SoftBank’s SAIMEMORY and Intel collaborate on next-gen Z‑Angle memory
SoftBank's subsidiary SAIMEMORY has signed a collaboration agreement with Intel Corporation to advance the development and commercialisation of Z‑Angle Memory (ZAM), a next-generation memory technology designed for high capacity, high bandwidth and low power consumption.
SAIMEMORY, founded in December 2024 to conduct research and development aimed at promoting the commercialisation of next-gen memory technologies, will leverage Intel’s Next Generation DRAM Bonding (NGDB) initiative, previously validated under the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Memory Technology programme. The collaboration sets out a development roadmap with prototypes planned for fiscal year 2027 and commercial deployment targeted for fiscal year 2029.
The technology is aimed at data-intensive environments, including large-scale AI training and inference in data centres, where ZAM is expected to enhance processing performance while reducing energy consumption.
The partnership comes against a backdrop of significant pricing pressure in the global memory market, with recent industry forecasts indicating historically steep quarter‑over‑quarter increases in DRAM and NAND Flash contract prices — a trend fuelled by strong AI and data centre demand and constrained supply. Analysts project conventional DRAM pricing to rise sharply in early 2026, underlining persistent tension between demand growth and available capacity.
SAIMEMORY’s initiative represents a strategic push by SoftBank to support next-generation social infrastructure through advanced semiconductor technologies. By collaborating with Intel and research institutions in Japan and abroad, the company aims to strengthen Japan’s global competitiveness in memory technology.
