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Japan's NAND flash memory chipmaker Kioxia has overtaken Toyota Motor to become Japan's most valuable listed company for the first time.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) on the 12th, Kioxia Holdings' share price surged 8% from the previous day on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, pushing its market capitalization past 44 trillion yen (about 417.5424 trillion won).
The move is attributed to strength in semiconductor stocks in the U.S. market the previous day. Market estimates project consolidated operating profit (under IFRS) for the period ending March 2027 to reach about 7 trillion yen (about 66.44 trillion won), eight times the prior period. This far exceeds Toyota's own plan of 3 trillion yen (about 28.4733 trillion won).
Japanese brokerages are raising their target prices for Kioxia. In a report on the 10th, SMBC Nikko Securities sharply lifted Kioxia's target price from 48,000 yen (about 455,000 won) to 126,000 yen (about 1.196 million won). Nomura Securities also raised its target price from 71,880 yen (about 682,300 won) to 115,000 yen (about 1.09166 million won), citing improved visibility for earnings growth through March 2029.
As recently as June last year, Kioxia ranked just 169th by market capitalization, but its share price has soared over the past year, surpassing even Toyota Motor, a symbol of Japanese manufacturing.
At an investor briefing held on the 2nd, Kioxia Vice President Yoshihiko Kawamura said, "We expect to enter a phase of a supercycle (a period of rapidly expanding demand)." Kioxia is also undertaking large-scale investment to meet growing artificial intelligence (AI) demand. From April this year through March 2029, it plans to invest a total of 2.1 trillion yen (about 20 trillion won) in capital expenditure and research and development (R&D).
The memory chip boom is not unique to Kioxia. As demand for data center memory chips handling AI computation surges, major memory companies in South Korea and the U.S. are also showing clear earnings improvements. NAND-focused Kioxia and U.S.-based SanDisk, along with DRAM-centered Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, are all seen as direct beneficiaries of expanding AI investment.
