UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended June 28, 2024

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

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.  ý

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to § 240.10D-1(b) 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 29, 2023, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $12.90 billion, based on the closing sale price as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

There were 343,451,583 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, outstanding as of the close of business on August 7, 2024.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

Part III incorporates by reference certain information from the registrant’s definitive proxy statement (the “Proxy Statement”) for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the 2024 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.

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 expectations regarding our plan to separate our HDD and Flash business units;

*•*our product plans and business strategies;

*•*consumer trends and market conditions;

*•*expectations regarding demand trends, market opportunities and our market position;

*•*expectations regarding our future financial performance;

*•*the impact of the global macroeconomic environment;

*•*expectations related to our agreed sale of a portion of our equity interest in SanDisk Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.;

*•*expectations related to our joint ventures and partnerships including relating to our Flash Ventures joint venture with Kioxia Corporation (“Kioxia”);

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

*•*expectations regarding capital expenditure plans and investments;

*•*expectations regarding our tax resolutions, effective tax rate and our unrecognized tax benefits;

*•*expectations regarding the merits of our position and our plans with respect to certain litigation matters; 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 Report. 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.

WEBSITE REFERENCES

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.

PART I

General

Western Digital is a leading developer, manufacturer and provider of data storage devices and solutions based on both hard disk drive and NAND flash technologies. With a differentiated innovation engine driving advancements in storage and semiconductor technologies, our broad and ever-expanding portfolio delivers powerful hard disk drives (“HDD”) and flash-based products (“Flash”) storage solutions for everyone from students, gamers and home offices, to the largest enterprises and public clouds to capture, preserve, access and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data.

Our broad portfolio of technology and products addresses multiple end markets: “Cloud,” “Client” and “Consumer.”

Cloud is comprised primarily of products for public or private cloud environments and end customers. Through the Client end market, we provide our original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) and channel customers a broad array of high-performance hard drive and flash 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.

On October 30, 2023, we announced that our Board of Directors had completed its strategic review of our business and, after evaluating a comprehensive range of alternatives, authorized us to pursue a plan to separate our HDD and Flash business units to create two independent, public companies. We believe the separation will better position each business unit to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, extend respective leadership positions and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures. The completion of the planned separation is subject to certain conditions, including final approval by our Board of Directors. Significant effort is underway and extensive progress has been made with respect to the separation as we continue to drive towards completing the work required to separate the businesses by the end of calendar year 2024.

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 valuable patent portfolios containing approximately 13,000 active patents, covering groundbreaking memory technologies and beyond. We have extensive customer, partner and channel relationships across a number of end markets and geography and have a rich heritage of innovation and operational excellence, a wide range of intellectual property (“IP”) assets, broad research and development (“R&D”) capabilities and large-scale, efficient manufacturing supply chains. The strong growth in the 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 OEMs 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 is 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. We believe 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 increase in computing complexity and advancements in artificial intelligence (“AI”), along with growth in 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 the creation of new form factors for data storage. The storage industry is increasingly utilizing tiered architectures with solid state drives (“SSD”), HDD and other non-volatile memory-based storage to address an expanding set of uses and applications. We believe our expertise and innovation across both HDD and Flash technologies enable us to bring powerful solutions to a broad 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.

Technology

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 combines 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 a strong 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.

Flash Technologies. Flash-based 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, client, automotive, mobile devices and removable memory devices. Over time, we have successfully developed and commercialized successive generations of multi-dimensional flash technology with increased numbers of storage bits per cell in an increasingly smaller form factor, further driving cost reductions. We devote significant R&D resources to the development of highly reliable, high-performance, cost-effective flash-based technology and are continually 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.

Our Data Solutions

Our broad portfolio of technology and products addresses multiple end markets of “Cloud,” “Client” and “Consumer” and are comprised of the Western Digital®, SanDisk® and WD® brands.

Cloud represents a large and growing end market comprised primarily of products for public or private cloud environments and enterprise customers. We provide the Cloud end market with an array of high-capacity enterprise HDD, high-performance enterprise SSD and platforms. Our capacity enterprise hard disk drives provide high-capacity storage needs and a low total cost of ownership for the growing cloud data center and smart video system markets. 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 online transactions, AI-related workloads, data analysis and other enterprise applications. We also provide higher value data storage platforms to the market.

