Nobuo Hayasaka
President and CEO
Kioxia Holdings Corporation

The foundation of our business lies in NAND flash memory, which was developed by our predecessor, Toshiba, in 1987. Since then, Kioxia has pioneered numerous world firsts, including the development of 3D flash memory—BiCS FLASH™— announced in 2007, which unlocked new innovation for the advancement of the digital society.

In 2018 we became independent from the Toshiba Group, and in 2019 we rebranded as Kioxia. Our continued growth culminated in our listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market in December 2024. This milestone is a significant achievement for our Group. As a leader, I felt immense pride celebrating this accomplishment with our employees.

While our listing marks a new beginning as a publicly traded company, I am keenly aware of the heightened expectations of our stakeholders. We are firmly committed to meeting these expectations through continuous growth and enhancement of our corporate value.

In fiscal 2024 we achieved record highs in revenue, non-GAAP operating profit, and non-GAAP net income since becoming independent from Toshiba in 2018, driven by recovered demand and growing sales of data center and enterprise SSDs.

While our performance was solid in 2020 due to a surge in PC and smartphone demand driven by the pandemic, the market downturn from 2022 to 2023 brought unprecedented challenges.

In response, we took swift action, leading the industry in adjusting production and reducing costs, while consolidating our R&D functions to strengthen our technology development for the future. Then, in fiscal 2024, as demand rebounded amid the rapid rise of generative AI, we improved our performance significantly, supported by strong growth in data center and enterprise SSD sales.

We expect generative AI to be a key driver of future growth in flash memory. As generative AI becomes more widely adopted in smartphones, PCs, and data centers, we anticipate sharp rises in demand for high-capacity, high-speed, and low power consumption flash memory and SSDs. Industry research forecasts 26% annual growth in flash memory demand for data centers, including significant growth focused on AI inference servers. By 2029, AI servers are predicted to account for more than 40% of flash memory demand.*

To seize these promising opportunities, we will focus on developing highly competitive products, enhancing our production capabilities, and making timely and strategic investments to ensure growth.

Our Group’s long-term competitiveness and growth are underpinned by three core strengths: technology, scale, and partnerships. Furthermore, all of these strengths are supported by the exceptional quality of our workforce.

First, technology: Since the invention of NAND flash memory, we have led the industry in further breakthroughs. We have driven progress with developments such as our BiCS FLASH™ 3D flash memory, introduction of CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, and development of emerging memory and storage technologies. We are steadfastly committed to strengthening our position as a technology leader.

Second, scale: Through close collaboration between our advanced Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants, as well as our joint venture with Sandisk now spanning some 25 years, we produce approximately 30% of the world’s flash memory.

Third, partnerships: We have cultivated strong relationships with global leaders in smartphones, PCs, servers, and semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers—a critical competitive strength for our Group.

In addition, we support these strengths with our diverse workforce of highly skilled professionals in R&D, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. Recruiting and developing top talent are key priorities. As a business leader, I have always emphasized recruitment and employee development, and I am committed to maintaining open communication with our employees and cultivating future generations of talent to ensure our long-term growth.

Going forward, we are determined to build on our strengths in technology, scale, and partnerships by fostering collaboration among people with diverse skills and backgrounds, ultimately to create a virtuous cycle of sustainable growth.

The Kioxia mission of “uplifting the world with ‘memory’” reflects our profound belief in the transformative power of data. The digital era has seen continuous growth in data generation and processing, driven by innovations in fields such as digital cameras, smartphones, and internet services. Our flash memory and SSD products have played integral roles in this evolution, and our flash memory technology has advanced alongside the progress of digital society. We take great pride in these contributions.

A primary key to our success was our ability to correctly position Kioxia by anticipating a shift from simply storing data to using it in highly innovative ways, including through futuristic technologies such as generative AI that are now a reality.

As AI adoption accelerates, Kioxia is determined to provide a foundation for advanced, diverse data utilization, which we believe will contribute to a more sustainable world. For example, as the demand for data centers surges, energy consumption is becoming an increasingly critical challenge. By developing low power consumption products, we will address this environmental concern. In addition, through memory innovation, we want to support a more sustainable world, make everyday life more convenient, and create a future filled with uplifting experiences.

As a technology leader in memory, we are committed to strengthening our engagement with stakeholders and incorporating their feedback into our business, ultimately for enhanced corporate value and further growth. This year marks the launch of our Integrated Report, which we intend to use as a key tool for transparent communication.

We hope you will take this opportunity to learn more about our efforts and embrace our vision of “uplifting the world with ‘memory.’” We look forward to your continued interest and support of Kioxia’s efforts to drive innovation and create value for the global community.