Tape isn’t dead. Fujifilm is betting $64 million on that.
The news
Fujifilm will spend ¥10 billion over two years to expand its tape plant in Odawara, Japan, and raise LTO output five times. It says AI and cloud data growth is driving demand. The money goes into LTO-10, which holds 30 or 40 TB native at 400 MB/s. LTO shipments dipped in 2025 to 160.3 exabytes, but the LTO Program expects a record 2026. The roadmap runs from LTO-11 at 70 TB (around 2029) up to LTO-14 at 365 TB.
Home-lab angle
For most home labs, a tape drive still costs more than it’s worth. But the idea behind it holds up: keep one copy of your backups offline, where ransomware and a bad script can’t reach it. Whether that’s tape, a drive in a drawer or cold cloud storage, follow 3-2-1.
God Bless, and May the Source Be with You!
