Intel is making a comeback to the memory business for the first time since the 1980s, partnering with Japan’s SoftBank through a joint venture called SAIMEMORY to develop Z-Angle Memory (ZAM), a revolutionary next-generation DRAM technology designed specifically for artificial intelligence data centers.
The announcement came in early February 2026, marking a major strategic shift for the chip giant that exited DRAM production back in 1985 due to fierce competition from Japanese manufacturers.
The AI memory crisis
The surge in AI demand has strained supply chains, making it difficult for data centers to obtain enough high-bandwidth memory. Currently, only three companies produce HBM chips: Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology.
Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan recently stated that the memory chip shortage will persist until at least 2028, emphasizing the urgent need for new players and innovative solutions in the market.
ZAM technology promises to be a game-changer. The new memory standard is designed to offer two to three times the capacity of traditional HBM, operating at as little as half the power consumption, while being up to 60% cheaper to produce.
Intel achieved this through its Next Generation DRAM Bonding (NGDB) initiative, developed under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Memory Technology program at Sandia National Laboratory.
Japan’s memory market comeback
This partnership also represents Japan’s attempt to reclaim a role in semiconductor memory manufacturing. Japan controlled 70% of global DRAM output in the 1980s before Korean and Taiwanese firms dominated the industry.
SAIMEMORY, established by SoftBank in December 2024, brings together Intel’s advanced packaging technologies with key Japanese patents and academic research from the University of Tokyo.
Operations are targeted to begin in Q1 2026, with prototypes expected in 2027 and full commercialization by 2030.
Intel won’t manufacture the DRAM itself, that responsibility falls to Powerchip, but the company contributes its crucial NGDB technology and EMIB (Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge) packaging expertise to create a capacitor-less design that stacks DRAM more efficiently than current solutions.
This isn’t Intel’s first rodeo with alternative memory technologies. The company wound down its Optane memory business in July 2022, but this new venture takes a completely different approach focused exclusively on AI workloads where standard memory architectures simply can’t keep up with computational demands.
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