Through the Client end market, we provide numerous data solutions that we incorporate into our client’s devices, which consist of HDD and SSD desktop and notebook PCs, 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 and 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.

We serve the Consumer end market 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 backup of created content, as well as wireless streaming of high-definition movies, photos, music and documents to tablets, smartphones and PCs.

Competition

Our industry is highly competitive. We believe we are well-positioned with our leading product portfolio, premium consumer brand, differentiated semiconductor innovation engine and leadership in driving cost efficiency. Nevertheless, we face strong competition from other manufacturers of HDD and Flash in the Cloud, Client and Consumer end markets. In HDD, we compete with Seagate Technology Holdings plc and Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation. In Flash, we compete with vertically integrated suppliers such as Kioxia, Micron Technology, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SK Hynix, Inc., Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. and numerous smaller companies that develop and manufacture flash-based products.

Business Strategy

Our overall strategy focuses on leadership, innovation and execution 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. Our strategy reflects the following foundational elements that we strive to meet:

*•*Drive Leadership in HDD

▪Provide reliable capacity growth and improved total cost of ownership

▪Enhance customers’ ability to generate value from data

▪Develop new technologies across the storage landscape

*•*Drive Differentiated Leadership in Flash

▪Capitalize on market transition to solid state drives

▪Focus on gross margin leadership

▪Leverage consumer brand strength

*•*Lead in Storage Innovation

▪Lead in areal density

▪Invest in leading HDD technologies to enable future drive capacity transition

▪Drive capital-efficient bit growth in flash

▪Explore tailored storage solutions to address the evolving workload requirements of generative AI

*•*Deliver Customer Value

▪Increase long-term engagement and through-cycle agreements with key hyperscalers

▪Maintain and expand strategic relationships with customers while transitioning into two market-leading companies

*•*Accelerate Operational Excellence

▪Achieve operational excellence to translate technology into stockholder value

▪Meet cost reduction targets to improve gross margin

▪Focus on sustainability and digital innovation of our manufacturing processes

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 13,000 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 and Suppliers

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 adjust 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 both HDD and Flash 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.

HDD and Flash manufacturing are each 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. 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. For more information on our agreement to sell a majority interest in one of our manufacturing facilities, see Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Key Developments.

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 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.

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; and San Jose and Fremont, CA, USA.

Substantially all of our flash memory supply utilized for our flash-based products is purchased from our joint ventures with Kioxia. From time to time, we also purchase flash memory from other flash manufacturers. Controllers are primarily designed in-house and manufactured by third-party foundries or acquired from third-party suppliers. We believe the use of our 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 a continuous supply of flash-based memory and controllers.

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 such risks, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Ventures with Kioxia

Our flash-based products consist of flash-based memory, controllers and firmware and other components. Substantially all of our flash-based memory is obtained from our joint ventures with Kioxia, which provide us with leading-edge, high-quality and low-cost flash memory wafers.

We and Kioxia currently operate three business ventures, Flash Partners Ltd., Flash Alliance Ltd. and Flash Forward Ltd., (collectively “Flash Ventures”) across seven flash-based manufacturing facilities in Japan, six of which are located in Yokkaichi, Japan and one of which is located in Kitakami, Japan. Flash Ventures will begin flash-based manufacturing operations at an eighth facility in Japan in calendar year 2025. Through 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 Ventures entities. We co-develop flash technologies (including process technology and memory design) with Kioxia for Flash Ventures’ use. We hold a 49.9% ownership position in each of the Flash Ventures entities. We jointly control with Kioxia the operations of Flash Ventures, and we believe our participation in Flash Ventures helps us reduce product costs, increases our ability to control the quality of our products and speeds delivery of our products to our customers.

Kioxia owns the facilities and provides wafer manufacturing services to Flash Ventures at cost using manufacturing equipment owned or leased by Flash Ventures and process technologies co-owned or contributed by us and Kioxia. We and Kioxia are entitled to purchase a share of Flash Ventures’ output, which generally equals 50% each. The price for which we and Kioxia pay Flash Ventures for flash memory wafers is cost plus a small markup. We are obligated to pay for variable costs incurred in producing our share of Flash Ventures’ flash-based memory wafer supply, based on a rolling forecast. In addition, we are obligated to pay for half of Flash Ventures’ fixed costs regardless of the output we choose to purchase.

