Kioxia Overtakes Toyota in Market Value Amid 2026 Memory Chip Crisis

Japanese memory chip manufacturer Kioxia Holdings Corp has become the largest company by market capitalisation, less than two years after its stock market debut. Kioxia is a relatively new name in the chip industry, originally the memory chip unit of Toshiba, which pioneered NAND flash memory technology. The unit was spun off and acquired by a consortium led by Bain Capital in 2018, and rebranded as Kioxia a year later. The company has expanded rapidly. Despite only being listed for 18 months, its shares jumped 7.6% on Friday (12/6/2026) and have soared more than 670% this year, bringing its market value to 44 trillion yen (approximately Rp 4,856 trillion). Tokai Tokyo analyst Shuutarou Yasuda said the Kioxia phenomenon signals that global funds have shifted towards memory chip producers, especially as the world faces a memory chip shortage crisis due to the AI boom. “It may be an exaggeration to call it an industrial transformation, but it is a development that gives that impression,” Yasuda explained. Kioxia has even overtaken automotive giant Toyota Motor Corp, which has a market capitalisation of 43.8 trillion yen (approximately Rp 4,834 trillion). Earlier this month, Toyota was also surpassed by SoftBank amid enthusiasm over OpenAI’s listing plans, before falling to fourth place following a sell-off that dampened the rally. Several other companies in Japan’s top 20 are also AI-related, such as Murata Manufacturing Co, which supplies components to AI data centres, and chip testing equipment maker Advantest Corp.