As giants battle in the HBM market, Iron Knight seizes the opportunity to embrace the "sky-high" demand for AI high-density storage.

In the eyes of Japanese NAND flash memory manufacturer Katakura, while its competitors - Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron Technology, Inc. - are busy competing for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, it has the opportunity to seize the growth opportunity in the high-density storage area for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Katakura's CEO Stacy Smith stated that these competitors have not heavily invested in increasing the capacity of solid-state drives and other advanced NAND storage products, which are necessary for cloud service providers to meet the demand for data from AI. He said in an interview, "We have the right product leadership for these niche markets at the right time." Smith stated that Katakura's goal is to increase capacity "slightly faster than" the overall market growth rate (estimated at around 20% this year) to help this flash memory manufacturer gain market share. Most of this expansion will be carried out under the leadership of the new leadership team announced this week - 63-year-old Executive Vice President Hiroo Ota will take over as CEO, replacing 70-year-old Nobuo Hayasaka. Jibang Technology storage analyst Bryan Ao stated that the cautious pace of NAND capacity expansion by manufacturers in recent years means that flash memory capacity will be insufficient until 2027. This indicates that flash memory prices will continue to receive significant support in the near future. Meanwhile, Katakura's stock price rose nearly 11% on Friday as investors expected the extension of cooperation with SanDisk to boost cash flow and drive a recovery after years of tight spending. Katakura and SanDisk announced on Friday that they had reached a consensus to extend the long-term cooperation agreement at Katakura's Yokkaichi factory in Japan, originally scheduled to expire by the end of 2029, to the end of 2034. Under the extension agreement, SanDisk will pay Katakura a total of $1.165 billion in manufacturing service fees to ensure continuous and stable supply of flash memory products for the next five years. This amount will be paid in stages and is scheduled to be completed between 2026 and 2029. Furthermore, both parties reaffirmed their commitment to continuing traditional technology cooperation and jointly investing resources in the research and development of next-generation 3D flash memory technology to address the urgent need for high-performance storage solutions in high-growth areas such as AI, data centers, and the Internet of Things. Katakura's cooperation with SanDisk began in 2014, with the Yokkaichi factory serving as the core production base operated jointly by both parties, responsible for the research and mass production of advanced process flash memory chips. Analyst Jake Silverman stated, "SanDisk's third-quarter profit guidance was 163% higher than expected, reflecting a continuing upward trend in NAND prices since October last year. This has pushed gross margins well beyond previous cycle peaks. The lack of meaningful capacity increase in the next 1-2 years suggests that NAND prices still have room to further increase under strong AI inference demand, as larger models and improved inference capabilities drive higher storage density demand." Data shows that the insatiable demand for data storage from AI has driven Katakura's stock price up by about 105% so far this year. Since its listing in December 2024, the stock price of this Japanese NAND flash memory manufacturer has surged by nearly 1400%, with a 540% increase in 2025 making it the best-performing stock in the Nikkei Index that year. The demand for high-performance storage from AI makes Katakura's leadership in NAND bit density particularly important. NAND is a storage used in smartphones, cars, and servers that can store data without power. Giant data centers seeking energy-efficient storage solutions are exploring NAND-based solutions, and Katakura's pricing power has been enhanced as a result. This is a major positive for Katakura, as investors expect strong storage demand and price increases to boost its revenue. Asymmetric Advisors Pte. Japanese stock strategist Amir Anvarzadeh stated, "In the tech sector, we are primarily focusing on storage in 2026, whether through direct investment in Katakura or other derivatives." He added that, given the continued imbalance between storage demand and supply, Katakura appears fully capable of dealing with potential market volatility in 2026, "concerns about the slowdown in data center investments should not actually affect storage prices in the next phase because the market is already severely undersupplied."