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Fujifilm puts ¥10 billion into a fivefold tape expansion after LTO shipments fell 9% in 2025

Fujifilm puts ¥10 billion into a fivefold tape expansion after LTO shipments fell 9% in 2025 — Newsmesis editorial illustration
— Newsmesis illustration

What happened

Fujifilm will spend ¥10 billion (about €56 million) between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2028 to raise magnetic tape output at its Odawara plant in Kanagawa, Japan, to five times its fiscal 2025 shipment volume. Most of the new capacity is earmarked for LTO Ultrium 10 cartridges, which businesses use for backup and archives. Industry-wide LTO shipments fell 9% in 2025 to 160.3 exabytes, down from a record 176.5 exabytes in 2024, before rising 57% in the first quarter of 2026.

What we know

The Next Webthenextweb.comThe Registertheregister.com
  • Fujifilm will invest ¥10 billion at its Odawara factory in Kanagawa between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2028 to expand production lines and hire more workers, per The Next Web.
  • The target is a fivefold increase in tape production capacity, measured against the volume Fujifilm shipped in fiscal 2025, per The Next Web; The Register's headline also gives the figure as 5x.
  • Fujifilm says most of the added capacity will go to LTO Ultrium 10 cartridges and calls it its largest investment yet in facilities dedicated to LTO tape, per The Next Web.
  • LTO shipments fell 9% in 2025 to 160.3 exabytes from a record 176.5 exabytes in 2024, then rose 57% in Q1 2026, according to the LTO Program as cited by The Register and relayed by The Next Web.
  • Fujifilm's latest LTO cartridge holds up to 40TB, and the format's roadmap targets 365TB per cartridge, per Fujifilm via The Next Web.

What we don't know yet

  • Whether AI-driven demand will be sustained: tape shipments fell in 2025 before the Q1 2026 rebound, and one quarter does not establish a trend.
  • Fujifilm's absolute production volume and what fivefold means in exabytes or cartridges. The sources give only the multiple against fiscal 2025.
  • How much of the demand comes from AI data centers specifically. Fujifilm says cloud providers and data center operators are using more tape, but the sources give no breakdown.
  • Whether Fujifilm holds the largest share of the global tape market, as it claims. The figure is the company's own estimate.

Why it matters

Tape makers, cloud operators and enterprise IT buyers planning long-term archive and offline-backup capacity get a signal that a major supplier is committing capital to a format that sits outside the memory and disk components AI data centers are straining.

Claims

Why you can trust this story

70%

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  • 2 independent origins / 2 sources
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Verification ledger · 5

  • Claim: Fujifilm will invest ¥10 billion at its Odawara factory between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2028 to expand magnetic tape production.
    Status: ConfirmedVerification trailVerifiedChecked by verification engine

    At least one checkable detail was matched against the full text of the cited source.

  • Claim: Fujifilm aims to raise tape production capacity fivefold relative to its fiscal 2025 shipment volume.
    Status: ConfirmedVerification trailVerifiedChecked by verification engine

    At least one checkable detail was matched against the full text of the cited source.

  • Claim: Global LTO tape shipments fell 9% in 2025 to 160.3 exabytes from 176.5 exabytes in 2024.
    Status: ConfirmedVerification trailVerifiedChecked by verification engine

    At least one checkable detail was matched against the full text of the cited source.

  • Claim: LTO tape shipments rose 57% in the first quarter of 2026.
    Status: ConfirmedVerification trailVerifiedChecked by verification engine

    At least one checkable detail was matched against the full text of the cited source.

  • Claim: Fujifilm holds the largest share of the global magnetic tape market.
    Status: UnconfirmedVerification trailUnverifiedChecked by verification engine

    No automated check against the source text is available.

Update log · 0

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