Kioxia’s quarterly net profit surges more than 45-fold as AI drives demand
Focus: Second-quarter 2026 earnings from U.S.-listed companies. The global race to build AI data centers is significantly boosting chipmakers’ results, with memory-chip prices rising particularly sharply. Kioxia, a Japanese chipmaker, said Friday that strong demand fueled by AI drove its quarterly net profit up more than 45-fold year over year. Kioxia primarily makes NAND flash memory chips. AI assistants used in real-world applications require vast amounts of storage, making NAND flash a sought-after product. For the April-to-June quarter, Kioxia reported net profit of 842.2 billion yen (equivalent to $5.3 billion), compared with just 18.3 billion yen a year earlier. Operating profit was 1.3 trillion yen, up approximately 2,700% from the same period last year. Both results were below the market expectations reported from a survey of Bloomberg economists. Technology stocks have been highly volatile recently. Investors have swung between optimism about the long-term durability of AI demand and concern that current valuations have become detached from fundamentals. Kioxia’s share price has been cut in half over the past month, but it remains up nearly 1,500% for the year. In June, the company’s market capitalization briefly became the largest among Japan-listed companies. South Korea’s two leading high-end memory-chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, have faced a similar environment. AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, has surged, lifting profits at both companies sharply. Samsung and SK hynix both reported eye-catching profit growth this week, while their shares also experienced sharp swings. SK hynix rose 30% in Friday’s session, helped by its parent company’s chairman buying approximately $3 million of the company’s stock. After the stock’s earlier sharp decline, the executive’s purchase was viewed by the market as a strong vote of confidence. Kioxia was formerly Toshiba Memory. Toshiba Group, which was then in a severe financial crisis, spun off and sold the pioneering memory-chip business in 2018, leading to Kioxia’s independence. Kioxia said it plans to follow SK hynix and seek a U.S. listing. SK hynix completed its Wall Street listing this month, and the fundraising from its IPO ranked among the largest in history.
The global race to build AI data centers is significantly boosting chipmakers’ results, with memory-chip prices rising particularly sharply.
Kioxia, a Japanese chipmaker, said Friday that strong demand fueled by AI drove its quarterly net profit up more than 45-fold year over year.
Kioxia primarily makes NAND flash memory chips. AI assistants used in real-world applications require vast amounts of storage, making NAND flash a sought-after product.
For the April-to-June quarter, Kioxia reported net profit of 842.2 billion yen (equivalent to $5.3 billion), compared with just 18.3 billion yen a year earlier. Operating profit was 1.3 trillion yen, up approximately 2,700% from the same period last year.
Both results were below the market expectations reported from a survey of Bloomberg economists.
Technology stocks have been highly volatile recently. Investors have swung between optimism about the long-term durability of AI demand and concern that current valuations have become detached from fundamentals.
Kioxia’s share price has been cut in half over the past month, but it remains up nearly 1,500% for the year. In June, the company’s market capitalization briefly became the largest among Japan-listed companies.
South Korea’s two leading high-end memory-chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, have faced a similar environment. AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, has surged, lifting profits at both companies sharply.
Samsung and SK hynix both reported eye-catching profit growth this week, while their shares also experienced sharp swings. SK hynix rose 30% in Friday’s session, helped by its parent company’s chairman buying approximately $3 million of the company’s stock. After the stock’s earlier sharp decline, the executive’s purchase was viewed by the market as a strong vote of confidence.
Kioxia was formerly Toshiba Memory. Toshiba Group, which was then in a severe financial crisis, spun off and sold the pioneering memory-chip business in 2018, leading to Kioxia’s independence.
Kioxia said it plans to follow SK hynix and seek a U.S. listing. SK hynix completed its Wall Street listing this month, and the fundraising from its IPO ranked among the largest in history.