Kioxia Ships 9th-Gen NAND Samples with 30%+ Boost

According to Kioxia, the Japanese semiconductor manufacturer has started shipping samples of its next-generation NAND flash memory chips, which are expected to be used in smartphones, personal computers, and other consumer electronics devices.

NAND flash memory is widely used for long-term data storage. Kioxia said its ninth-generation NAND technology delivers more than a 30% improvement in performance compared with the previous generation.

To reduce manufacturing costs, Kioxia has adopted a cell array structure with fewer stacked layers, making the new NAND flash suitable for cost-sensitive applications such as smartphones and consumer electronics products. The company plans to begin mass production of the new chips next year at its Yokkaichi plant in Mie Prefecture, Japan.

In addition to developing cost-efficient, high-performance NAND solutions, Kioxia is also advancing high-layer-count, high-capacity memory products. Earlier this month, the company announced that it had begun shipping samples of its tenth-generation high-layer-count NAND flash chips.

Kioxia also revealed that it has developed a server solid-state drive (SSD) based on its tenth-generation NAND technology. The new SSD achieves read speeds more than eight times faster than earlier versions and is expected to support artificial intelligence (AI) applications that require high-speed data processing and storage performance.

The company’s latest NAND advancements highlight the growing demand for higher-performance memory solutions driven by AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and next-generation consumer devices.