Ceramic long-term storage company Cerabyte has secured investment from storage solutions manufacturer Western Digital.

No financial details regarding the investment have been revealed, but Cerebyte said the partnership will allow it to accelerate the development of its ceramic storage offering.

It marks the second strategic investment secured by Cerabyte in 2025. In March, the company announced In-Q-Tel, a venture firm funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had also invested an undisclosed amount in the company.

To date, Cerabyte has raised around $7.7 million. It has previously secured funding from Pure Storage and the European Union’s EIC Accelerator.

The startup is developing a ceramic storage system it says can last more than 5,000 years. The company deposits a ceramic nanolayer on a thin substrate, using laser pulses to write data on the layer. It previously said it aimed to launch a 1PB rack demo system in 2024, a 5PB per rack system by 2025, and as much as 100PB per rack in 2028-30.

It competes with Microsoft's Project Silica, which instead uses lasers to embed data within silica glass. DCD profiled that technology in a previous magazine, with the feature itself set to last 10,000 years.

“Our ceramic data storage offers a vital, complementary long-term data storage layer that ensures rapid data retrieval—often within seconds—unlocking new revenue streams,” said Christian Pflaum, co-founder and CEO of Cerabyte.

“We are excited to be working with Western Digital to define a technology partnership, fueling our ability to deliver accessible permanent storage solutions at scale.”