SoftBank’s SAIMEMORY, Intel Partner to Launch Next-Gen Memory by 2029

SoftBank Group Corporation said that its wholly owned subsidiary, SAIMEMORY Corp, has collaborated with Intel Corporation to commercialise a new memory technology.

The agreement was signed to advance Z-Angle Memory (ZAM), with prototypes planned by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2028, and reach market release in FY2029. SAIMEMORY will work with Intel on research, development and manufacturing technologies.

The ZAM technology will focus on high-capacity and high-bandwidth systems, also targeting lower power consumption in data centres and other AI environments.

“SAIMEMORY will advance research and development on innovative memory architectures and manufacturing technologies,” the company said. The companies said the technology will also support “the training and inference of large-scale AI models”.

The collaboration will use technical expertise from Intel’s Next Generation DRAM Bonding (NGDB) initiative. The initiative was completed under the Advanced Memory Technology programme run by the US energy department.

The work involved Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

SoftBank said the project forms part of its next-generation social infrastructure strategy.

It will also work with partners and research institutions in Japan and overseas. The effort, the company said, will support the strengthening of Japan’s global competitiveness.

“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,” the company said.