Kioxia unveils industry’s first 245.76 TB NVMe SSD optimized for AI workloads

Kioxia has added a 245.76 TB model to its LC9 Series, creating the industry’s highest-capacity NVMe SSD in both 2.5-inch and EDSFF E3.L formats. The new SKU doubles the line-up’s previous ceiling of 122.88 TB and is positioned for data-center deployments where density is paramount.

Generative AI training, vector databases, and other retrieval-augmented generation tasks demand vast, fast, and power-efficient storage. Kioxia notes that the LC9’s scale is intended to mitigate the I/O bottlenecks that can leave expensive GPUs idle during data ingestion and inference stages.

The drive stacks 32 of the company’s 2 Tbit BiCS FLASH QLC dies using CMOS-direct-bonded-to-array (CBA) technology, packing 8 TB into a single NAND package—another industry first. A PCIe 5.0 x4 (dual-port) NVMe 2.0 controller delivers up to 12 GB/s sequential reads and 3 GB/s writes, balancing signal integrity against the extreme package height and density.

Random throughput reaches about 1.3 million IOPS for reads and 50,000 IOPS for writes; endurance is rated at 0.3 DWPD for typical hyperscale duty cycles. Reliability measures include die-level recovery, parity-based error management, and power-loss protection, while Flexible Data Placement further reduces write amplification.

Kioxia is initially sampling the 245 TB LC9 to strategic partners. Volume units will follow in 2.5-inch U.2 (up to 122.88 TB), E3.S (up to 122.88 TB), and E3.L (245.76 TB) variants, with a public showcase planned for the Future of Memory and Storage conference in August 2025.