Kioxia and Sandisk Announce Beginning of Operation of Fab2 at Kitakami Plant, Japan to Meet the Market Demand Driven by AI

TOKYO & MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 29, 2025--

Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 285A) and Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced the start of operation at the Fab2 (K2), a state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facility, at the Kitakami Plant in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Fab2 has the capability to produce eighth-generation, 218-layer 3D flash memory, featuring the companies’ revolutionary CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, and future advanced 3D flash memory nodes to meet growing demand for storage driven by AI. Production capacity at Fab2 will ramp up in stages over time, in line with market trends, with meaningful output expected to begin in the first half of 2026.

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The Fab2 facility has an earthquake-absorbing architectural structure and a design that utilizes state-of-the-art energy saving manufacturing equipment. The facility uses artificial intelligence for enhanced production efficiencies and employs a space-efficient facility design that enlarges the space available for manufacturing equipment in its clean rooms. A portion of investment for Fab2 is subsidized by the Japanese government according to the plan approved in February 2024.

“We are pleased to start operations of our new Fab2 facility at Kitakami Plant,” said Koichiro Shibayama, President and CEO of Kioxia Iwate Corporation, which operates the Kitakami Plant. “The eighth and further generation 3D flash memory products produced at Fab2 will offer new value for rapidly emerging AI market. We will continue to leverage our partnership and economies of scale to produce advanced flash memory products and achieve organic corporate growth. Kioxia will continue to contribute to the advancement of the semiconductor industry and the development of local and domestic economies.”

Maitreyee Mahajani, Senior Vice President of Flash Front End Operations at Sandisk said, “As AI advances, it is poised to transform industries, redefine careers, and reshape daily life in ways we’re just beginning to imagine. Flash memory is at the very center of this transformation, unlocking the speed, efficiency and scalability needed for this next wave of innovations. We are proud of our long-standing partnership with Kioxia and the scale it provides to enable our customers to fully harness AI opportunities.”

Kioxia and Sandisk have shared a successful joint venture partnership for over 20 years and will continue to maximize synergies and competitiveness through joint development of 3D flash memory, and making capital investments according to market trends.

About Kioxia

Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with “memory” by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH™, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems.

About Sandisk

Sandisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) delivers innovative Flash solutions and advanced memory technologies that meet people and businesses at the intersection of their aspirations and the moment, enabling them to keep moving and pushing possibility forward. Follow Sandisk on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Join TeamSandisk on Instagram.

©2025 Sandisk Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Sandisk and the Sandisk logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sandisk Corporation or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. All other marks the property of their respective owners.

Kitakami Plant

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian baby died from hypothermia on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, underscoring the grim humanitarian conditions in the territory as world leaders were gathering at a Swiss resort where President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan is high on the agenda.

Shaza Abu Jarad’s family found the 3-month-old on Tuesday morning in their tent in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.

“She was freezing, and dead,” the baby’s father, Mohamed Abu Jarad, told The Associated Press by phone after a funeral. “She died from cold.”

The man, who worked in Israel before the war, lives with his wife and their seven other children in a makeshift tent after their house was destroyed during the war.

The family took the girl to the Al-Ahly hospital where a doctor pronounced her dead from hypothermia, said her uncle, Khalid Abu Jarad. The Health Ministry confirmed that the baby died from hypothermia.

The family is among hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in tent camps and war-battered buildings in Gaza which experiences cold, wet winters, with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) at night.

As Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave languish in displacement camps, Trump hopes to establish his new Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum in Davos. But the initiative, initially conceived to oversee the Gaza ceasefire, faces many questions over its membership and scope.

Israel on Tuesday began demolishing the Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, pressing ahead with its crackdown against a body it has long accused of anti-Israel bias.

Shaza Abu Jarad was the ninth child to die from severe cold this winter in Gaza, according to the strip’s health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

More than 100 children who have died since the start of the ceasefire in October — a figure that includes a 27-day-old girl who died from hypothermia over the weekend.

The ceasefire paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas militants and allowed a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, mainly food.

But residents say shortages of blankets and warm clothes remain, and there is little wood for fires. There’s been no central electricity in Gaza since the first few days of the war in 2023, and fuel for generators is scarce.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said recent biting cold and rainfall in Gaza were “ultimately a threat to survival.”

Trump’s Board of Peace was initially seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

But recent invitations sent to dozens of world leaders show that the body could have a far broader mandate of other global crises, potentially rivaling the U.N. Security Council.

Trump says the body would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict,” an indication that the body may not confine its work to Gaza.

The panel was part of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan that stopped the war in Gaza in October. Many countries, including Russia, said they received Trump’s invitation and were studying the proposal. France said it does not plan to join the board “at this stage.”

Magdy reported from Cairo and Metz reported from Jerusalem.

Khalid Abu Jarad holds the body of his 3-month-old niece, Shaza Abu Jarad, who, according to the health ministry, died from hypothermia, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Khalid Abu Jarad holds the body of his 3-month-old niece, Shaza Abu Jarad, who, according to the health ministry, died from hypothermia, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)