Kioxia Posts 1.27 Trillion Yen Quarterly Operating Profit, 28 Times Higher Than a Year Ago
- Operating profit reached 1.27 trillion yen in the April-June quarter, 28 times the year-earlier figure.
- Data centre related revenue topped 1.17 trillion yen, more than five times a year ago.
- The company announced a share buyback and a planned stock split.
- Long-term agreements (LTAs) are being pushed to smooth memory price swings.
- Capacity expansion by Chinese memory makers is the main risk to the boom.
Anyone in Taiwan who built a PC, bought a phone or ordered servers this year has felt the same thing: memory prices are up. On Kioxia's income statement that shows up as an operating profit of 1.27 trillion yen for the April-June quarter, 28 times the year-earlier figure.
Unpacking the multiple explains the shift. Operating profit was roughly 45 billion yen a year ago. Almost all of the gap comes from AI data centres, where related revenue exceeded 1.17 trillion yen, more than five times last year. The customer base has effectively rotated from consumer electronics to AI server operators buying high-capacity enterprise SSDs in volume, at high prices, and increasingly under long-term agreements. A buyback and a planned stock split suggest management sees the cash flow as durable.
Memory is a textbook cyclical business, and that is the caution. Similar windfall quarters appeared in 2018 and 2021-22 before supply caught up and prices collapsed. Kioxia only listed in late 2024, so this is its first cycle peak as a public company, and the LTA push is an attempt to flatten the amplitude of the next downswing.
The practical read for Taiwanese buyers is timing: contract prices have not caught up with spot yet, so storage upgrades get more expensive the longer they wait. For investors, Taiwan's module makers track the same price curve.
