensation and benefits programs annually using market data from reputable third-party consultants. We also conduct internal focus groups and employee surveys to inform programs and identify opportunities.

We promote a strong pay-for-performance culture and offer employees competitive compensation consisting of base salary and both short-term and long-term incentives. In the last year, we also implemented a global recognition program to celebrate the contributions of employees who bring our core values and cultural attributes to life.

To ensure that our pay practices are fair and equitable, we conduct an annual pay equity assessment to ensure that men and women receive equal pay for equal work. As part of this review, we analyze current pay which takes into consideration various, non-discriminatory factors, such as seniority, experience, skills, performance, location, track and hiring and promotion dates. We use the results to make pay adjustments as needed. We are expanding our analysis of 2022 pay equity to cover 100% of our employee population globally.

We also believe in creating an environment that allows our employees to prioritize their health and well-being. We provide competitive benefits, including health coverage, life and disability insurance, retirement, paid time off, an employee assistance program and an employee stock purchase plan. In response to employee input in 2022, we expanded benefit access for our employees to caregivers and enhanced behavioral health benefits for dependent children in the U.S.; enhanced medical coverage in our larger countries; and offered flexible benefits in India.

Talent Attraction, Development and Engagement

Foundational to our people strategy is the attraction, development and engagement of our employees. We need a workforce that is as unique and diverse as our customer base, and it starts with talent attraction. To increase the talent level of our diverse candidate pools, we adopted a skills-based philosophy that screens and hires employees based on capabilities and potential, and we plan to continue the implementation of these practices in 2023. In the last year, we conducted an anonymous hiring pilot to identify and remove any potential for bias from our hiring process and broaden our diverse talent pool and tested technology to make sure that job descriptions utilize inclusive language. We also deliver unconscious bias training to leaders equipping them to lead inclusively and identify unconscious bias.

Developing our talent is key to helping us reach our business goals and retaining our people. We foster an environment of continuous learning through initiatives like our annual Career Month with virtual events, on-demand learning and resources to help employees create a Career Success Statement and Development Map so that they can chart their career journey and track their progress. We are investing in leadership development through our flagship program Leader Essentials to help people at all levels cultivate skills such as effective communication, creating an inclusive culture and building effective relationships. We also continue to develop the next generation of talent with our New College Grad program.

Ongoing engagement is a keystone to our people strategy. We believe that listening is crucial to identifying opportunities to strengthen employee engagement as well as influencing our overall strategy. In 2022, we had an overall employee survey participation rate of 90%. Key strengths that employees identified were that they felt that their work was meaningful, they are excited about our future, and they would recommend their manager to others. We also engage employees by taking actions to promote and ground them in our core values and beliefs as a company, so that we are conducting business in an ethical way. As a result of this focus, in 2022, we were named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute for the fourth consecutive year. Our employees also regularly engage in a wide range of hands-on volunteering and matching campaigns that support the communities in which they work and live.

Health and Safety

We are committed to creating a safe work environment everywhere we operate. We provide extensive health and safety resources and training to all of our employees, especially for those who work in our manufacturing and operations. We use an integrated management system to manage health and safety standards at our manufacturing facilities.

Furthermore, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to practice our global resiliency plans, which have allowed us to maintain 24/7 operations. At each global Western Digital site, we have local, cross-functional teams responsible for our efforts to meet or exceed local COVID regulations, including providing real-time data to leaders, implementing changes to our physical workplaces and providing robust employee and family benefits to those impacted by COVID. We have welcomed employees who transitioned to working from home during the pandemic back to the office and have offered a flexible hybrid work model for certain employees.

Government Regulation

Our worldwide business activities are subject to various laws, rules, and regulations of the United States as well as of foreign governments. Compliance with these laws, rules, and regulations has not had a material effect upon our capital expenditures, results of operations, or competitive position. Nevertheless, compliance with existing or future governmental regulations, including, but not limited to, those pertaining to global trade, the environment, consumer and data protection, employee health and safety, and taxes, could have a material impact on our business in subsequent periods. See Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors for a discussion of these potential impacts.

Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability

We believe responsible and sustainable business practices support our long-term success. As a company, we are deeply committed to protecting and supporting our people, our environment, and our communities. That commitment is reflected through sustainability-focused initiatives as well as day-to-day activities, including our adoption of sustainability-focused policies and procedures, our publicly-recognized focus on fostering an inclusive workplace, our constant drive toward more efficient use of materials and energy, our careful and active management of our supply chain, our community-focused volunteerism programs and philanthropic initiatives, and our impactful, globally-integrated ethics and compliance program.

• We seek to protect the human rights and civil liberties of our employees through policies, procedures, and programs that avoid risks of compulsory and child labor, both within our company and throughout our supply chain.

• We foster a workplace of dignity, respect, diversity, and inclusion through our recruiting and advancement practices, internal communications, and employee resource groups.

• We educate our employees annually on relevant ethics and compliance topics, publish accessible guidance on ethical issues and related company resources in our Global Code of Conduct, and encourage reporting of ethical concerns through any of several global and local reporting channels.

• We support local communities throughout the world, focusing on hunger relief, environmental quality, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, especially for underrepresented and underprivileged youth.

• We utilize a robust integrated management system, with associated policies and procedures, to evaluate and manage occupational health and safety risks, environmental compliance, and chemical and hazardous substance risks.

• We work to minimize our impacts on the environment through emissions reduction targets and other initiatives and to evaluate and enhance our climate resiliency.

• We innovate to reduce the energy used by our products, the energy used to manufacture them, and the amount of new materials required to manufacture them.

Available Information

We maintain an Internet website at www.westerndigital.com. The information on our website is not incorporated in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available on our website at www.westerndigital.com, free of charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after the electronic filing of these reports with, or furnishing of these reports to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The SEC maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including us.

Our business can be affected by a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause material harm to our actual operating results and financial condition. The risks discussed below are not the only ones facing our business but represent risks that we believe are material to us. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also negatively affect our business.

OPERATIONAL RISKS

Adverse global or regional conditions could harm our business.

A large portion of our revenue is derived from our international operations, and many of our products and components are produced overseas. As a result, our business depends significantly on global and regional conditions. Adverse changes in global or regional economic conditions, including, but not limited to, volatility in the financial markets, tighter credit, recession, inflation, rising interest rates, slower growth in certain geographic regions, political uncertainty, geopolitical tensions or conflicts, other macroeconomic factors, changes to social conditions and regulations, could significantly harm demand for our products, increase credit and collectability risks, result in revenue reductions, reduce profitability as a result of underutilization of our assets, cause us to change our business practices, increase manufacturing and operating costs or result in impairment charges or other expenses.

Our revenue growth is significantly dependent on the growth of international markets, and we may face challenges in international sales markets. We are subject to risks associated with our global manufacturing operations and global sales efforts, as well as risks associated with our utilization of contract manufacturers, including:

• obtaining governmental approvals and compliance with evolving foreign regulations;

• the need to comply with regulations on international business, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, the anti-bribery laws of other countries and rules regarding conflict minerals;

• exchange, currency and tax controls and reallocations;

• weaker protection of IP rights;

• trade restrictions, such as export controls, export bans, import restrictions, embargoes, sanctions, license and certification requirements (including semiconductor, encryption and other technology), tariffs and complex customs regulations; and

• difficulties in managing international operations, including appropriate internal controls.

As a result of these risks, our business could be harmed.

Public health crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have had, and could in the future have, a negative effect on our business.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and may continue to impact our workforce and operations, and those of our strategic partners, customers, suppliers and logistics providers. These impacts include under-absorbed overhead, increased logistics, component and other costs, decreased demand for our products and manufacturing challenges. While our manufacturing facilities and those used by Flash Ventures are all currently operational, we have experienced and may experience in the future temporary closures of certain manufacturing facilities related to the pandemic. Future outbreaks of infectious disease or other public health crises may have a similar impact.

