Marketplace All-in-One Digital archiving and the global memory shortage
Mar 3, 2026
Linda Tadic, digital archivist and founder of Digital Bedrock, helps museums, libraries and media preserve fragile digital collections. She discusses the global memory chip shortage and its ripple effects on archival purchasing. She warns about large data centers crowding out access. She outlines practical approaches for keeping digital materials usable over the long term.
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AI Data Centers Are Causing A Memory Shortage
- Demand from data centers building AI models is driving up memory chip prices and causing an unprecedented shortage.
- IDC reports hyperscalers' appetite for memory has reduced supply for smartphones, PCs, and external hard drives, raising costs and scarcity.
Archivist Bought Hard Drives To Hedge Shortage
- Linda Tadic personally bought up available hard drives to provision her servers amid scarcity.
- She warns the market is tilting toward hyperscalers who will control storage and processing as smaller players lose access.
Make Five Copies And Migrate Files Regularly
- Do keep multiple copies of family archives and migrate them to new media over time.
- Tadic recommends at least five copies stored with different family members and regular maintenance and migration to avoid loss.