Microsoft has announced a major breakthrough in long-term data storage, revealing a technology that can encode digital information into everyday glass and preserve it for up to 10,000 years. The advance comes from its Project Silica initiative, which uses ultra-precise femtosecond lasers to write data deep inside glass.
Traditional storage media such as hard drives and magnetic tapes degrade within decades, making them unsuitable for preserving information across centuries. Glass, however, is chemically stable and resistant to heat, water, radiation, and electromagnetic interference, making it an ideal candidate for permanent storage, according to a press release.
Until now, this method required fused silica, a rare and expensive form of glass. Microsoft’s latest breakthrough enables the same technology to work with common borosilicate glass, the same material used in cookware and oven doors. This shift dramatically reduces costs and removes a major barrier to commercialization.
The system works by firing ultra-fast laser pulses into the glass, creating microscopic structures called voxels. These voxels store data in multiple dimensions, allowing hundreds of layers of information to be encoded inside glass just 2 millimeters thick. This means massive amounts of data can be stored in a compact, durable form.
Researchers also introduced a new storage method called phase voxels, which require only a single laser pulse to encode information, increasing speed and efficiency. Combined with multi-beam laser systems, this allows many data points to be written simultaneously, significantly accelerating the process.
Machine learning models help read and decode the stored data accurately, compensating for interference between densely packed data layers. Microsoft also developed accelerated aging tests, which simulate thousands of years of wear, confirming that the data remains intact and readable over extremely long periods.
Unlike conventional storage devices, glass storage has no moving parts and does not require electricity to maintain the data. Once written, the information remains permanently stored without degradation.
This technology could transform archival storage for governments, museums, scientific institutions, and cloud providers, ensuring critical records survive for millennia. It also offers a solution to one of the biggest challenges facing the digital age: preserving humanity’s knowledge far beyond the lifespan of today’s storage hardware.
