Fujifilm plans ¥10 billion magnetic tape expansion

Fujifilm plans to invest approximately ¥10 billion to expand magnetic-tape production capacity at its Odawara site to about five times its fiscal 2025 shipment capacity, the company said. The project is scheduled to run from fiscal 2026 through fiscal 2028 and includes expanded manufacturing facilities and additional personnel. The company said the expansion will focus primarily on its FUJIFILM LTO Ultrium 10 data-storage tape. Fujifilm described the investment as its largest to date in facilities dedicated to LTO tape and said it is intended to strengthen supply to customers as demand for data archiving grows. Fujifilm linked the demand increase to the spread of generative artificial intelligence and cloud services, which are generating larger volumes of data. The company said magnetic tape is used by major cloud service providers and data-center operators to store large amounts of information over long periods at low cost. Tape can also be physically separated from networks, a characteristic Fujifilm cites as useful in protecting stored data from threats such as ransomware. The announced fivefold target is measured against fiscal 2025 shipment capacity, according to...