Breaking

Kioxia's Market Value Halves in a Month as AI Chip Rally Cools

July 16, 2026 at 23:40 EDT

Infra & Chips
Funding & M&A

Kioxia Holdings, the Japanese memory chipmaker that briefly became the country's most valuable company, has seen its market capitalization cut in half within a month, as investors grow wary that the AI-fueled rally in memory chips has run too far.

July 17, 2026 · Tokyo Markets

Kioxia's Market Value Halves in a Month as AI Chip Rally Cools

The NAND flash maker that briefly overtook Toyota to become Japan's most valuable company has fallen roughly 52% from its mid-June peak — wiping out about $185 billion and dropping it to fourth place.

−52%

Off its mid-June peak

−14%

Single-day drop, July 17

$185B

Value erased in a month

4th

Rank now, from No. 1

The Round Trip: Peak vs. Now

Market capitalization in trillions of yen — the June peak, then the July collapse.

¥44T

Mid-June peak

≈¥21T

After July sell-off

A more than 600% year-to-date surge briefly pushed Kioxia past Toyota — before roughly half of that value vanished in weeks.

The bull case is still intact

2026 NAND and SSD capacity already fully sold out
Supply constraints expected to persist into 2027
10th-gen BiCS Flash ramping into mass production
Rising AI-server SSD shipments and higher selling prices

Why investors pulled back

Skepticism over the pace of return on AI spending
Rise of Chinese memory makers
Memory's notoriously cyclical supply and pricing
Bain Capital's full exit read as a cycle-top signal
Leveraged retail positions amplifying the drop

The Takeaway

A single-product memory maker's fundamentals remain tight — but the pullback shows how fast sentiment turns when a rally outpaces the business behind it.

Continue reading

The rest of this article is for AI News Blitz readers. Choose an option below to keep reading.