Kioxia Holdings and SanDisk will invest over 5 trillion yen ($31.4 billion) to expand flash memory production in Japan. The investment program spans six years. Surging demand for artificial intelligence and data center chips drives the expansion.
The partners will build a new fabrication plant, Fab3, at the Kitakami site in Iwate Prefecture. This facility will mass-produce high-density 3D NAND flash memory for AI servers and cloud data centers. The project remains contingent on receiving support from the Japanese government.
Kioxia shares rose 5% in Tokyo following the announcement. The move aims to maintain competitiveness against rivals Samsung and SK Hynix. Both competitors have recently announced their own significant capacity expansions.