The agreements governing the operations of the Flash Ventures entities also set out a framework for any investment by the joint venture partners in flash manufacturing capacity. We have jointly invested, and intend to continue to jointly invest, with Kioxia in the manufacturing equipment needed to support Flash Ventures’ flash manufacturing operations. In addition, we are 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.

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.

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 72%, 69% and 71% of our net revenue for 2024, 2023 and 2022, 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 such risks, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We perform our marketing and advertising functions both 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 2024, 2023 and 2022, 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 is also impacted by cyclicality in the industry 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 4, Supplemental Financial Statement Data, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our People

Our people strategy supports our purpose of being the world’s iconic data storage company through thoughtful offerings and inclusive practices that aim to attract, develop and engage talent. At the end of 2024, we employed approximately 51,000 people worldwide. Our diverse team spans 36 countries with approximately 85% of our employees in Asia Pacific, 13% in the Americas and 2% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Inclusion

To attract and retain the best talent, we strive to cultivate an inclusive environment where every individual can thrive through a sense of belonging, respect and contribution. Our Employee Resource Groups (“ERGs”) are designed to promote an inclusive culture that embraces the uniqueness of our employees. We have eight ERGs with multiple global chapters that focus on women, LGBTQ+, racial and ethnic minorities, military veterans and people with disabilities. In support of creating an inclusive environment, we also launched unconscious bias education to all professional and technical employees in 2024.

We have multiple initiatives that focus on attracting talent and fostering our diverse representation across our global workforce, including diversity in personal characteristics, experience, skills, gender, race, ethnicity and membership in underrepresented communities. We continue to foster early talent through our intern and new college graduate recruitment programs, and in 2024, we converted nearly half of our global intern population to employees. In 2024, we launched our first-ever U.S. Department of Labor approved apprenticeship program, serving as a career pathway for veterans and other underserved populations. Furthermore, to minimize bias from the hiring process, we adopted data-driven tools as well as provided in-person and on-demand unconscious bias trainings to our recruiters and hiring managers.

As of June 28, 2024, women represented 26% of our management positions and 24% of our technical staff. Additionally, members of Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino and other racially or ethnically diverse communities, represented 60% of our U.S. management positions. For additional details about our workforce, we encourage you to review our Sustainability Report, published annually and posted on our corporate website. Nothing on our website shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Talent Development and Engagement

We believe in supporting our people through learning and development opportunities and our pay for performance philosophy. To help our employees reach their full potential, we aim to cultivate an environment that encourages learning, development and career growth. Our performance framework includes developing goals collaboratively through transparent and actionable feedback in regular check-ins and performance designations. Our new on-demand learning management system, launched in 2024, offers learning activities and tools to help employees chart their career journey and track their progress. To give employees the skills they need to lead, we offer learning through virtual fireside chats with external speakers and through our flagship program Leader Essentials, which received the bronze medal from the Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards for Leadership Development in 2024. We also provide upskilling and reskilling opportunities to our factory employees through on-the-job training, technical classes, workshops and partnerships with universities and colleges.

We believe ongoing engagement is key to retention, and we prioritize that in many ways. We believe that listening is crucial to identifying opportunities to strengthen employee engagement and influence our overall strategy. Our latest survey completed in 2024 had a participation rate of nearly 90%. The survey results indicated that for our professional/technical employees, the company excels in areas of manager satisfaction, prioritization of work and sense of purpose. Our factory employees indicated that sense of purpose, company prospects and feeling of belonging were the top areas of strengths. We also engage employees by taking action to promote and ground them in our core values and beliefs, and to support our commitment to conducting business in an ethical way. In 2024, we were named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute for the sixth consecutive year. Our employees also regularly participate in philanthropy to support the communities in which they work and live. In 2024, more than half of our employees gave their time to participate in company-sponsored volunteer events.

Compensation and Benefits

We believe that recognition is crucial for retaining and motivating our employees, and we are committed to rewarding performance with competitive compensation consisting of base salary and short-term and long-term incentives. We also offer a global recognition program to celebrate the contributions of employees who bring to life our core values – to think big, create possibility, make it happen and do it together.

We invest in the physical, mental and financial well-being of our people through a dynamic and differentiated Total Rewards program that aligns to our culture and values. We provide competitive benefits (which vary by country/region), including health coverage, life and disability insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, employee assistance program and employee stock purchase plan. In 2024, we continued our multi-year journey to modernize our benefits portfolio to offer more choices to meet the unique needs of our diverse employees.

