Kioxia to Mass Produce 9th-Gen NAND by FY2025

According to reports, Kioxia, a leading Japanese memory manufacturer, has announced that it will begin mass production of its next-generation 9th-generation BiCS FLASH 3D NAND within the current fiscal year, ending March 2026. Sample shipments of the 512Gb TLC (Triple-Level Cell) product are already underway.

This new generation leverages a 120-layer stack architecture, combining the fifth-gen BiCS FLASH platform with advanced CMOS technology to significantly improve performance and efficiency. Compared to the previous generation, the write speed has increased by 61%, read speed by 12%, while write and read power efficiency have been boosted by 36% and 27%, respectively. Additionally, it supports the new Toggle DDR6.0 interface, enabling a data transfer rate of 3.6Gbps.

Production is being carried out at Kioxia's Yokkaichi Plant, with a focus on applications such as smartphones and high-performance mobile devices.

Looking further ahead, Kioxia revealed its mid-to-long-term business plan in June, aiming to double its production capacity by FY2029 (compared to FY2024). This expansion will focus on NAND Flash for AI-driven data centers, with investment and production ramp-ups at both the Yokkaichi and Kitakami facilities.

Notably, Kitakami Plant’s second building (K2) is scheduled to begin operations in September, primarily producing the 8th-gen BiCS8 NAND. Kioxia plans to increase BiCS8 output and aims for it to surpass current-gen products in revenue by March 2026.