Kioxia Accelerates AI NAND Layout and Launches PCIe 6.0 and UFS 5.0 Products

ChainCatcher report: Japanese NAND manufacturer Kioxia is accelerating its push into the AI NAND market, having already begun mass production this year of its 10th-generation (BiCS 10) 332-layer 3D NAND and launched the PCIe 6.0 data center eSSD “CM10” based on it, achieving up to a 92% improvement in sequential read performance over the previous generation. Additionally, Kioxia plans to begin mass production of UFS 5.0 embedded storage by the end of this year, offering approximately double the data transfer speed compared to UFS 4.1, targeting the edge AI mobile device market. According to TrendForce data, Kioxia held a 13.9% global NAND market share in Q1 this year, ranking third behind Samsung Electronics (31.6%) and SK Hynix (17.6%). South Korean manufacturers are also speeding up their efforts. Samsung began mass production last month of the PCIe 6.0 eSSD “PM1763,” featuring 9th-generation V-NAND and a 4nm controller, with UFS 5.0 scheduled for mass production in the fourth quarter. Samsung has also announced that it will begin mass production this month of its 10th-generation V-NAND (approximately 430 layers), incorporating hybrid bonding and triple-stacking technologies for the first time. Industry analysts believe that while Kioxia is highly competitive in terms of technological iteration speed, its production capacity still lags behind its South Korean counterparts, and competition in the AI storage market is expected to intensify further.