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. To ensure that our pay practices are fair and equitable, we conduct an annual pay equity assessment to promote equal pay for equal work regardless of gender. This review analyzes current pay considering 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. In 2024, our assessment covered 100% of our global employee population, and we furthered our pay equity efforts by engaging in a living wage analysis.

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 those who work in our manufacturing and operations. We use an integrated management system to manage health and safety standards at our manufacturing facilities.

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 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 capital expenditures, earnings, competitive position and overall 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, any of 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 and social conditions, including, but not limited to, volatility in the financial markets, reduced access to credit, recession, inflation, rising interest rates, slower growth in certain geographic regions, political uncertainty, geopolitical tensions or conflicts, terrorism, other macroeconomic factors and new or changed 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 also subject to risks that could harm our business associated with our global manufacturing operations, global sales efforts and our utilization of contract manufacturers, including: the need to obtain 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; policies and financial incentives by governments in China, the United States, and countries in Europe and Asia designed to reduce dependence on foreign semiconductor manufacturing capabilities; 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.

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, terrorism, public health crises 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. We have cancelled or deferred, and may continue to cancel or defer, outstanding purchase commitments with certain suppliers due to changes in actual and forecasted demand, which has resulted, and may continue to result in fees, penalties and other associated charges. Such cancellations or deferments can also negatively impact our relationships with certain suppliers or lead to a decline in the financial performance of certain suppliers, each of which could result in even more limited availability of components needed for our products.

In addition, our supply base has experienced industry consolidation. Our suppliers may be acquired by our competitors, decide to exit the industry or redirect their investments and increase costs to us. In addition, some of our suppliers have experienced a decline in financial performance, including as a result of cancelled or deferred purchase commitments. Where we rely on a limited number of suppliers or a single supplier, the risk of supplier loss due to industry consolidation or a decline in financial performance is increased. Some of our suppliers may also be competitors in other areas of our business, which could lead to difficulties in price negotiations or meeting our supply requirements.

Our operations, and those of certain of our suppliers and customers, are subject to substantial risk of damage or disruption.

We conduct our operations at large, high-volume, purpose-built facilities in California and throughout Asia. The facilities of many of our customers, our suppliers and our customers’ suppliers are also concentrated in certain geographic locations throughout Asia and elsewhere. If a fire (including a climate change-related fire), flood, earthquake, tsunami or other natural disaster, condition or event such as a power outage, contamination event, terrorist attack, cybersecurity incident, physical security breach, political instability, civil unrest, localized labor unrest or other employment issues or a health epidemic negatively affects any of these facilities, it would significantly affect our ability to manufacture or sell our products and source components and would harm our business. Possible impacts include work and equipment stoppages and dam

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Not applicable.

Risk Management and Strategy

At Western Digital, our management team is charged with managing risk and bringing to our Board of Directors’ attention all material risk exposures to our company. Our enterprise risk management (“ERM”) process is designed to facilitate the identification, assessment, management, reporting and monitoring of material risks our company may face over the short-term and long-term and assure regular communication with our Board of Directors and its committees regarding these risks. Through our ERM process, we have determined that the compromise, damage or interruption of our technology infrastructure, information systems or products by cybersecurity incidents is a key risk to our company that may have a material negative impact on our business. To help mitigate the potential impact of cybersecurity incidents on our business and protect against cybersecurity threats, we have established organizational structures, procedural measures and response plans that define roles and responsibilities related to cybersecurity risk management.

Western Digital’s Information Security organization addresses cybersecurity risks with a broad spectrum of technologies, controls, and processes that focus on mitigating these risks. Our cybersecurity strategy is designed to be dynamic and adaptive to combat the rapidly-evolving cybersecurity threat landscape and is influenced by commonly leveraged frameworks such as the NIST-CSF (National Institute of Standard and Technologies – CyberSecurity Framework). Our program includes, but is not limited to, advanced systems and network security protocols, electronic communications protections, vulnerability management programs, least-privilege access controls, third-party risk management procedures, workforce education and training exercises, and compliance programs.

