Kioxia pursues U.S. listing; NAND competition with SK hynix

Kioxia Holdings, a Japanese NAND flash memory company, said it plans to list American depositary shares (ADSs) on the U.S. stock market. The company explained that the aim is to broaden its investor base and increase its corporate value. The market targeted for the listing is the United States.

Kioxia is a major NAND flash memory producer in Japan. NAND flash is a type of memory used in smartphones, servers and storage devices. It is a semiconductor that retains data even when the power is off.

Kioxia forecast operating profit for the coming 2quarter at 1trillion3one hundred billion yen, 82million dollars. These figures are the company's own forecast. The company announced this forecast alongside its U.S. listing plan.

The previous 1quarter's operating profit was 5thousand968hundred million yen. Based on the figures disclosed by the company, 2the quarterly forecast is higher. Operating profit is the money left from a company's core business after expenses are subtracted from revenue.

Kioxia's moves also have implications for Korean semiconductor investors. Kioxia competes with SK hynix in the NAND flash market. Samsung Electronics is also a major NAND flash producer.

NAND memory has been cited as the next area that could benefit from demand for artificial intelligence. As the number of AI servers grows, demand for memory used to store data may also increase. The planned listing adds another benchmark for comparing NAND makers.