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Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware
Technology
Mark Tyson

Tape companies ship 160 exabytes of storage in 2025, AI data demands drive 'unprecedented data growth' — capacity shipped in Q1 2026 rose 57% YOY driven by AI, LTO‑9 momentum, and early LTO‑10 uptake

LTO-10 40TB announcements.

Tape storage companies continue to celebrate substantial growth. The format might seem archaic in the mid 2020s but on Tuesday, the LTO Program Technology Provider Companies (TPCs), HPE, IBM, and Quantum Corp., boasted of capacity shipment growth of 57% YOY, in Q1 2026. You guessed it: AI data center demands have contributed to bumper tape shipments, but so have the requirements for traditional archive workloads and cyber-resilient backups.

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