Our dedicated 24x7 Security Operations Center incorporates specialized systems and processes for handling security incidents into its regular work and operates a robust, modern security infrastructure with appropriate security sensors and event monitoring capabilities. Upon detection of a cybersecurity incident, the Security Operations Center determines the severity of the incident in accordance with a pre-established incident severity matrix, initiates the appropriate notification and escalation protocols and begins triage. Predefined severity tiers serve as a guide to match our response to each incident’s determined severity or risk level.

Additionally, we have established a Cyber Incident Response Plan that follows the structure of the Incident Handling Guide published by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (SP 800-61r2) and that serves as an operational guide for handling cybersecurity incidents at Western Digital. Our Cyber Incident Response Plan provides procedural and strategic guidance that is designed to be flexible enough to apply to a variety of different incidents, but also specific enough to provide guidelines for incident prevention, detection, analysis, escalation and notification, and containment, eradication and recovery.

As part of our ongoing information security program, Western Digital utilizes periodic independent third-party experts to conduct assessments of our program’s effectiveness. These experts are also leveraged to design and orchestrate tabletop exercises where multiple business functions and leadership levels must navigate complex incident scenarios to help determine our level of preparedness for various cybersecurity incidents.

As part of our business operations, Western Digital engages with a number of third parties, including but not limited to, online software service providers, vendors, consultants, and partners. Each of these third-parties must be cleared through a formal cybersecurity risk assessment process before being allowed to integrate with Western Digital’s information systems, access confidential data, or provide electronic services to members of our workforce. Additionally, further scrutiny is applied during the post-assessment onboarding process in order to fine-tune access rights to limit privileges to those necessary to enable the related service, resulting in a least-privilege level of access.

Western Digital has in the past experienced cybersecurity incidents of varying degrees involving our technology infrastructure and information systems, including incidents in which unauthorized parties have obtained access to our information systems and networks. While these incidents have at times resulted in some disruptions to our business operations, as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we do not believe that known risks from cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incident, have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition. However, we can give no assurance that we have detected or protected against all such cybersecurity incidents or threats or that we will not experience such an incident in the future. Further details about the cybersecurity risks we face are described under “The compromise, damage or interruption of our technology infrastructure, information systems or products by cybersecurity incidents, data security breaches, other security problems, design defects, information system failures or other events could have a material negative impact on our business” in Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Governance

Western Digital has implemented a governance framework related to cybersecurity that includes operational risk-mitigation practices and Board-level cybersecurity risk oversight.

Our management team is charged with managing cybersecurity risk and identifying material cybersecurity risk exposures to our company and carries out this function primarily through our Information Security organization, which is led by our Chief Information Security Officer who has a master’s degree in computer science, over a decade of information security leadership, and thirty years of combined IT leadership experience. Additionally, our Cyber Incident Response Plan discussed above calls for the establishment of a management Impact Assessment Committee, which consists of key leadership representatives from the organization and is convened on an ad hoc basis to assess the detailed business impact of a cybersecurity incident. The Impact Assessment Committee is led by our Chief Information Security Officer and includes key representatives from the Company’s functional groups, including human resources, ethics and compliance, labor, privacy, internal audit, finance, communications, legal, risk and accounting. The Impact Assessment Committee receives updates and communications from the Security Operations Center on a fixed cadence determined by incident severity and follows our pre-established escalation framework to communicate with and include executive leadership, outside counsel and the Board of Directors, as appropriate. The Impact Assessment Committee works with the Company’s internal and external legal counsel to determine and facilitate appropriate communications with the Board of Directors.

Our Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing the cybersecurity risk management process and exercises this risk oversight through both our full Board of Directors and its Audit Committee. Our Board of Directors has delegated to the Audit Committee the responsibility to oversee risks related to cybersecurity threats, and our Audit Committee Charter requires the Audit Committee to review and discuss with management the Company’s policies with respect to risk assessment and enterprise risk management and to review the risk exposure of the Company related to the Committee’s areas of responsibility, including with respect to cybersecurity. In carrying out this role, the Audit Committee meets with our Chief Information Security Officer regularly and receives at least quarterly reports on cybersecurity matters.

Additionally, at least annually, our Chief Audit Executive, who manages the day-to-day activities of our ERM program, reports to our Board of Directors on enterprise risk assessment under our ERM program, providing updates on key risks, status of mitigation efforts and residual risk trends, including an analysis of cybersecurity risks. Also at least annually, our Chief Information Security Officer reports to the full Board of Directors on cybersecurity matters related to or impacting our company and our business.