The effects of such health crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, are uncertain and difficult to predict, but may include:

• Disruptions to our supply chain, our operations or those of our strategic partners, customers or suppliers caused by employees or others contracting infectious diseases, or governmental orders to contain the spread of infectious disease, such as travel restrictions, quarantines, shelter in place orders, trade controls and business shut-downs;

• Deterioration of worldwide credit markets that may limit our ability or increase our cost to obtain external financing to fund our operations and capital expenditures and result in a higher rate of losses on our accounts receivables due to customer credit defaults;

• Extreme volatility in financial markets, which may harm our ability to access the financial markets on acceptable terms;

• Increased data security and technology risk as some employees continue to work from home, including possible outages to systems and technologies critical to remote work and increased data privacy risk with cybercriminals attempting to take advantage of the disruption; and

• Reduced productivity or other disruptions of our operations if workers in our factories or our other worksites are exposed to or spread infectious diseases to other employees.

The degree to which the COVID-19 pandemic or future public health crises ultimately impact our business will depend on many factors beyond our control, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted at this time.

We are dependent on a limited number of qualified suppliers who provide critical services, materials or components, and a disruption in our supply chain could negatively affect our business.

We depend on an external supply base for technologies, software (including firmware), preamps, controllers, dynamic random-access memory, components, equipment and materials for use in our product design and manufacturing. We also depend on suppliers for a portion of our wafer testing, chip assembly, product assembly and product testing, and on service suppliers for providing technical support for our products. In addition, we use logistics partners to manage our worldwide just-in-time hubs and distribution centers and to meet our freight needs. Many of the components and much of the equipment we acquire must be specifically designed for use in our products or for developing and manufacturing our products, and are only available from a limited number of suppliers, some of whom are our sole-source suppliers. We therefore depend on these suppliers to meet our business needs including dedicating adequate engineering resources to develop components that can be successfully integrated into our products.

Our suppliers have in the past been, and may in the future be, unable or unwilling to meet our requirements, including as a result of events outside of their control such as trade restrictions (including tariffs, quotas and embargoes), geopolitical conflicts, public health emergencies, or natural disasters. If we are unable to purchase sufficient quantities from our current suppliers or qualify and engage additional suppliers, or if we cannot purchase materials at a reasonable price, we may not be able to meet demand for our products. Trade restrictions, including tariffs, quotas and embargoes, demand from other high-volume industries for materials or components used in our products, disruptions in supplier relationships or shortages in other components and materials used in our customers’ products could result in increased costs to us or decreased demand for our products, which could negatively impact our business. Delays, shortages or cost increases experienced by our suppliers in developing or sourcing materials and components for use in our products or incompatibility or quality issues relating to our products, could also harm our business.

We do not have long-term contracts with some of our existing suppliers, nor do we always have guaranteed manufacturing capacity with our suppliers, so we cannot guarantee that they will devote sufficient resources or capacity to manufacturing our products. Any significant problems that occur at our suppliers could lead to product shortages or quality assurance problems. When we do have contractual commitments with suppliers in an effort to stabilize the supply of our components, those commitments may require us to buy a substantial number of components or make significant cash advances to the supplier and may not result in a satisfactory supply of our components.

In addition, our supply base has experienced industry con

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Not applicable.

Our principal executive offices are located in San Jose, California. Our leased facilities have contracts expiring at various times through 2034. Our principal manufacturing, R&D, marketing and administrative facilities as of July 1, 2022 were as follows:

We also lease office space in various other locations throughout the world primarily for R&D, sales, operations, administration and technical support. We believe our present facilities are adequate for our current needs, although we update our facilities from time to time to meet anticipated future technological and market requirements. In general, new manufacturing facilities can be developed and become operational within approximately 12 to 24 months should we require such additional facilities.

