TECH NEWS – This essentially means that one of the major manufacturers’ stock has been tied up, and it’s unclear when we can expect any change.
A senior Kioxia executive recently admitted that the company’s annual production volume has already been sold. In an interview with South Korea’s Digital Daily, Shunsuke Nakato, executive director of Kioxia’s memory manufacturing business, acknowledged this, explaining that the growing demand for memory capacity from the AI industry has resulted in a challenging supply and demand situation. Nakato added that, as many companies continue to invest in AI for fear of falling behind, this situation will likely continue until at least 2027. Although memory supplies are limited, Kioxia appears to be operating under a kind of gentlemen’s agreement with its customers, honoring existing contracts rather than adopting a first-come, first-served or highest-bidder approach. However, Nakato acknowledges that even Kioxia’s long-term customers will face price increases of up to 30% compared to last year.
Nakato was also skeptical about QLC technology. Last year, SK Hynix unveiled the world’s first 321-layer QLC flash memory chip, and Micron announced that it would not completely abandon the consumer market, unveiling its PCIe 5.0 QLC drive, the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD. We may have reported on this as well. Nakato expressed concerns about the technology’s lifespan and performance. He then argued that eighth-generation NAND flash remains superior because it solves these problems at the structural level.
The interview emphasized Kioxia’s substantial production capacity and its plans to address the supply situation by enhancing the operational efficiency of the Yokkaichi and Kitakami factories. The Yokkaichi plant is already one of the world’s largest flash memory manufacturing facilities. However, a second chip factory will operate at full capacity at the Kitakami site later this year.
However, this is unlikely to ease the supply situation significantly in the short term. For instance, even though SK Hynix, the second-largest memory manufacturer, has expedited many of its chip production plans, a substantial improvement in memory supply is not expected in the near future.
Source: PCGamer, Digital Daily