Our principal executive offices are located in San Jose, California. Our leased facilities have contracts expiring at various times through 2039. Our principal manufacturing, R&D, marketing and administrative facilities as of June 28, 2024 were as follows:

We also lease office space in various other locations worldwide primarily for R&D, sales, operations, manufacturing, administration and technical support. During the year ended June 28, 2024, we completed a sale and leaseback of our facility in Milpitas, California. We believe our present facilities are adequate for our current needs. We continuously update our facilities from time to time to meet technological and market requirements.

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 17, Legal Proceedings and Note 13, Income Tax Expense of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for disclosures regarding certain legal proceedings and the status of statutory notices of deficiency issued by the IRS with regards to tax years 2008 through 2015, respectively, which are incorporated by reference herein.

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 7, 2024 was 802.

Dividends

In April 2020, we suspended our quarterly cash dividend. For more information about our dividends, 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 June 28, 2024. The graph assumes that $100 was invested in our common stock at the close of market on June 28, 2019 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 28, 2019)

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.

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 a leading developer, manufacturer, and provider of data storage devices based on both HDD and NAND flash technologies. With a differentiated innovation engine driving advancements in storage and semiconductor technologies, our broad and ever-expanding portfolio delivers powerful HDD and Flash storage solutions for everyone from students, gamers, and home offices to the largest enterprises and public clouds to capture, preserve, access, and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data.

Our broad portfolio of technology and products addresses our multiple end markets: “Cloud,” “Client” and “Consumer”. Cloud is comprised primarily of products for public or private cloud environments and enterprise customers. Through the Client end market, we provide our OEM and channel customers a broad array of high-performance HDD and Flash 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 2024, 2023, and 2022, which ended on June 28, 2024, June 30, 2023, and July 1, 2022, respectively, each comprised 52 weeks, with all quarters presented consisting of 13 weeks.

Key Developments

Separation of Business Units

On October 30, 2023, we announced that our Board of Directors had completed its strategic review of our business and, after evaluating a comprehensive range of alternatives, authorized us to pursue a plan to separate our HDD and Flash business units to create two independent, public companies. We believe the separation will better position each business unit to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, extend respective leadership positions, and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures. The completion of the planned separation is subject to certain conditions, including final approval by our Board of Directors. Significant effort is underway and extensive progress has been made with respect to the separation as we continue to drive towards completing the work required to separate the businesses by the end of calendar year 2024.

Operational Update

Macroeconomic factors such as inflation, higher interest rates and recession concerns had softened demand for our products in recent years, with certain customers reducing purchases as they adjusted their production levels and right-sized their inventories. As a result, we and our industry experienced a supply-demand imbalance, which resulted in reduced shipments and negatively impacted pricing. To adapt to these conditions, since the beginning of 2023, we have been implementing measures to reduce operating expenses, and to proactively manage supply and inventory to align with demand and improve our capital efficiency while continuing to deploy innovative products. These actions have enabled us to scale back on capital expenditures, consolidate production lines and reduce production bit growth. In 2024 and 2023, these actions have resulted in incremental charges for employee termination, asset impairment and other charges as well as charges for unabsorbed manufacturing overhead costs in HDD and Flash as a result of the underutilization of facilities as we temporarily scaled back production.

In the latter half of 2024, we began to see an improvement in the supply and demand dynamic, leading to improved revenues. The increased demand resulted in improved pricing and gross margin across our segments and end markets compared to 2023. We anticipate that digital transformation, including AI data-cycle, will continue driving improved market conditions in the near- and long-term for data storage, encompassing both HDD and Flash technologies. Leveraging our expertise and innovation in both areas, we believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on this improved market condition.