Substantially all of our flash-based memory wafers are manufactured by Kioxia in purpose-built, wafer fabrication facilities located in Yokkaichi and Kitakami, Japan.

See Part II, Item 8, Note 14, Income Tax Expense, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for disclosures regarding statutory notices of deficiency issued by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) in June 2018 and December 2018, petitions filed by the Company with the U.S. Tax Court in September 2018 and March 2019, additional penalties asserted by the IRS in March 2021 and further Amendments to Answers filed by the IRS in June 2021 and January 2022, and a tentative resolution with respect to such matters.

Not applicable.

PART II

Market Information for Common Stock

Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “WDC.” The approximate number of holders of record of our common stock as of August 11, 2022 was 874.

Dividends

In April 2020, we suspended our quarterly cash dividend. For more information about our dividend policy. see Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Short and Long-term Liquidity.

Stock Performance Graph

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return of our common stock with the cumulative total return of the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones U.S. Technology Hardware & Equipment Index for the five years ended July 1, 2022. The graph assumes that $100 was invested in our common stock at the close of market on June 30, 2017 and that all dividends were reinvested. Stockholder returns over the indicated period should not be considered indicative of future stockholder returns.

TOTAL RETURN TO STOCKHOLDERS

(Assumes $100 investment at market close on June 30, 2017)

Total Return Analysis

The stock performance graph shall not be deemed soliciting material or to be filed with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, nor shall it be incorporated by reference into any past or future filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, except to the extent we specifically request that it be treated as soliciting material or specifically incorporate it by reference into a filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

[Reserved]

The following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, and should be read in conjunction with the disclosures we make concerning risks and other factors that may affect our business and operating results. You should read this information in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes thereto included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See also “Forward-Looking Statements” immediately prior to Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our Company

We are on a mission to unlock the potential of data by harnessing the possibility to use it. We are a leading developer, manufacturer, and provider of data storage devices based on both flash-based products (“Flash”) and hard disk drives (“HDD”) technologies. With dedicated business units driving advancements in NAND flash and magnetic recording technologies, we create and drive innovations needed to help customers capture, preserve, access, and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data.

Our broad portfolio of technology and products address multiple end markets. In 2022, we refined the end markets we report to be “Cloud”, “Client” and “Consumer”. Cloud represents a large and growing end market comprised primarily of products for public or private cloud environments and enterprise customers, which we believe we are uniquely positioned to address as the only provider of both Flash and HDD. Through the Client end market, we provide our original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) and channel customers a broad array of high-performance flash and hard drive solutions across personal computer, mobile, gaming, automotive, virtual reality headsets, at-home entertainment, and industrial spaces. The Consumer end market is highlighted by our broad range of retail and other end-user products, which capitalize on the strength of our product brand recognition and vast points of presence around the world.

Our fiscal year ends on the Friday nearest to June 30 and typically consists of 52 weeks. Approximately every five to six years, we report a 53-week fiscal year to align the fiscal year with the foregoing policy. Fiscal years 2022 and 2021, which ended on July 1, 2022 and July 2, 2021, respectively, are comprised of 52 weeks, with all quarters presented consisting of 13 weeks. Fiscal year 2020, which ended on July 3, 2020, was comprised of 53 weeks, with the first quarter consisting of 14 weeks and the remaining quarters consisting of 13 weeks each.

Key Developments

Business Structure and Strategic Alternatives

In 2021, we made and announced the decision to reorganize our business by forming two separate product business units: Flash and HDD. The new structure is intended to provide each business unit with focus and responsibility for identifying current and future customer requirements while driving the strategy, roadmap, pricing and overall profitability for their respective product areas. To align with the new operating model and business structure, we made management organizational changes and implemented new reporting modules and processes to provide discrete information to manage the business. Effective July 3, 2021, management finalized its assessment of our operating segments and concluded that we now have two reportable segments: Flash and HDD.

