Japanese NAND flash company Kioxia Holdings will issue American depositary receipts (ADR) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) next spring. Following SK hynix, which a day earlier said it would seek a U.S. listing, global memory companies are moving in earnest to compete for investors in the United States, the world's largest capital market.
On the 25th, according to Nikkei and others, Kioxia Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Yoshihiko Kawamura said at the annual shareholders meeting, "We are pushing to issue ADRs targeting April–June of next year, when the new fiscal year begins," adding, "Because it is a very meaningful project that is directly connected to the U.S. market, we will make sure it succeeds."
An ADR is securities designed so that U.S. investors can transaction the shares of overseas corporations without those companies listing directly on U.S. exchanges.
Kawamura said, "If we are connected to the U.S. market, it will not only help stabilize the share price but also mean we can raise funds directly in the United States."
Kioxia is also pursuing a stock split to improve access for individual investors. As the current share price has risen to around 100,000 yen, pushing the minimum investment above 10 million yen based on the Japanese market's 100-share trading unit, the move is seen as an effort to lower the investment threshold.
Buoyed by expectations of rising memory demand from the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), Kioxia has emerged this year as a representative stock on the Japanese market. Intraday, shares jumped as much as 15% on the day, and they are up about 800% this year.
Industry watchers interpret Kioxia's push to issue ADRs as part of global memory companies' drive to tap the U.S. capital market amid the AI investment boom. Alongside SK hynix, which is pursuing a U.S. listing, the view is that memory corporations are working to expand their base of U.S. institutional investors and diversify their fundraising channels.
In particular, as the growth potential of the memory industry is reassessed with the spread of AI data centers, investor sentiment is also improving. After Micron in the United States said the previous day that it delivered results beating market expectations and confirmed strong AI demand, optimism has been spreading across the broader Asian semiconductor supply chain.
Kioxia's core business is NAND flash. NAND, unlike HBM, does not perform AI computation directly, but as AI models grow larger and the amount of data that must be stored surges, its importance is increasing. The industry sees a favorable environment forming in the NAND market as HBM shortages lead to stronger demand for data center storage devices.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hiroo Ota said, "Long-term supply contracts with U.S. hyperscalers are increasing," adding, "With the spread of Agentic AI and physical AI, memory demand will continue to rise going forward."