Another storage giant goes public in the United States! Kaidian plans to land on the US stock market in the spring of 2027, and is considering splitting stocks to help retail investors get "a piece of the pie".

NAND flash memory supplier Kaira Holdings Corporation plans to issue American Depositary Shares (ADS) in the United States in the spring of 2027 and intends to split its stock in the Japanese domestic market to fully capitalize on investors' strong demand for AI-related semiconductor stocks. With the surge in demand for storage products driven by the AI wave, this Tokyo-based flash memory manufacturer has grown to become the highest valued company in Japan this year and, along with competitor SK Hynix, is seeking to list on the world's largest financial capital market. Kaira had previously stated its ultimate plan to list in the United States, and now further revealed that it is actively considering implementing a stock split domestically to expand its investor base. Boosted by the better-than-expected performance of storage chip giant Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US), Kaira's stock price broke through 10,000 yen (about $620) per share on Thursday, with a cumulative gain of nearly 900% so far this year. Kaira's Chief Financial Officer Yoshihiko Kawamura stated at the company's annual shareholders meeting that the flash memory manufacturer plans to target the second quarter of the next fiscal year (April-June 2027) to debut in the U.S. market. Kaira's American Depositary Receipts are currently tradable, but formal listing still requires the company to file securities registration documents to attract more investor attention. Kawamura said at the packed annual shareholders meeting, "This is a very significant project for us as it establishes a direct connection with the U.S. market, and we will work to ensure its success." It is reported that many of the approximately 900 attendees this year did not even have seats, while the number of attendees last year was only about 100, prompting the company to book a venue that could accommodate 500 people. Founder of Alpha Binwani Capital Ashwin Binwani stated that listing in the U.S. will not only broaden Kaira's investor base but also help the market compare it with its U.S. counterparts, who typically have higher price-to-earnings or price-to-sales ratios. He said, "We are bullish on Kaira, and listing in the U.S. is positive for the market and fund managers." Surging storage demand with giants listing in the U.S. one after another This trend is not an isolated case. Yesterday, SK Hynix Inc. announced its plans to raise approximately 45.45 trillion Korean won (about $294 billion) through the issuance of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the NASDAQ stock exchange. SK Hynix ADRs are expected to begin trading on NASDAQ on July 10. The plans of major storage giants to list in the U.S. have attracted a flood of funds. Coupled with the strong performance and outlook just announced by U.S. storage chip giant Micron (MU.US), the persistence of the super cycle in storage chips is evident. Yesterday, Micron's third quarter earnings report shocked the market, with data showing that revenue for the company's third quarter of fiscal year 2026, ending May 31, grew rapidly by about 346% year-on-year to $41.46 billion, indicating that the AI data center construction boom is still driving the storage chip industry into a prosperous upward cycle, easing doubts about demand for AI-related storage in the market. According to reports, the revenue guidance for the next quarter given by Micron continues to be significantly above Wall Street's expectations, which is interpreted by the market as the explosive demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), high-capacity DRAM, and enterprise-level NAND storage chips as the construction of AI data centers accelerates for the AI infrastructure boom, benefiting Kaira as some of the demand shifts to the company, with data center operators substituting traditional mechanical hard drives with faster NAND flash memory. Kaira's soaring stock price has created wealth for a growing number of retail investors in Japan. Kazuhiro Nakai, a hospital director in his 70s, attended the Tokyo shareholders meeting, stating that his paper profits since Kaira's listing at the end of 2024 has reached about 60 million yen. He believes that the stock split will make it easier for family and friends around him to invest. Hiroshi Machino, an 83-year-old shareholder, said that his floating profits from holding Kaira stock have exceeded 150 million yen. "I hope Kaira can become a benchmark in Japan's AI industry," shareholder Takezawa Nobuyuki said. He started investing in February this year, estimating floating profits of several tens of million yen. He believes the company's capital expenditure plans are somewhat conservative but said, "I plan to continue to gradually increase my holdings." In recent years, Kaira had suffered continuous losses due to inventory backlog and price declines. By the time of its listing, the company was far behind Samsung and SK Hynix in this capital-intensive and highly cyclical industry in terms of technology. Kaira's CEO Hiroo Ota stated that the company will be cautious in its investment in production capacity during this cycle, saying, "We don't want to disrupt the supply-demand equilibrium."