Microsoft Stores Data in Glass That Could Last 10,000 Years
Project Silica uses lasers to etch data into glass, with tests suggesting storage durability measured in millennia.
Microsoft's Project Silica team has pulled back the curtain on its glass-based storage technology. The concept: use lasers to modify glass at a structural level, encoding data that tests suggest could survive for at least 10,000 years.
That's not a typo. Ten thousand years. For context, that's roughly twice the age of the Egyptian pyramids.
The team says the tech could fundamentally reshape how we approach data archival and long-term preservation. Humanity's historical record has relied on stone tablets and parchment. Microsoft wants to upgrade that to engineered glass.
Current storage media — hard drives, tape, even SSDs — degrade over years or decades and require constant migration. Project Silica aims to eliminate that cycle entirely with a write-once medium that simply endures.
No word yet on commercial timelines or cost, but the implications for cold storage are massive.