Stephanie Hughes

So what does that mean for our digital memories?

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Stephanie Hughes.

As tech companies rush to build data centers to power their AI models, they're eating up power, money, and also memory.

Specifically, memory chips.

The research firm IDC says demand from data centers has driven up prices for these chips and that we're dealing with an unprecedented memory chip shortage.

That has knock-on effects for other devices that need these chips, including smartphones, PCs, and external hard drives.

The company Western Digital said on its most recent earnings call that it's pretty much sold out of hard drives already for the year.

This is causing problems for anyone who wants to preserve data, including those who do it for a living.

Linda Todich leads the company Digital Bedrock.

She works to preserve the archives of museums, libraries, movie and TV studios.

I asked her how the memory shortage is affecting her work.

What are your clients saying about the memory shortage?

We'll be right back.

You're listening to Marketplace Tech.

I'm Stephanie Hughes.

We're back with Linda Todich, archivist and CEO of Digital Bedrock.

What advice do you have for people who want to make sure they don't lose old photos or years of audio recordings, let's say, asking for a friend?

That's archivist Linda Todich with the company Digital Bedrock.

Daniel Shin produced this episode.