Kioxia Plans Major Expansion of NAND Memory Production

According to reports, NAND Flash and SSD manufacturer Kioxia announced its mid-term business strategy during its Corporate Strategy Briefing held on June 5, 2025. As part of its roadmap, Kioxia plans to double its memory production capacity in Japan (measured by storage volume) by fiscal year 2029 (April 2029 to March 2030) compared to fiscal year 2024.

Kioxia's two primary NAND production sites in Japan—the Kitakami Plant in Iwate Prefecture and the Yokkaichi Plant in Mie Prefecture—are central to this expansion. The second facility at Kitakami (known as K2) is scheduled to begin full-scale operations in September 2025, with new equipment installations already underway to increase output capacity.

The company is also focusing on expanding production of its cutting-edge 8th-generation NAND flash memory. Kioxia expects this new generation to account for a larger share of its sales by the end of March 2026, driven by growing demand in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.

In addition, Kioxia plans to begin mass production of next-generation Storage Class Memory (SCM) in the second half of 2026. This advanced memory technology offers faster read/write speeds than traditional NAND and provides greater storage capacity than DRAM currently used in AI chips. SCM will enter mass production after passing evaluation stages with leading AI chip manufacturers.

To address geopolitical risks and enhance supply chain resilience, Kioxia is considering relocating part of its backend manufacturing operations—currently based in China—to Southeast Asia. The company is also planning to scale up backend processing capabilities within Japan to support next-generation technologies.