Kioxia plans U.S. ADS listing amid AI memory chip boom

Cris Tolomia

Mon, May 18, 2026 at 9:07 AM EDT 2 min read

Kioxia is preparing to list American depositary shares on a U.S. stock exchange, the company said Friday, as demand for memory chips from artificial intelligence data center builders drives a surge in its stock and earnings.

According to Barron's, Kioxia framed the planned listing as a means of broadening ownership and enhancing the company's overall value. No decisions have been made on when or where shares would be listed, and the company left open the possibility of abandoning the plan entirely.

Kioxia stock has risen about 300% this year in Tokyo trading. Kioxia's American depositary receipts already trade over the counter in the U.S., but according to Bloomberg, the ADS structure would lower the cost of arbitrage trades compared with the existing receipts.

"This will definitely improve the liquidity of Kioxia as it will become an ADR arb favorite, given I expect big liquidity in the US line too," Andrew Jackson, head of Japan equity strategy at Ortus Advisors, told Bloomberg.

The listing announcement came alongside full-year and quarterly earnings that exceeded guidance across all metrics. For the fiscal year ended March 31, Kioxia reported revenue of ¥2,337.6 billion, up 37% year over year, and non-GAAP operating profit of ¥876.2 billion, up 93.4%. In the fourth quarter alone, revenue reached ¥1,002.9 billion and non-GAAP operating profit hit ¥599.1 billion, both record highs, the company said.

For the current quarter ending June 30, Kioxia is guiding for revenue of ¥1,750 billion and non-GAAP operating profit of ¥1.3 trillion, the company said.

Strong demand for solid-state drives used in AI servers drove much of the growth. SSD and storage revenue accounted for 60% of Kioxia's fourth-quarter revenue, rising about 179% from a year earlier, the company said. The company's net debt-to-equity ratio fell to 39% from 126% a year earlier, and Kioxia said it expects to reach a net cash position by the end of the current quarter.

NAND flash memory and solid-state drives form the core of Kioxia's business. According to Barron's, the roots of that technology trace back to 1987, when the company's forerunner, Toshiba Memory, pioneered NAND-based data storage — a development that now underpins devices from consumer electronics to large-scale data centers. The Toshiba Memory name gave way to Kioxia in 2019.

Kioxia's move follows a similar push from elsewhere in the industry, according to Barron's — South Korea's SK Hynix submitted paperwork to the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year seeking to list American depositary receipts in the U.S.