In June 2022, we announced that we are reviewing potential strategic alternatives aimed at further optimizing long-term value for stockholders. The Executive Committee of our Board of Directors is overseeing the assessment process and evaluating a range of alternatives, including options for separating our Flash and HDD business units. In conjunction with that review process, we announced that we had entered into a letter agreement with Elliott Investment Management L.P. (“Elliott”), which had disclosed in May 2022 a $1 billion investment in our Company and called for a full strategic review of our business. We are actively working with financial advisors and our legal counsel in this strategic review process.

Tax Resolution

As previously disclosed, we have received statutory notices of deficiency and notices of proposed adjustments from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) with respect to 2008 through 2015. During 2022, new information became available which required us to re-measure our unrecognized tax benefits for this IRS matter. We and the IRS tentatively reached a settlement for resolving this matter. Additional information is provided in our discussion of Income tax expense in our results of operations below, as well as in Part I, Item 1, Note 14, Income Tax Expense, of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, and in the “Short- and Long-Term Liquidity**-**Unrecognized Tax Benefits” section below.

Flash Ventures Contamination Incident

In February 2022, contamination of certain material used in manufacturing processes occurred at Flash Ventures’ fabrication facilities in both Yokkaichi and Kitakami, Japan which resulted in damage to inventory units in production, a temporary disruption to production operations and a reduction in our flash wafer availability. During 2022, we incurred charges of $207 million related to this contamination incident that were recorded in cost of revenue and primarily consisted of scrapped inventory and rework costs, decontamination and other costs needed to restore the facilities to normal capacity, and under absorption of overhead costs. We are evaluating potential options for recovery.

Financing Activities

During 2022, we continued to execute on our commitment to reduce our overall debt levels and Fitch Ratings, Inc. raised our Company credit rating to investment grade in December 2021. We fully repaid our Term Loan B-4 in October 2021 and shortly thereafter initiated a series of transactions to further reduce our debt levels and better stagger the maturities of our debt. In December 2021, we issued $500 million aggregate principal amount of 2.850% senior unsecured notes due February 1, 2029 (the “2029 Notes”) and we issued $500 million aggregate principal amount of 3.100% senior unsecured notes due February 1, 2032 (the “2032 Notes”). We used the proceeds from these note offerings and available cash to voluntarily repay $1.21 billion of our Term Loan A-1 and reduce the principal amount to $3.0 billion as of December 31, 2021. In January 2022, we amended and restated our existing loan agreement to provide for, among other things: (i) the issuance of a new $3.0 billion Term Loan A-2 maturing in January 2027 to replace our previously existing Term Loan A-1; (ii) the availability of a new $2.25 billion revolving credit facility maturing in January 2027 to replace our previously existing $2.25 billion revolving credit facility; and (iii) additional covenant flexibility and other modifications. As of July 1, 2022, over 80% of the principal amount of our debt is now due in 2026 or later. We believe this new debt structure gives us greater financial stability and flexibility to manage our business over the longer term.

Additional information regarding our indebtedness, including the principal repayment terms, interest rates, covenants and other key terms of our outstanding indebtedness, is included in Part II, Item 8, Note 8, Debt, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

New Flash Ventures Fabrication Facility

In January 2022, we entered into additional agreements regarding Flash Ventures’ investment in a new wafer fabrication facility currently under construction in Yokkaichi, Japan, referred to as “Y7”. The primary purpose of Y7 is to provide clean room space to continue the transition of existing flash-based wafer capacity to newer flash technology nodes. The first phase of construction of Y7 is complete and output is expected to commence in the first half of 2023. We are committed to pay, among other items, future build

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Disclosure About Foreign Currency Risk

