Fujifilm plans to invest approximately ¥10 billion to increase its magnetic data storage tape production capacity by roughly five times as generative AI and cloud computing drive greater demand for long-term data archiving.
The investment will be made at Fujifilm’s Kanagawa Factory, Odawara Site, between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2028.
Fujifilm said the project represents its largest investment to date in manufacturing facilities dedicated specifically to LTO data storage tape.
The company will expand production equipment and add personnel to strengthen its manufacturing capacity, with a particular focus on its latest-generation FUJIFILM LTO Ultrium10 products.
Generative AI and cloud services are producing rapidly increasing volumes of data through model training, inference, digital business operations, and other workloads.
That growth is creating additional demand for storage technologies capable of preserving large datasets economically over long periods.
Magnetic tape remains attractive for archival storage because it can store significant amounts of data at comparatively low cost and can be physically disconnected from networks.
That physical separation can also provide an additional layer of protection against cyberattacks and ransomware.
Fujifilm said cloud service providers and data center operators have increasingly adopted magnetic tape for archival applications.
The company has researched magnetic storage technologies since the 1950s and introduced its first LTO Ultrium product in 2000.
Fujifilm commercialized Barium Ferrite magnetic particles for tape in 2011 and introduced LTO Ultrium10 in 2025.
The latest product uses what Fujifilm calls fine hybrid magnetic particles incorporating technologies derived from Barium Ferrite and Strontium Ferrite.
The company currently holds what it describes as the top global share of the magnetic tape market.
By increasing production capacity fivefold, Fujifilm aims to meet growing storage requirements associated with AI infrastructure while creating a more resilient supply chain for large-scale archival customers.
