Kioxia to Build New NAND Fab with ¥1T Investment

According to Nikkei News, Japanese NAND Flash memory manufacturer Kioxia plans to invest more than 1 trillion yen (approximately $6.27 billion) to build a new NAND Flash wafer fabrication plant at its production site in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.

Driven by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) applications and rising demand for high-performance storage solutions in data centers, Kioxia aims to accelerate its capacity expansion for advanced NAND Flash products through this large-scale investment.

The planned facility will become the third production building at Kioxia’s Kitakami plant, known as K3, and will focus on manufacturing the company’s latest high-density 3D NAND Flash memory chips. The new fab is expected to support growing data processing requirements generated by AI services and large-scale computing workloads.

Kioxia will jointly invest in the project with U.S.-based memory company SanDisk. The investment also aligns with Japan’s strategy to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. Kioxia executives are expected to visit the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office on August 27 to officially announce the new factory construction plan.

The company has already started discussions with semiconductor equipment manufacturers regarding procurement for the new facility. The project is also expected to receive financial support from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as part of the government’s efforts to expand semiconductor production within the country.

This investment represents a key step in Kioxia’s strategy to strengthen its position in the highly competitive global NAND Flash market. Based on revenue scale, Kioxia is currently the world’s third-largest NAND Flash manufacturer, following Samsung Electronics and SK hynix of South Korea. As its Korean rivals continue to announce major investments in memory production, Kioxia’s new fab project is seen as an important move to maintain its market competitiveness.

Meanwhile, Kioxia began shipping its 10th-generation BiCS Flash stacked NAND Flash memory products last month, marking another advancement in its high-density storage technology roadmap.