Microsoft develops glass storage retaining data for millennia

Microsoft Research has announced a glass-based data-storage system that remains readable for at least 10,000 years.

• Main announcement: Microsoft Research (Project Silica team) demonstrated a borosilicate-glass archival storage system that stores 4.8 terabytes on a 12-cm wide, 2-mm thick square and is predicted to remain readable for ≥10,000 years at 290 ºC and potentially tens to hundreds of times longer at room temperature. The system writes data by using femtosecond, high-energy laser pulses to create nanoscale deformations and reads data with microscopy.
• Background and implementation details: The work is presented as a complete, deployable archival system (paper published in Nature, 18 February 2026). It uses cheaper borosilicate glass (rather than fused silica), builds on prior optoelectronics research (including Guinness World Record work on fused silica), and emphasizes faster writing and more reliable decoding compared with earlier Project Silica iterations. No pricing, commercial deployment schedule, or purchase agreements are specified in the article.