Fujifilm plans to invest about 10 billion yen (approximately $63 million) to increase its magnetic-tape production capacity fivefold, citing surging demand for data archiving in the generative-AI era. The expansion at the company’s Odawara site in Kanagawa is scheduled to run from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2028 and will focus on manufacturing equipment and additional personnel for its latest-generation LTO Ultrium 10 tapes.
Investment targets LTO tape production
In an announcement released Thursday, Fujifilm said the fivefold capacity increase will be measured against its production levels in fiscal year 2025. The company described the project as its largest investment to date in dedicated LTO tape equipment.
Fujifilm said the growth in archiving demand reflects the proliferation of generative AI, which it says is “exponentially increasing” data requirements around the world.
Magnetic tape remains a data-center technology
Although most consumers abandoned tape decades ago, businesses—particularly cloud providers and data-center operators—continue to use it to back up large volumes of information. Fujifilm’s work on magnetic tape for data storage dates to the 1950s, and the company released its first LTO Ultrium storage tape in 2000.
Fujifilm began commercially producing tape with barium ferrite magnetic particles in 2011. In 2025, it introduced LTO Ultrium 10, which it describes as the first storage-media solution to use “fine hybrid magnetic particles,” combining barium ferrite and strontium ferrite technologies.
Each successive LTO generation has increased both compressed and uncompressed storage capacities. The 10th generation is the current technology, while the figures shown for generations 11 through 14 are future projections from the LTO consortium.
Air-gapped backups provide ransomware protection
According to Fujifilm, “major cloud service and data center operators” are expanding their use of magnetic tape because it can store large amounts of data at a relatively low cost. Tape cartridges can also be removed from a system and stored in a drawer, vault, or separate facility.
Fujifilm highlights this physical separation, or air gap, as a final line of defense for user data. “Given the increasing sophistication of cyber-attacks, magnetic tape is increasingly attracting attention as a means to protect data from threats such as ransomware,” the company said.
Source: arstechnica.com
