News
Kioxia outlines FY2026 CapEx increase and 2027 production timeline for NVIDIA-linked SSDs
Friday, January 30, 2026 at 03:03 AM
Kioxia reported that data center and enterprise SSD demand remains strong despite a seasonal decline in other segments. The company is finalizing 2026 long-term agreements with hyperscalers and exploring contracts through 2028. Kioxia plans to increase CapEx in FY2026 to align with a 20% NAND market CAGR and is transitioning to 8th-generation BiCS FLASH to improve margins. Mass production of high-capacity SSDs for NVIDIA KV cache collaboration is expected by 2027, while 122TB and 245TB SSDs are targeted for volume shipments in 2026.
Context
Kioxia has announced a strategic CapEx increase for FY2026 to capitalize on the explosive growth of AI inference demand. The company forecasts the NAND market to maintain a 20% CAGR, driven by the shift from limited training server deployments to mass-scale inference workloads like Retrieval-Augmented Generation. While consumer demand softens, Kioxia anticipates robust growth in data center SSD shipments, supported by tight supply conditions that are expected to drive sharp price increases across all segments.
A key catalyst is the deepening partnership with NVIDIA. Kioxia confirmed that mass production for specialized SSDs related to NVIDIA’s KV cache collaboration is slated for 2027 using 8th-generation BiCS FLASH. Additionally, high-capacity 122TB and 245TB SSDs are currently in customer qualification, with volume shipments scheduled to begin in 2026. These initiatives aim to protect margins against rising DRAM costs while securing revenue through 2028 via long-term agreements with major hyperscalers.
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