[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] Japan's NAND flash maker Kioxia Holdings is accelerating its push into the high-performance memory market by starting sample shipments of next-generation memory for AI data centres. The company plans to pursue mass production using cutting-edge production facilities at its Kitakami plant in Iwate prefecture, while gradually increasing capacity in line with rising demand.

ITmedia, an online outlet, reported on Sunday that Kioxia said it has begun shipping customer samples of its next-generation memory produced at the second manufacturing unit at the Kitakami plant. It plans to move into full-scale mass production after customer performance evaluations.

The product is high-performance memory targeting data centre demand that is surging as AI spreads. Kioxia said it increased data processing speed by about 33 percent compared with existing products and improved power efficiency. It is being assessed as aiming at both large-scale data processing required by AI servers and demand for reduced power use.

Production will use the latest equipment at the second manufacturing unit at the Kitakami plant. The facility broke ground in 2022 and began operating in September last year, and it has state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment supporting the entire semiconductor process and an automated logistics system. Wafers and products in production are handled in an unmanned production system that moves them automatically along internal rails.

Kioxia also presented an output expansion strategy as it opened the second manufacturing unit to the media for the first time on Sunday. Once the second manufacturing unit is fully operational, capacity at the Kitakami plant is expected to expand to about twice the level of when the first manufacturing unit was operating alone.

The company plans to increase output by sequentially installing equipment in production areas that are not yet operating, in line with market conditions. It aims to flexibly expand supply capacity in response to increased investment in AI data centres and cloud infrastructure.

Kioxia also left open the possibility of additional investment. It said it could consider building a third manufacturing unit if future market demand rises more than expected. That would mean strengthening its mid- to long-term production base in line with growing memory demand in the AI era.

Kioxia President Hiroo Ota (오타 히로오) said, "The use of AI is expanding rapidly," and added, "I want to respond to market growth by expanding production at the second manufacturing unit."

The industry sees competition intensifying in the NAND flash and high-performance storage device market as investment in AI servers and data centres continues to expand. Kioxia's sample shipment is expected to go beyond a simple new product unveiling and become a starting point for a strategy to expand production bases and strengthen supply chains for the AI era.