# LTO tape capacity shipments rise 57% in first quarter

_Wednesday, September 2, 2026 at 9:24 AM EDT · Infrastructure · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![LTO tape capacity shipments rise 57% in first quarter — Primary](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/m9nvZqmoiRM8EdYGJMuUrn-1920-80.jpg)

LTO program companies HPE, IBM and Quantum reported that tape-storage capacity shipped in the first quarter of 2026 rose 57% from a year earlier. The companies had shipped 160.3 exabytes of compressed LTO capacity in 2025, down 9% year on year but second only to 2024 in their historical totals. The report cited AI data-center demand alongside archive workloads and cyber-resilient backups; uptake of LTO-9 and an early LTO-10 ramp also contributed.

## Sources

- [Tom's Hardware](https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/tape-companies-ship-160-exabytes-of-storage-in-2025-ai-data-demands-drive-unprecedented-data-growth-capacity-shipped-in-q1-2026-rose-57-percent-yoy-driven-by-ai-lto-9-momentum-and-early-lto-10-uptake)

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Retrieved: 2026-09-03T20:29:24.754Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)