Wasabi Introduces High-Performance Class and Expands into Silicon Valley to Take on AI’s Rising Data Storage Costs

Wasabi Fire and AI-ready San Jose region give organizations a powerful alternative to hyperscalers, combining speed, simplicity, and predictable pricing for AI workloads

Wasabi Technologies, the Hot Cloud Storage company, expanded further into artificial intelligence with the unveiling of Wasabi Fire, a high-performance storage class that supports AI workloads, available beginning in early 2026. Wasabi has also opened a new storage region in San Jose, Calif., as part of its relationship with IBM Cloud. The milestones reinforce Wasabi’s push to expand its role in AI infrastructure as demand for scalable, high-performance and cost-efficient cloud storage accelerates.

“Object storage is the backbone of AI, but customers shouldn’t have to choose between speed and cost,” said David Friend, co-founder and CEO of Wasabi Technologies. “With Wasabi Fire, we’re delivering NVMe performance at disruptive prices, allowing organizations to cost-effectively store the critical data needed to train AI.”

Wasabi Storage Built for the AI Era

AI development spend has centered on GPUs, but the rapid growth of data lakes has made storage a critical cost driver. Many providers only offer expensive high-performance options, forcing customers to overspend. Wasabi disrupted that model with its flagship HDD-based Hot Cloud Storage, delivering versatile, cost-predictable storage for active workloads. Wasabi Fire will extend the platform with NVMe, SSD-based performance purpose-built for compute-intensive AI and ML training, real-time inference, high-frequency data logging, and media pipelines. Priced at $19.99/terabyte/month with no egress or hidden charges, Wasabi Fire gives customers hyperscale-level performance and durability at a fraction of the cost, enabling GPUs to stay productive and helping organizations get the full return on their AI investments.

The new AI-ready San Jose region, Wasabi’s 16th worldwide, is now operational in the heart of Silicon Valley, one of the world’s leading AI hubs. The Wasabi Fire offering is co-located with IBM infrastructure and built to enable customers to have ultra-high speed storage to drive more complex workloads while addressing latency and bottlenecks for AI training and inference. Organizations can maximize GPU utilization, speed up model development, scale AI workloads and control storage costs. The result is an optimized AI infrastructure stack balancing performance, efficiency, and affordability.

“We’re excited for Wasabi to expand into Silicon Valley with the IBM Cloud San Jose data center,” said Alan Peacock, General Manager of IBM Cloud. “Wasabi Fire on the IBM Cloud is designed to give clients the benefits of IBM’s secured enterprise-grade infrastructure.”

Wasabi now has over three exabytes of data under management, underscoring the scale and reliability of its services. Industry analysts see Wasabi’s trajectory as part of a broader shift in AI infrastructure.

“Wasabi’s momentum reflects a clear demand for simple, predictable cloud storage,” said Dave McCarthy, research vice president at IDC. “By adding a new storage class and expanding into Silicon Valley, Wasabi positions itself as a storage provider aligned to the full lifecycle of AI development while maintaining the simplicity that has defined its growth to date.”

For more information, visit wasabi.com.

About Wasabi Technologies

Recognized as one of the technology industry’s fastest growing companies, Wasabi is on a mission to store the world's data by making cloud storage affordable, predictable and secure. With Wasabi, visionary companies gain the freedom to use their data whenever they like without being hit with unpredictable fees or vendor lock-in. Instead, they’re free to build best-of-breed solutions with the industry’s fastest-growing ecosystem of independent cloud application partners. Customers and partners all over the world trust Wasabi to help them put their data to work so they can unlock their full potential. Visit wasabi.com to learn more.

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