Kioxia
More info
- Released
- 2017 (as Toshiba Memory)
- Type
- Memory manufacturer
- Predecessor
- Toshiba's memory division
Toshiba's former memory division — the very operation where NAND flash was invented, sold off to rescue its parent.
Flash memory was invented by Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in the 1980s, and the NAND variant went on to underpin everything from memory cards to SSDs. When Toshiba needed to cover the losses from its nuclear subsidiary Westinghouse in 2017, it carved out the memory business as Toshiba Memory and sold it the following year to a Bain Capital-led consortium for roughly $18 billion. The Kioxia name arrived in 2019.
The fabs in Yokkaichi and Kitakami are run jointly with SanDisk, formerly part of Western Digital, and the stacked 3D process is called BiCS. Kioxia competes with Samsung, SK hynix and Micron, and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 2024.