Kioxia Holdings Corporation (), simply known as Kioxia and stylized as KIOXIA, is an American-Japanese multinational

computer memory In computing, memory is a device or system that is used to store information for immediate use in a computer or related computer hardware and digital electronic devices. The term ''memory'' is often synonymous with the term ''primary storage ...

manufacturer headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. The company was spun off from the

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...

conglomerate as in June 2018. It became a wholly owned subsidiary company of Toshiba Memory Holdings Corporation on March 1, 2019, and was renamed Kioxia in October 2019. In the early 1980s, while still part of Toshiba, the company was credited with inventing

flash memory Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...

. In the second quarter of 2021, the company was estimated to have 18.3% of the global revenue share for

NAND flash Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is ...

s. The company is the parent company of Kioxia Corporation.

Name

Kioxia is a combination of the Japanese word '' kioku'' meaning ''memory'' and the Greek word '' axia'' meaning ''value''.

History

In 1980,

Fujio Masuoka is a Japanese engineer, who has worked for Toshiba and Tohoku University, and is currently chief technical officer (CTO) of Unisantis Electronics. He is best known as the inventor of flash memory, including the development of both the NOR flash ...

, an engineer at Kioxia predecessor Toshiba, invented flash memory, and in 1984, Masuoka and his colleagues presented their invention of NOR flash. In January 2014, the

Toshiba Corporation , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure syste ...

completed its acquisition of

OCZ Storage Solutions OCZ was a brand of Toshiba that was used for some of its solid-state drives (SSDs) before they were rebranded with Toshiba. OCZ Storage Solutions was a manufacturer of SSDs based in San Jose, California, USA and was the new company formed after ...

, renaming it OCZ and making it a brand of Toshiba. On June 1, 2018, due to heavy losses experienced by the bankruptcy of the Westinghouse subsidiary of former parent company Toshiba over nuclear power plant construction at

Vogtle Electric Generating Plant The Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, also known as Plant Vogtle (), is a two-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia, in the southeastern United States. It is named after a former Alabama Power and ...

in 2016, Toshiba Memory Corporation was spun off from the Toshiba Corporation. Toshiba maintained a 40.2% equity in the new company. The new company consisted of all of Toshiba memory businesses. Toshiba Memory Corporation became a subsidiary of the newly formed Toshiba Memory Holdings Corporation on March 1, 2019. In June 2019, Kioxia experienced a power cut at one of its factories in Yokkaichi, Japan, resulting in the loss of at least 6

exabytes The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

of flash memory, with some sources estimating the loss as high as 15 exabytes.

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...

used (and still uses) Kioxia's facilities for making its own flash memory chips. On July 18, 2019, Toshiba Memory Holdings Corporation announced it would change its name to Kioxia on October 1, 2019, including all Toshiba memory companies. On October 1, 2019, Toshiba Memory Holdings Corporation was renamed Kioxia Holdings Corporation and Toshiba Memory Corporation was renamed Kioxia Corporation. This renaming also included companies associated with Toshiba's solid-state drive brand

OCZ OCZ was a brand of Toshiba that was used for some of its solid-state drives (SSDs) before they were rebranded with Toshiba. OCZ Storage Solutions was a manufacturer of SSDs based in San Jose, California, USA and was the new company formed after ...

. On August 30, 2019, Toshiba Memory Holdings Corporation, not yet renamed Kioxia, announced that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Taiwanese electronics manufacturer

Lite-On Lite-On (also known as LiteOn and LiteON) is a Taiwanese company that primarily manufactures consumer electronics, including LEDs, semiconductors, computer chassis, monitors, motherboards, optical disc drives, and other electronic components ...

's SSD business for . The acquisition closed on July 1, 2020. In February 2022, Kioxia and

reported that contamination issues have affected the output of their flash memory joint-production factories, with WD admitting that at least 6.5 exabytes of memory output being affected. The Kiakami and Yokkaichi factories in Japan stopped producing due to the contamination. In April 2022, Kioxia announced they will be donating 100 million yen ($790,000) to support humanitarian relief for people affected by the crisis in Ukraine.

Corporate governance

As of April 30, 2021, Kioxia ownership is as follows: * Bain Capital Private Equity (55.94%) *

(40.64%) *

Hoya Corporation is a Japanese company manufacturing optical products such as photomasks, photomask blanks and hard disk drive platters, contact lenses and eyeglass lenses for the health-care market, medical photonics, lasers, photographic filters, medical flex ...

(3.13%)

Subsidiaries

Kioxia Holdings Corporation is the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

of Kioxia Corporation. Kioxia Corporation is the parent company of several companies including Kioxia Systems Company, Kioxia Advanced Package Corporation, Kioxia America, and Kioxia Europe.

References

External links

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