Kioxia Tops Toyota in Market Value at ¥45 Trillion After 7.2% Share Surge
Updated
Updated · Bloomberg · Jun 3
Kioxia Tops Toyota in Market Value at ¥45 Trillion After 7.2% Share Surge
1 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · Jun 3
¥45 trillion ($281 billion) put Kioxia briefly above Toyota on Wednesday, lifting the memory-chip maker toward Japan’s No. 2 spot by market capitalization.
A 7.2% jump in Kioxia shares drove the move, extending a rally tied to the global artificial-intelligence boom that has boosted chip-related companies.
The milestone marks a sharp reshaping of Japan Inc., with a semiconductor group overtaking the country’s flagship automaker at one point in trading.
Just 18 months after its stock market debut, Kioxia’s rise underscores how AI demand is redrawing the hierarchy of Japan’s most valuable companies.
With a chipmaker overtaking its top car company, is Japan's industrial identity being permanently rewritten by artificial intelligence?
Kioxia's AI surge rivals Toyota, but can it escape the historic boom-and-bust cycle of the memory chip market?
As its tech giants soar on AI, why does Japan's public remain one of the world's most pessimistic about the technology?
Kioxia’s $100 Billion Surge: The AI-Driven Rise of Japan’s New Tech Champion
Overview
In June 2026, Kioxia experienced an unprecedented surge, briefly overtaking Toyota in market capitalization and signaling a major shift in Japan’s industrial landscape. This rise was fueled by the global boom in artificial intelligence and the massive buildout of data centers, which created insatiable demand for advanced semiconductor chips. As a crucial supplier of NAND flash memory, Kioxia directly benefited from this trend, with its products forming the backbone of storage solutions essential for AI processing and large-scale data infrastructure. This robust demand propelled Kioxia into a position of prominence in the tech industry.