NAND is transforming from a cyclical commodity back into a critical component of AI infrastructure. Structural shifts in demand are driving up prices and valuations, simultaneously thrusting Kioxia and SanDisk—once considered part of a secondary tier—into the spotlight. As AI workloads shift from training to inference, the deployment of SSDs in AI data centers is expanding, leading to a surge in data center procurement of NAND flash memory. This trend has created a window of market opportunity for non-traditional leading manufacturers. Kioxia and SanDisk have maintained a deep collaboration for over 25 years. Through joint ventures and co-development, the two companies share the burden of costly equipment and R&D expenditures, leveraging economies of scale to dilute costs. In terms of technological roadmaps, SanDisk is focusing on integrating HBF into products from NVIDIA, AMD, and Google. Kioxia, meanwhile, is placing greater emphasis on achieving performance leaps on the SSD front.
AI Demand Creates a Breakthrough According to reports, as AI workloads transition from training to inference and SSD deployment in AI data centers widens, NAND is encountering a new source of demand momentum. For investors, this signifies that the prosperity of the NAND market is no longer solely dependent on the fluctuations of traditional consumer electronics but is increasingly tied to capital expenditures and architectural evolution on the data center side. This trend provides a critical opportunity for Kioxia and SanDisk. In the traditional market landscape, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have long held dominant positions. However, the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure has created a massive supply gap. To ensure supply chain stability, data center operators are now actively seeking diversified supplier portfolios. Data from TrendForce shows that in the third quarter of 2025, Samsung led with a 32.3% share, followed by SK Hynix at 19.3%. Kioxia ranked next with 15.3%, surpassing Micron, while SanDisk held 12.4%. The influence of these two companies within the global NAND landscape is on the rise.
Technological Alliance Lays the Foundation Kioxia and SanDisk have sustained a deep partnership for more than 25 years. The two companies operate NAND production bases in Japan, such as those in Yokkaichi and Kitakami, which are among the largest NAND flash manufacturing sites globally. Technologically, the partners have jointly developed BiCS FLASH 3D NAND, which has now reached the 8th generation, BiCS8 (218 layers). Reports indicate that products from the 10th generation, exceeding 300 layers, are planned to enter production in 2026. Amid capital expenditure pressures, the significance of this joint model lies in cost dilution. It is reported that through joint ventures and collaborative development, the two companies share the costs of expensive equipment and R&D spending, using scale effects to compete against the Korean memory giants.
Divergent Market Focuses, Betting on Different Tech Paths Regarding market focus, reports suggest that Kioxia and SanDisk have clearly diverged. Kioxia primarily supplies Japanese and global large-scale electronics manufacturers, while SanDisk dominates the consumer storage market and holds a strong position in the enterprise SSD sector in North America and overseas. On the technology roadmap, while HBM is constrained by capacity and cost, NAND is optimizing AI architecture through two technical paths: HBF (High-Capacity Buffer) and AI SSD (intelligent pre-processing). Reports state that SanDisk is targeting the integration of HBF into products from NVIDIA, AMD, and Google by late 2027 to early 2028. It is reported that HBF uses TSV vertical stacking similar to HBM but is based on NAND, offering larger capacity at a lower cost—approximately 10 times the capacity of HBM, though speeds still lag behind HBM. Kioxia is more focused on achieving performance leaps on the SSD side. Reports claim that Kioxia plans to introduce a new type of drive by 2027 with speeds nearly 100 times faster than existing products. In collaboration with NVIDIA for generative AI servers, the product can connect directly to the GPU, partially replacing HBM to enhance GPU memory capacity.
Market Focus: Price Elasticity, Technology Realization, and Alliance Boundaries Against the backdrop of continuously rising AI inference demand, booming NAND demand across the entire supply chain has become the dominant narrative. For the market, Kioxia's market capitalization breaking through 10 trillion yen and SanDisk's aggressive price increase plans have reinforced expectations for a NAND boom and profit recovery. The variables for the next phase concentrate on three points. First, whether price increases can be sustained and translate into profit improvement. Second, whether technological roadmaps like BiCS10, HBF, and ultra-high IOPS SSDs can be realized according to schedule. Third, how Kioxia and SanDisk will manage the boundaries of competition in end markets beyond their shared manufacturing and R&D, to prevent synergy from being eroded by internal friction.
Comments