Kioxia has reported its financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2024, ending June 30th. The company's revenue reached 428.5 billion yen (approximately $2.75 billion), marking a 33% increase from the previous quarter and setting a new historical high for quarterly revenue. Operating profit stood at 125.9 billion yen (about $810 million), surging by 187% quarter-over-quarter, while net profit reached 69.8 billion yen (around $450 million), growing by 578% QoQ. However, the net loss of 103.1 billion yen from the same period last year has not been offset. Kioxia attributes the correction of the supply-demand imbalance to the normalization of customer inventory and the recovery of demand.

In detail, Kioxia's NAND Flash shipments saw a low double-digit growth QoQ in the first fiscal quarter of 2024, with the average selling price of NAND Flash increasing by about 20% in yen and roughly 15% in USD.

On the product and technology front, Kioxia launched the industry's highest capacity 2Tb QLC flash memory using the latest BiCS FLASH™ technology, elevating storage devices to a new capacity point for various application fields, including AI. The eighth-generation BiCS FLASH™ 1Tb TLC began mass production in July this year, achieving significant leaps in performance, density, and cost-effectiveness by applying the CBA (CMOS Bonding to Array) technology.

Additionally, Kioxia's Kitakami Factory Fab2 (K2) in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, was completed in July. With the recovery in demand, the company will gradually make capital investments while closely monitoring flash memory market trends, planning to commence operations at K2 in the fall of 2025.

Reports suggest that due to the semiconductor market recovery and improving financial performance, Kioxia plans to restart the listing process and may go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange within this year.

For the future market outlook, Kioxia remains confident in the growth potential of the flash memory market, driven by increasing demand for AI applications and per-unit storage capacity. Although the PC market is still in a weak recovery phase, demand for smartphones is gradually recovering. The surge in AI function models on terminal devices, the growth in per-unit storage capacity, and updates to operating systems are expected to increase replacement demand.

In terms of server and enterprise SSD demand, the normalization of customer inventory and strong demand for AI are driving an increase in demand for data centers and enterprise SSDs. In addition to high-density, large-capacity SSDs for AI applications, the demand for general-purpose servers is also expected to rise.

Kioxia states that it will optimize production according to market conditions, manage operating expenses and manufacturing costs, and strive to achieve efficient business operations.