According to Japanese media reports, KIOXIA will invest 36 billion yen (approximately 230 million US dollars) in the next three years to develop CXL (Compute Express Link) memory for AI. The Japanese government will subsidize up to 50% of the cost, with the goal of achieving commercialization between 2030-2034.

Compared with NAND Flash, CXL has faster read speed; Compared with DRAM, CXL is more energy-efficient, and DRAM loses data in the event of a power outage. CXL can retain a large amount of data even in the event of a power outage, which can reduce the power consumption during AI driving.

According to ChinaFlashMarket data, KIOXIA ranked as the world's third largest NAND flash factory in the second quarter of this year with a market share of 15.3%. However, KIOXIA only has NAND Flash and has not benefited from AI opportunities or the rapidly increasing demand for DRAM product lines. Therefore, KIOXIA intends to change its business structure of "NAND only" by developing next-generation memory. At present, other original storage manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron, etc. have already laid out CXL.