Although the majority of our transactions are in U.S. dollars, some transactions are based in various foreign currencies. We purchase short-term foreign exchange contracts to hedge the impact of foreign currency exchange fluctuations on certain underlying assets, liabilities and commitments for product costs and Operating expenses denominated in foreign currencies. The purpose of entering into these hedge transactions is to minimize the impact of foreign currency fluctuations on our results of operations. Substantially all of the contract maturity dates do not exceed 12 months. We do not purchase foreign exchange contracts for speculative or trading purposes. For additional information, see Part II, Item 8, Note 6, Fair Value Measurements and Investments, and Note 7, Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Due to macroeconomic changes and volatility experienced in the foreign exchange market recently, we believe sensitivity analysis is more informative in representing the potential impact to the portfolio as a result of market movement. Therefore, we have performed sensitivity analyses for 2022 and 2021, using a modeling technique that measures the change in the fair values arising from a hypothetical 10% adverse movement in the levels of foreign currency exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar, with all other variables held constant. The analyses cover all of our foreign currency derivative contracts used to offset the underlying exposures. The foreign currency exchange rates used in performing the sensitivity analyses were based on market rates in effect at July 1, 2022 and July 2, 2021. The sensitivity analyses indicated that a hypothetical 10% adverse movement in foreign currency exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar would result in a foreign exchange fair value loss of $306 million and $183 million at July 1, 2022 and July 2, 2021, respectively.

During 2022, 2021 and 2020, total net realized and unrealized transaction and foreign exchange contract currency gains and losses were not material to our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Notwithstanding our efforts to mitigate some foreign exchange risks, we do not hedge all of our foreign currency exposures, and there can be no assurance that our mitigating activities related to the exposures that we hedge will adequately protect us against risks associated with foreign currency fluctuations.

Disclosure About Interest Rate Risk

Variable Interest Rate Risk

We have generally held a balance of fixed and variable rate debt. As of July 1, 2022, we had reduced the amount of variable rate debt to $2.70 billion from $5.43 billion as of July 2, 2021. As of July 2, 2022, our only variable rate debt outstanding was our Term Loan A-2 Loan, which bears interest, at the Company’s option, at a per annum rate equal to either (x) the Adjusted Term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) (as defined in the Loan Agreement) plus an applicable margin varying from 1.125% to 2.000% or (y) a base rate plus an applicable margin varying from 0.125% to 1.000%, in each case depending on the corporate family ratings of the Company from at least two of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. and Fitch Ratings, Inc., with an initial interest rate of Adjusted Term SOFR plus 1.375%.

As of July 1, 2022, a one percent increase in the variable rate of interest would increase annual interest expense by $27 million. We currently have pay-fixed interest rate swaps of $2.0 billion notional amount, which would mitigate the impact of fluctuations in variable interest rates noted above through February 2023.

For additional information regarding our variable interest rate debt, see Part II, Item 8, Note 8, Debt, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Index to Financial Statements

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Shareholders and Board of Directors

Western Digital Corporation:

Opinions on the Consolidated Financial Statements and Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Western Digital Corporation and subsidiaries (the Company) as of July 1, 2022 and July 2, 2021, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), cash flows and shareholders’ equity for each of the years in the three-year period ended July 1, 2022, and the related notes (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of July 1, 2022, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of July 1, 2022 and July 2, 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended July 1, 2022, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of July 1, 2022, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.

Basis for Opinions

The Company’s management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Item 9A Controls and Procedures - Management's Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.

Assessment of variable consideration for sales to resellers

As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company provides resellers with price protection and other sales incentive programs. The Company uses judgment in its assessment of variable consideration in contracts to be included in the transaction price. The Company’s estimate of variable consideration for sales to resellers is based on several factors, including historical pricing information, current pricing trends, and channel inventory levels.

We identified the a

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None.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As required by Rule 13a‑15(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10‑K.

Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10‑K, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a‑15(f) and 15d‑15(f) of the Exchange Act) to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of our financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of our assets; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that the transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and our directors; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Our management evaluated the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting using the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013). Based on this evaluation, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10‑K. KPMG LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, which audited the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, has issued an audit report on our internal control over financial reporting. See Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm herein.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting during the fourth quarter ended July 1, 2022, that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Inherent Limitations of Effectiveness of Controls

Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, does not expect our internal controls over financial reporting will prevent all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in a system of internal control over financial reporting, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the control. The design of any system of controls is also based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

Disclosure Pursuant to Section 13(r) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

On March 2, 2021, the U.S. government designated the Russian Federal Security Service (the “FSB”) as a blocked party under Executive Order 13382; however, on the same day, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License No. 1B (the “OFAC General License”), which generally authorizes U.S. companies to engage in certain transactions and dealings with the FSB necessary and ordinarily incident to requesting or obtaining licenses, permits, certifications or notifications issued or registered by the FSB for the importation, distribution or use of information technology products in the Russian Federation.

Prior to February 24, 2022, in the normal course of business and as permitted and authorized by the OFAC General License, we filed notifications with, or applied for import licenses and permits from, the FSB as required pursuant to Russian encryption product import controls for the purpose of enabling us or our channel partners to import and distribute certain products in the Russian Federation. There are no gross revenues or net profits directly associated with these activities, and we do not distribute or sell products or provide services to the FSB. After February 24, 2022, we ceased shipments into Russia and we have not filed notifications with or applied for import licenses and permits from the FSB since such date. We expect to resume filing notifications with and applications for import licenses and permits from the FSB to qualify our products for importation and distribution in the Russian Federation if and when we decide to resume sales into the Russian Federation and as permitted by applicable U.S. law, including the OFAC General License.

Not applicable.

PART III

There is incorporated herein by reference the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended July 1, 2022. In addition, our Board of Directors has adopted a Code of Business Ethics that applies to all of our directors, employees and officers, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. The current version of the Code of Business Ethics is available on our website under the Corporate Governance section at www.westerndigital.com. To the extent required by rules adopted by the SEC and The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, we intend to promptly disclose future amendments to certain provisions of the Code of Business Ethics, or waivers of such provisions granted to executive officers and directors, on our website under the Corporate Governance section at www.westerndigital.com.

There is incorporated herein by reference the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended July 1, 2022.

There is incorporated herein by reference the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended July 1, 2022.

There is incorporated herein by reference the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended July 1, 2022.

There is incorporated herein by reference the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended July 1, 2022.

PART IV

The following documents are filed as a part of this Annual Report on Form 10‑K:

(1)Financial Statements. The financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this document are filed as part of this Annual Report on Form 10‑K.

(2)Financial Statement Schedules.

All schedules are omitted as the required information is immaterial, inapplicable or the information is presented in the Consolidated Financial Statements or related Notes.

(3)Exhibits. The exhibits listed in the Exhibit Index below are filed with, or incorporated by reference in, this Annual Report on Form 10‑K, as specified in the Exhibit List, from exhibits previously filed with the SEC. Certain agreements listed in the Exhibit List that we have filed or incorporated by reference may contain representations and warranties by us or our subsidiaries. These representations and warranties have been made solely for the benefit of the other party or parties to such agreements and (i) may have been qualified by disclosures made to such other party or parties, (ii) were made only as of the date of such agreements or such other date(s) as may be specified in such agreements and are subject to more recent developments, which may not be fully reflected in our public disclosures, (iii) may reflect the allocation of risk among the parties to such agreements and (iv) may apply materiality standards different from what may be viewed as material to investors. Accordingly, these representations and warranties may not describe the actual state of affairs at the date hereof and should not be relied upon.

EXHIBIT INDEX

† Filed with this report.

** Furnished with this report.

• Management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement required to be filed as an exhibit pursuant to applicable rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pursuant to a request for confidential treatment, certain portions of this exhibit have been redacted from the publicly filed document and have been furnished separately to the Securities and Exchange Commission as required by Rule 24b-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

As permitted by Regulation S-K, Item 601(b)(10)(iv) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, certain confidential portions of this exhibit have been redacted from the publicly filed document.

None.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this Annual Report on Form 10‑K to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Dated: August 24, 2022

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this Annual Report on Form 10‑K has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.