Kioxia CEO Denies Merger with SK Hynix, Pledges to Curb NAND Price Hikes
nashnova research
Kioxia CEO Hiroo Ota flatly denied merger talks with SK Hynix and told his sales team to hold back on NAND price hikes — protecting long-term AI demand takes priority over short-term pricing gains, a stance that resets the pricing logic for the memory chip industry.
Are Kioxia and SK Hynix actually in merger talks?
Ota was unequivocal: no joint-production negotiations exist. His words: "We can't just say, 'let's make it three.'"
The speculation started when SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won told Asahi Shimbun that manufacturing cooperation was "one option." SK Hynix later clarified — Chey was speaking generally, with no substantive discussions under way.
This means → a merger faces two hard blockers: antitrust review, and the shared manufacturing facilities Kioxia co-owns with Western Digital's SanDisk unit. The path to combining is, for now, closed.
Why would Kioxia voluntarily cap its own prices?
Ota instructed his sales team: do not push aggressive price hikes on data-center operators. The logic is straightforward — overprice now, and customers cut AI investment, shrinking Kioxia's own market.
In plain terms = taking a smaller margin today to keep buyers at the table is a short-term profit for long-term share trade.
Context: Kioxia's average NAND selling price rose 70% quarter-on-quarter in the June quarter; the prior quarter saw increases above 100%. Ota said another 70% quarterly jump is "unlikely."
If prices are capped, can demand still hold up?
Demand remains strong. The world's largest tech firms show no sign of pulling back on NAND procurement; some clients are seeking contracts extending to 2030.
Kioxia is close to hitting its target: 50% of shipments covered by long-term agreements. This means → half of revenue already has certainty, independent of spot-market swings.
Kioxia and SanDisk plan to invest over ¥5 trillion (~$33 billion) to expand capacity at shared Japanese plants. SK Hynix is spending ₩54 trillion (~$40 billion) on domestic expansion in Korea, plus building an advanced memory packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana.
After an 18× stock rally, what comes next?
Kioxia's share price is up roughly 18× from a year ago. In June it briefly surpassed SoftBank and Toyota to become Japan's most valuable listed company.
The stock has since pulled back — the market is weighing overcapacity risk, rising debt, and intensifying AI competition.
This reflects a single core question about Kioxia: can the strategy of capping prices to protect demand also defend margins? The balance point between price and demand is the key variable for whether its valuation stabilizes.
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