Kioxia Holdings Corp.’s shares fell as much as 15% on Monday after the Japanese memory maker’s cautious outlook disappointed investors, flaring up concerns that the explosive growth driven by artificial intelligence may be levelling off.
\n\nThe Tokyo-based firm said Friday it expects operating profit of ¥2 trillion ($12.7 billion) for the December quarter, below the analyst consensus of ¥2.35 trillion. The forecast suggests scant growth from the September quarter, when it recorded ¥1.99 trillion. Kioxia’s operating profit had been on a steep upward trend over the past several quarters.
\n\nThe rival to Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. attributed the lacklustre momentum largely to the timing of shipments rather than a deterioration in demand.
\n\nSome orders originally scheduled for the current quarter were brought forward into the September period due to customer requests, while others have been pushed into the March quarter as a growing mix of enterprise storage requires longer production lead times.
\n\nChief Financial Officer Yoshihiko Kawamura said during a conference call last week that the company expects to return to rapid growth in the March quarter and that demand from AI data centre operators remains robust.
\n\nThe company has already sold out its…
Original source: https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/