Tax Resolution

As disclosed in previous periods, we had previously reached a final agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and received notices of deficiency with respect to years 2008 through 2012 and in February 2024, we also reached a final agreement for resolving the notices of proposed adjustments with respect to years 2013 through 2015. During the twelve months ended June 28, 2024, we made payments aggregating $524 million for tax and interest with respect to years 2008 through 2012 and have a remaining liability of $185 million as of June 28, 2024 related to all years from 2008 through 2015. We expect to pay any remaining balance with respect to this matter within the next twelve months. Additional information is provided in our discussion in our “Results of Operations – Income Tax Expense,” and the “Short- and Long-term Liquidity – Unrecognized Tax Benefits” section below, and in Part II, Item 8, Note 13, Income Tax Expense, of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Financing Activities

On November 3, 2023, we issued $1.60 billion aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes, which bear interest at an annual rate of 3.00% and mature on November 15, 2028, unless earlier repurchased, redeemed or converted (the “2028 Convertible Notes”). We received net proceeds of approximately $1.56 billion after issuance costs. Contemporaneously with the issuance of the 2028 Convertible Notes, we entered into individually negotiated transactions with certain holders of our existing 1.50% convertible senior notes due February 1, 2024 (the “2024 Convertible Notes”) to repurchase approximately $508 million aggregate principal amount of such notes at an immaterial discount using net proceeds from the offering of the 2028 Convertible Notes. In connection with the issuance of the 2028 Convertible Notes, we also used approximately $155 million of the net proceeds from the offering to pay the cost of entering into capped call contracts with a cap price of approximately $70.26 to hedge the potential dilution impact of the conversion feature. On February 1, 2024, we used a portion of the remaining net proceeds from the offering of the 2028 Convertible Notes to settle the remaining 2024 Convertible Notes in accordance with their original terms for an aggregate cash principal payment of $592 million plus interest.

During 2024, we drew and repaid $600 million principal amount (the “Delayed Draw Term Loan”) under a loan agreement we entered into in January 2023 and amended in June 2023. Proceeds from this loan were primarily used for payments on our tax liability to the IRS for the years 2008 through 2012.

Additional information regarding our indebtedness, including the principal repayment terms, interest rates, covenants and other key terms of our outstanding indebtedness, and additional information on the terms of our convertible preferred shares is included in Part II, Item 8, Note 7, Debt, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

See Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, o

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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 5, Fair Value Measurements and Investments, and Note 6, Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We have performed sensitivity analyses for 2024, 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 June 28, 2024. 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 $248 million at June 28, 2024.

During 2024, 2023 and 2022, 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 June 28, 2024, our variable rate debt outstanding consisted of our Term Loan A-2, which is based on various index rates as discussed further in Note 7, Debt, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. As of June 28, 2024, the outstanding balance on our Term Loan A-2 was $2.59 billion and a 1% increase in the variable rate of interest would increase annual interest expense by $26 million.

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 June 28, 2024 and June 30, 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), cash flows, convertible preferred stock and shareholders’ equity for each of the years in the three-year period ended June 28, 2024, and the related notes (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of June 28, 2024, 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 June 28, 2024 and June 30, 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended June 28, 2024, 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 June 28, 2024 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 Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates 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 a critical audit matter 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 matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

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 related to these items 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 prici

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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 quarter ended June 28, 2024, 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.

Insider Trading Arrangements

During the quarter ended June 28, 2024, the following directors or officers (as defined in Rule 16a-1(f) of the Exchange Act) adopted trading arrangements for the purchase or sale of securities that are intended to satisfy the affirmative defense conditions of Rule 10b5-1(c) of the Exchange Act (“Rule 10b5-1 Plan”):

• Kimberly E. Alexy, a director of the Company, adopted a Rule 10b5-1 Plan on May 24, 2024. Under this plan, beginning on August 23, 2024, up to an aggregate of 4,963 shares of the Company’s common stock may be sold before the plan expires on February 24, 2025.

• Matthew E. Massengill, a director of the Company, adopted a Rule 10b5-1 Plan on May 30, 2024. Under this plan, beginning on August 29, 2024, up to an aggregate of 23,593 shares of the Company’s common stock may be sold before the plan expires on December 6, 2024.

• David Goeckeler, Chief Executive Officer of the Company adopted a Rule 10b5-1 Plan on June 6, 2024. Under this plan, beginning on September 5, 2024, up to an aggregate of 300,000 shares of the Company’s common stock may be sold before the plan expires on December 31, 2024.

Not applicable.

PART III

There is incorporated herein by reference to the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended June 28, 2024. 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 to the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended June 28, 2024.

There is incorporated herein by reference to the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended June 28, 2024.

There is incorporated herein by reference to the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended June 28, 2024.

There is incorporated herein by reference to the information required by this Item included in the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the year ended June 28, 2024.

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 19, 2024

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.