Kioxia’s Medium- to Long-Term Growth Strategy in the Age of AI

Kioxia Holdings Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced its medium- to long-term growth strategy in the age of AI in its corporate strategy meeting. Kioxia continues to play a key role in information infrastructure through the provision of memory technology and new solutions that support technological innovation in the utilization of data, all while leveraging its engines of growth: technology, production scale, and partnerships with its customers and within the supply chain.

With the spread of generative AI, the flash memory market is expected to grow due to increased demand for high-performance, large-capacity SSDs required for inference systems in which various users utilize AI, as well as due to the increasing ratio of smartphones and PCs equipped with AI. By 2029, almost half of NAND demand is projected to be AI-related. SSDs are a crucial infrastructure technology that underpins AI systems, because they securely store vast amounts of data and programs that are then rapidly supplied to the system.

Kioxia is committed to technology leadership through innovation, leveraging its competitive devices to meet the diversifying need for high-performance, high-capacity storage with low power consumption.

Kioxia aims to grow its SSD businesses through advanced SSD products and technologies that support the evolving demands of AI systems. Kioxia is developing the KIOXIA CM9 series, KIOXIA LC9 series and other series as its latest SSDs lineup using the 8th generation BiCS FLASH™. The KIOXIA CM9 series is a high performance SSD for AI systems designed to maximize GPU capabilities that require both high performance and high reliability. The KIOXIA LC9 series is a large capacity SSD, achieving 122TB, suited for use cases such as large databases used in inference. Leveraging a fusion of flash memory technology and SSD technology, including in-house SSD controllers and SSD firmware, and drawing on its knowledge and experience with enterprise applications, Kioxia continue to advance its SSDs and aim to grow its market share.

The 8th generation BiCS FLASH™ achieves industry-leading interface speed and power efficiency by incorporating CBA technology and it is used in memory products for high-performance, high-capacity SSDs and AI-equipped smartphones. Currently, Kioxia is increasing its production of the 8th generation BiCS FLASH™ line of products. Kioxia is pursuing a dual-axis strategy to develop competitive products and offer market while maintaining investment efficiency while addressing the needs advanced applications. Kioxia is advancing development along two axes: one that increases the number of layers in a conventional way, delivering large capacity and high-performance product lines including the 10th generation BiCS FLASH™, another product lines including The 9th generation BiCS FLASH™ that fully leverages CBA technology by combining existing cell technology with the latest CMOS technology to enable high performance with reduced investment costs.

Kioxia will also open up new markets by offering new memory devices and memory solutions to meet the demand for AI which is requiring higher speed and higher performance. For example, Kioxia is developing a Super High IOPS SSD to deliver over 10 million IOPS, by combining XL-FLASH (in mass production) with a new SSD controller. Kioxia plans to ship samples of this SSD in the second half of 2026.

Through disciplined capital investment and the strategic allocation of resources, Kioxia will steadily increase its profitability and improve its overall financial position. Kioxia will maintain the discipline required to keep its capital expenditures below 20% of revenue and invest appropriately in line with market trends. Kioxia’s Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants boast high productivity powered by big data and AI technology and produce cost-competitive products. Regarding back-end factories, Kioxia will strategically scale up operations in Japan to support the increasing sophistication of back-end technologies. Kioxia will maintain its R&D spending at 8-9% of revenue, focusing on the SSD business and next-generation device development. In regards to human resources, Kioxia will also strengthen its R&D and production by hiring about 700 people each year.

As stated in its long-term financial model announced in November 2024, Kioxia aims to achieve an average operating income in the mid 20% range by increasing the sales ratio of SSDs and by reducing the unit cost per gigabyte. In terms of financial stability, Kioxia aims to achieve a net debt to EBITDA ratio of less than 1.0 in the medium term and a net cash position in long term. 

Based on its mission of “uplifting the world with ‘memory,’” Kioxia makes its contribution to society—one that is data-enabled—by providing essential products and services, aiming to increase its corporate value by means of continuous growth.

For details, please refer to the presentation materials (already posted) and video (in preparation) on the Kioxia Holdings website, under “Investor Relations”.