As reported by Nikkei News, Japan's Kioxia has entered into a collaborative effort with NVIDIA to develop an innovative type of AI solid - state drive (SSD), with the ambitious goal of bringing it to the commercial market by 2027.

This product is tailor - made for AI servers. It is set to deliver a read speed that is approximately 100 times faster than that of traditional SSDs. In terms of random read performance, it is anticipated to hit a staggering 100 million input/output operations per second (IOPS). This new SSD will partially take over the role of High - Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which is currently used for GPU memory expansion.

One of the key features of this new SSD is that it will bypass the central processing unit (CPU) and establish a direct connection to the graphics processing unit (GPU). This design will lead to a substantial improvement in data transfer efficiency.

At present, Kioxia is diligently developing the product in line with NVIDIA's specifications. The company expects to roll out the first batch of samples in the second half of 2026. Looking ahead, Kioxia forecasts that by 2029, almost half of the demand for NAND chips will originate from AI - related sectors.