AI storage squeeze threatens archives

Soaring demand from AI data centers has driven up SSD and hard‑drive prices and created shortages of the large drives archival projects prefer. Nonprofits that preserve the web—like the Internet Archive and Wikimedia—report harder procurement, higher costs, and longer lead times, forcing workarounds and stressing budgets. — If archival capacity is constrained by commercial AI demand, public access to digital history and open knowledge could be degraded, raising questions about industrial priorities, subsidies, and manufacturing policy.