What happened
Kioxia Holdings Corp. projects its April-June net profit will increase 47-fold year-on-year to 869 billion yen ($5.7 billion), driven by surging demand for NAND flash memory chips in AI data centres. The company also reported its net profit for the fiscal year ended March more than doubled to 554.49 billion yen, marking a second consecutive record high. Fiscal 2025 operating profit reached 870.37 billion yen, a 92.7% increase, on 2.34 trillion yen in sales, up 37.0%, per CEO Hiroo Ota. Kioxia plans 450 billion yen in capital spending.
Why it matters
The dramatic profit surge for NAND flash memory producers signals a critical metric shift for data centre procurement teams and investors. AI infrastructure demands are driving memory prices and volumes, creating supply constraints Kioxia expects to extend into 2027. This follows Samsung's recent chip profit surge, indicating sustained pressure on memory component availability and cost for organisations building out AI capabilities.
