AI wave boosts Japan's "money king"! Kamen Rider's quarterly profits surpass Toyota's, plans to issue ADR to expand overseas market.

Japanese chip maker Kaisa announced its latest financial report on Friday and stated its preparation to issue American Depositary Receipts (ADR). Data shows that Kaisa's profit reached a record high of 596.8 billion yen as of March, surpassing even Toyota to become one of Japan's most profitable companies. Due to the vigorous development of artificial intelligence boosting chip demand, Kaisa expects its operating profit for the first quarter (April-June) to reach 1.3 trillion yen, far surpassing analysts' average expectations. Kaisa's quarterly profit surpasses automotive giant Toyota Kaisa also announced on Friday its plan to list its common stock represented by American Depository Shares on the US stock exchange, aiming to expand its investor base, increase its global corporate valuation, and enhance its international influence. Details such as the listing timetable, market, and method are yet to be determined. This Tokyo-based company has rapidly ascended, driven by global cloud giants aggressively deploying AI infrastructure, leading to a surge in demand for storage chips. Year-to-date, Kaisa's stock price has risen by approximately 300%. The market value of this chip maker has surpassed Sony and the Fast Retailing Group, the parent company of Uniqlo. Kaisa's stock price performance significantly outpaces its South Korean competitors Omdia analyst Akira Minamikawa stated: "The sharp increase in chip prices has pushed the entire industry to the extreme. This market situation cannot last forever, it should be seen as a phase of prosperity rather than a long-term norm. However, it is certain that this round of industry prosperity will continue throughout this fiscal year." Kaisa, formerly Toshiba's chip business division, has long focused on NAND flash memory. This high-speed storage technology has completely replaced traditional mechanical hard drives and is widely used in personal computers, laptops, and large data centers. Competitors such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix also produce DRAM, which functions similarly to NAND flash memory. However, South Korean chip giants have recently allocated more resources to high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the core component of high-end AI processors, allowing Kaisa to capture more market share in the NAND flash memory market. Iwai Cosmo Securities analyst Kazuyoshi Saito stated that since its listing in December 2024, funds have been pouring into Kaisa's stocks, with investors generally optimistic about NAND becoming the next chip racetrack to ride the AI boom. He said, "Kaisa's NAND flash memory has many advantages, such as 20%-30% lower production costs compared to competitors, higher storage capacity per unit area, and data read-write speeds 10%-20% faster than competitors."