SAIMEMORY, a SoftBank Corp subsidiary in partnership with chip giant Intel, announced that Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) had selected its next-generation ZAM memory technology development project for government subsidies that may cover a huge part of the project's development costs.
ZAM (Z-Angle Memory) is a potential next-generation alternative to existing AI memory technology, which is designed to be a power-efficient HBM (high-bandwidth memory). It was selected as part of NEDO’s Post-5G Infrastructure Enhancement R&D Project.
This news is the latest development in a project shaped by US government-backed research, Intel’s internal R&D, and SoftBank’s push into AI infrastructure. It builds on earlier advances in memory stacking and interconnects from US-led research efforts, with Intel developing key DRAM stacking and bonding techniques that underpin what would become ZAM.
SoftBank later established SAIMEMORY in 2024 to commercialize such architectures, moving upstream into memory rather than relying on existing suppliers. Intel joined as a technical partner, while RIKEN supports evaluation and system-level integration.
In early 2025, we reported the Intel-SoftBank collaboration to develop a power-efficient HBM alternative for AI data centers through SoftBank's subsidiary, SAIMEMORY. More recently, we also covered Intel’s involvement in co-developing ZAM, a vertically oriented memory concept that promises higher capacity, greater bandwidth, and significantly lower power consumption compared to conventional approaches.
The driving force behind all of this is a growing constraint in AI systems: memory.
Modern AI workloads demand enormous data throughput between processors and memory. While GPUs have advanced rapidly, memory systems have struggled to keep pace. Today’s standard solution is high-bandwidth memory (HBM) — a form of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) that is vertically stacked and tightly integrated with processors to deliver high speeds.
However, HBM comes with trade-offs: complex, costly manufacturing; reliance on precise die stacking and bonding; and limited supply dominated by a few vendors -
ZAM, a form of DRAM itself, redesigns the structure. Instead of the conventional stacked-and-bonded approach used in HBM, ZAM proposes a vertical memory architecture with a different spatial arrangement and a non-contact, or “wireless,” interconnect between memory layers, thereby improving thermal characteristics by reducing physical constraints.
SAIMEMORY claims the design could deliver higher effective density, increased bandwidth, and around 40% lower power consumption compared to traditional HBM.
If ZAM works, it could directly compete with HBM in a massive and fast-growing market, reduce power consumption in AI data centers for substantial cost savings, and ease supply constraints through a more scalable manufacturing approach.
However, the technology remains at an early prototype stage, with a projected path to mass production around 2029. Historically, many “next-generation” memory concepts have failed to progress beyond lab demonstrations, making execution the key uncertainty.
The NEDO-supported program is expected to run for approximately 3.5 years, with SAIMEMORY planning to invest around JPY 8 billion (USD 5 million) through fiscal 2027 to develop working prototypes. The longer-term goal is to establish mass production by around 2029.
That places ZAM firmly in the next-generation memory cycle, rather than as an immediate replacement for current HBM deployments. In the meantime, incumbent memory manufacturers are continuing to evolve HBM with higher stack counts and improved efficiency.
NEDO’s support signifies the Japanese government’s intention to re-enter the chip and semiconductor market — amid skyrocketing AI demand — which it had dominated before Taiwanese and South Korean manufacturers took over market share.
“We view the selection of this Project under the NEDO program as a significant milestone in demonstrating Japan-originated next-generation memory technology to the world. ZAM represents an innovative architecture that achieves both the performance and power efficiency required in the AI era and in anticipation of the accelerating AI supercycle. Through collaboration with Intel, RIKEN, and our investors, as well as other domestic and international partners, we aim to contribute to strengthening the global competitiveness of Japan’s semiconductor industry,” Hideya Yamaguchi, President & CEO of SAIMEMORY.
SAIMEMORY’s development program is backed by a consortium that includes SoftBank, Fujitsu, RIKEN, and the Development Bank of Japan, alongside government support via NEDO.
