(CSA Archive/Getty Images)

Western Digital jumps as Q1 sales and earnings beat, guidance better than expected, and dividend hiked

A litany of stellar news from the disk drive seller.

10/30/25 4:35PM

Western Digital, a maker of the decades-old data storage devices known as hard disk drives that’s become a top stock this year due to the AI boom, had nothing but good news in its Q1 earnings report released after the close of New York trading on Thursday.

Shares rose double digits in after hours trading and have held those gains in early trading on Friday.

Here’s how Western Digital’s results looked:

Fiscal Q1 revenue of $2.82 billion vs. $2.73 billion consensus analyst expectations, per FactSet.
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.78 vs. the $1.59 analysts predicted.
Guidance for current-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.72 to $2.03 (compared to analyst estimates of $1.73) and sales between $2.8 billion and $3 billion (estimate: $2.83 billion).
A 25% boost to its quarterly cash dividend up to $0.125 per share.

Western Digital — and rival Seagate Technology Holdings — were some of the hardest-hit stocks of the market’s tariff tantrum back in April due to their Asian manufacturing base.

But after posting surprisingly strong quarterly results over the summer, traders cottoned on to the fact that in an era defined by data, the makers of these relatively affordable data storage devices were going to be deluged with orders for the foreseeable future. Between its last earnings report and the close of trading on Thursday, Western Digital was up more than 90%.

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Google invests $75 million in film studio A24, forms AI partnership

Google is investing roughly $75 million in independent film studio A24 as part of an AI partnership, according the Wall Street Journal. The investment marks Google’s first direct stake in a film studio.

Under the agreement, A24 will work with Google DeepMind to develop and test AI tools for filmmaking and production workflows, the Journal reports.

The deal comes as A24 continues to expand its business beyond indie films into television, music, and live events. Since its 2013 launch, the studio has produced Oscar-winning films such as Everything Everywhere All at Once. Its revenue has more than doubled over the past two years, according to the Journal, and the company was last valued at $3.5 billion in a Thrive Capital-led funding round in 2024.

Google’s investment comes as major technology companies increasingly deepen ties with media companies as generative AI tools become more integrated into creative industries. For Google, the partnership also expands DeepMind’s reach into entertainment and film production.

The firm and TV industry is pushing to develop AI tools that can be integrated into the time-consuming and expensive production process. In a sign of the potential value of such tools, in March, Netflix announced it would acquire Ben Affleck's startup InterPositive, which is building AI film-making tools, for $600 million.

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Getty Images surges following OpenAI partnership

Getty Images is surging in early trading after the company announced a multi-year licensing and product partnership with OpenAI.

Under the agreement, OpenAI will license Getty’s library of images, videos, and metadata for use in training and improving its AI models, while Getty will integrate OpenAI’s generative AI tools into its own products and services.

The deal comes as Getty faces growing pressure from generative AI tools that can create stock image-like images in seconds, threatening parts of its traditional licensing business. Getty posted revenue of $226.6 million in Q1, down 2.5% year over year on a currency-neutral basis.

Getty was one of the earliest major content companies to challenge AI firms in court, suing Stability AI in 2023 for allegedly scraping millions of copyrighted images without permission to train image-generation models.

The OpenAI deal follows Getty’s 2025 licensing agreement with Perplexity, which gave the AI search company access to Getty’s library and required image credits with links to original sources.

Before the announcement, Getty shares had been trading below $1 for months. The stock surged by 124% in early trading, erasing its year-to-date losses as investors are waiting to see if Getty can turn its licensed content library into a more valuable AI asset.