[KioXia refutes claims of establishing a deeper partnership with SK Hynix and promises to ease chip price increases] On September 9, Kioxia Holdings executives refuted the possibility of establishing a deeper relationship with competitor and stakeholder SK Hynix, while promising to control the surge in memory prices to avoid harming the long-term demand for artificial intelligence. Memory chip manufacturers have spent heavily to expand production capacity to meet surging order demand from artificial intelligence service providers. The increase in demand has pushed chip prices to rise by double or even triple digits. Investors, including the chairman of SK Hynix parent SK Inc., have previously said manufacturing partnerships could help reduce the risk of the huge capital investment required. Kioxia CEO Hiroo Ota said that establishing closer ties with SK Hynix is ​​often mentioned, but this will encounter antitrust obstacles and will be difficult to coordinate with the joint production operations of Kioxia and SanDisk. Kioxia needs to find other ways to curb the surge in memory prices. "Prices have gone up high enough," he said.