Fujifilm Plans $63.3 Million Investment to Quintuple 100TB Tape Production for AI Data Centers

Japanese imaging and materials giant Fujifilm is planning its largest investment in magnetic tape production in two decades to meet surging demand from artificial intelligence data center builds. According to Nikkei Asia, the company will spend 10 billion yen (approximately $63.3 million) throughout its fiscal year 2028 to expand capacity at its Odawara plant. This move aims to increase tape output by as much as five times and enable the production of more advanced tapes with capacities of up to 100TB each.

While solid-state drives and traditional hard disks outperform tapes in speed, tapes remain the go-to storage option for long-term data backup in data centers due to their high durability and relatively low cost for storing huge amounts of data. Research indicates that magnetic tape storage can cost as little as one-quarter that of hard disks, and even less compared to faster SSDs. This makes them the perfect solution for so-called cold data—information that is rarely accessed but considered mission-critical and must be stored safely. Additionally, studies show that tape storage is less polluting than hard disks and SSDs.

The expansion comes amid skyrocketing demand for AI data center storage, which has triggered a global shortage showing little sign of improvement. Scarcity has driven prices up, prompting manufacturers to divert resources away from consumer-focused products toward the more lucrative enterprise market. Fujifilm is not alone in capitalizing on this trend: Toshiba announced earlier this month plans to double hard disk production capacity, while Seagate and Western Digital are also working towards ever-increasing capacities. Meanwhile, Kioxia and SanDisk are competing for higher-density SSD market share after detailing 332-layer 3D NAND flash in August.