Japan is further building its role in global chip manufacturing. On Thursday, Sandisk and Kioxia Holdings said they plan to invest over $31 billion in the country to expand their joint venture and increase flash memory supply.
Sandisk shares dipped a bit on Thursday, giving up some of the gains from the previous day. Meanwhile, AI-related stocks rose after Nvidia reported strong quarterly results, which helped lift the Nasdaq Composite.
Apart from the overall market boost, the Japan investment news was a key reason for Sandisk’s recent headlines. Flash memory supply is still tight as AI demand grows, so Sandisk and Tokyo-based Kioxia said their planned investment through 2032 aims to strengthen their partnership in memory production. They also said the spending depends on government support.
In a joint statement, SanDisk and Kioxia said they are committed to increasing memory output over several years and maintaining steady supply to meet strong demand for their flash memory technology. They said the planned investment will help the joint venture succeed in the long term and deliver new flash memory products at scale. Their partnership has already been important in the development of NAND flash memory, which is used for long-term data storage. This differs from DRAM memory, which is primarily used for temporary data processing in servers.
This announcement is part of a larger trend of Japan becoming a major center for memory chip manufacturing again. In July, Israel-based Tower Semiconductor also said it would invest $3 billion in Japan, with help from a $1 billion government grant, to increase its chip production there.
