Odawara, Japan — Fujifilm to Boost Magnetic Tape Output Fivefold

Fujifilm said Thursday it will invest roughly 10 billion yen, about $63 million, to increase magnetic tape production capacity fivefold, according to Ars Technica. The company points to generative AI as the driver.

What is Fujifilm spending the money on?

The investment targets Fujifilm's Kanagawa Factory in Odawara. Ars Technica reports it is "the largest investment Fujifilm has made to date in dedicated LTO tape facilities." The project runs from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2028. Funds will expand manufacturing lines and add personnel, primarily to produce the company's latest tape, the FUJIFILM LTO Ultrium10.

Why is AI driving demand for tape?

Fujifilm attributes the surge to generative AI, which it says is producing what the company called "exponential growth" in global data needs, per Ars Technica. Cloud providers and data centers generating and storing AI training sets and outputs need somewhere to put the overflow. Tape is that somewhere.

How much more tape will Fujifilm make?

The fivefold increase is measured against fiscal year 2025 production levels, Ars Technica reports. Fujifilm did not disclose a unit or capacity figure beyond the multiplier in the material reviewed by Ars Technica.

Tape by the numbers

• $63 million (about 10 billion yen): new investment at the Odawara site
• 5x: targeted increase in production capacity versus fiscal 2025
• 2026–2028: fiscal years covered by the build-out
• 2025: year Fujifilm debuted the LTO Ultrium10, the current generation

What is LTO Ultrium10 and why does the particle chemistry matter?

Fujifilm has made magnetic tape since the 1950s and released its first LTO Ultrium cartridge in 2000, according to Ars Technica. In 2011 it became the first company to commercially produce tape using barium ferrite magnetic particles. The 2025 Ultrium10 generation adds strontium ferrite to that mix, which Fujifilm calls "fine hybrid magnetic particles." Each LTO generation has increased both compressed and uncompressed storage limits, per data from LTO.org cited by Ars Technica.

Why do cloud companies still rely on tape?

Enterprise users never left tape behind even as consumers did decades ago. Ars Technica reports that "major cloud service and data center operators" have expanded tape use because it stores large data volumes at relatively low cost. Tape cartridges can also be physically removed and locked away, a security feature known as air-gapping.

"Given the sophistication of cyberattacks, magnetic tape is attracting increasing attention as a means of protecting data from threats such as ransomware," Fujifilm said, according to Ars Technica.

Timeline: Fujifilm's tape milestones

• 1950s: Fujifilm begins work on magnetic tape as a storage medium
• 2000: First LTO Ultrium cartridge released
• 2011: First commercial tape using barium ferrite particles
• 2025: LTO Ultrium10 debuts with barium-strontium ferrite hybrid particles
• 2026–2028: Fivefold capacity expansion at the Odawara plant

Fujifilm did not provide additional technical specifications beyond those reported by Ars Technica.