Kioxia opens sharply lower, down over 16%, as third-quarter business outlook falls short of expectations
Kioxia, Japan's leading memory chip maker, opened sharply lower on November 2, falling 16.74% to 11,215 yen per share as of publication, with a market capitalization of 21.52 trillion yen, down 64% from its peak of 60 trillion yen in late June. Kioxia's fiscal 2026 second-quarter financial report released on October 30 showed quarterly revenue of about 2.48 trillion yen, up 453.2% year on year, but its third-quarter operating profit outlook of 2 trillion yen was below analysts' expectation of 2.35 trillion yen. Sigmaintell data shows that NAND price increases slowed in October and structural mismatches emerged: 512G SSD prices rose 12% month on month, while 256GB UFS rose only 5.2%, and the market is shifting from broad-based price increases to structural increases driven by computing power.
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From Kioxia's financial report and the divergence in NAND prices, see how AI computing demand is pushing memory price increases into a structural market.
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Kioxia Holdings (Kioxia), Japan's leading memory chip maker, plunged at the open on November 2, falling 16.74% to 11,215 yen per share as of the time of writing, with a market value of 21.52 trillion yen.
Compared with its peak market value of 60 trillion yen in late June this year, Kioxia's current market value has fallen by 64%. Behind this are its fiscal 2026 third-quarter (October-December) business outlook coming in below expectations, slowing memory price growth, and external concerns over whether high levels of AI investment can be sustained.
Kioxia's fiscal 2026 second-quarter (July-September) financial report released on October 30 showed quarterly revenue of about 2.48 trillion yen, up 453.2% year on year, and adjusted operating profit of about 1.99 trillion yen, up 2,181% year on year; however, its fiscal third-quarter (October-December) business outlook of 2 trillion yen in operating profit is below analysts' expectation of 2.35 trillion yen, and its performance growth will shift from a steep upward trajectory to essentially flat.
Kioxia's main product is NAND (flash memory). Data from Sigmaintell shows that the pace of memory price increases slowed in October this year, and a structural mismatch appeared in NAND prices: the surge in AI computing demand pushed the price of 512G SSDs (solid-state drives) up 12% month on month from September, while the price of 256GB UFS (Universal Flash Storage), mainly used in consumer electronics, rose only 5.2% month on month from September.
Sigmaintell pointed out that a divergence has emerged within NAND: "enterprise-grade volumes and prices are rising together, while consumer-grade volumes and prices are under pressure." Mobile phone brands, facing high costs, have taken the initiative to cut inventories and reduce procurement, and the momentum for mobile NAND price increases has been noticeably suppressed. In the fourth quarter of 2026, the memory market will shift from "across-the-board price increases" to "computing-power-driven structural price increases."
A veteran observer of the memory industry told a Yicai reporter on October 30 that Google's latest financial report showed its free cash flow turning from positive to negative, and the industry is worried about whether Google and other cloud service providers will be able to continue making high levels of AI investment in the future.