SoftBank Corp. Subsidiary SAIMEMORY and Intel Collaborate to Commercialize Next-generation Memory Technology

SoftBank Corp. announced its wholly owned subsidiary SAIMEMORY Corp. signed a collaborative agreement with Intel Corporation on February 2, 2026 to advance the commercialization of Z-Angle Memory (ZAM), a next-generation memory technology designed for high capacity, high bandwidth and low power consumption.Established in December 2024, SAIMEMORY is a SoftBank subsidiary conducting R&D to promote the commercialization of next-gen memory technologies.

SAIMEMORY will leverage the next-geneneration memory foundational technologies and technical expertise validated by Intel’s Next Gen DRAM Bonding (NGDB) initiative that was completed under the Advanced Memory Technology (AMT) program managed by the US Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration through the Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

With the aim of creating prototypes in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2028 (FY2027) and achieving commercialization in FY2029, SAIMEMORY will advance R&D on innovative memory architectures and manufacturing technologies. Through the utilization of ZAM next-gen memory technology, SAIMEMORY and Intel will work together to enable high-capacity and high-bandwidth data processing, enhanced processing performance and reduced power consumption in data centers and other environments that require the training and inference of large-scale AI models.

SAIMEMORY’s development of next-gen memory technologies represents one of SoftBank’s key initiatives to support next-gen social infrastructure. By collaborating with Intel and other technology partners and research institutions in Japan and abroad, SoftBank will contribute to the creation of advanced, homegrown semiconductor technologies, and to the strengthening of Japan’s global competitiveness.

Comments

Memory has become a critical bottleneck, with AI-driven workloads pushing demand to the forefront. While this pressure has been building for several quarters, much of the industry failed to fully anticipate it, resulting in severely limited product availability. Some players, however, have managed the situation carefully through tight production control, pricing optimization, and peak-demand management despite constrained resources—and they have all reported outstanding financial results.

ZAM appears to offer higher density and faster performance, with notable energy efficiency improvements. By placing large-capacity memory closer to the processing units, it reduces latency and increases bandwidth.

SoftBank, a Japanese company, made a $2 billion investment in mid-2025, representing a 2% stake in the company. SaiMemory was established in December 2024 by SoftBank, just a few months prior to this investment and is also a Japanese company.

The agreement around ZAM is a positive signal for Intel as it looks to address emerging high-growth segments - most notably high-bandwidth memory and potential alternatives through its NGDB project. It also reflects a broader U.S. ambition to reduce reliance on Korean manufacturers such as Samsung and SK hynix, beyond the domestic supplier Micron.

It underscores the emergence of alternative partnerships between the United States and Japan aimed at launching strategic projects and reducing dependence on manufacturers in China, Taiwan, and Korea.

Does this signal Intel’s return to the memory market, reconnecting with its historical roots and more recent involvement through its Optane initiative?

What happened to Intel echoes the message of Only the Paranoid Survive, the well-known book by former CEO Andrew Grove published in 1999. The company missed - or failed to anticipate - several major industry waves, bringing to mind another familiar theme: being “too big to fail.” The U.S. administration is unlikely to let Intel falter, given the company’s strategic importance to the country and its technological leadership ambitions. We heard some split of its activity and beyond SoftBank Nvidia has also made an $5 billion investment.