Kioxia just told its sales team to stop pushing NAND higher on AI data-center buyers. According to Bloomberg, CEO Hiroo Ota, in office since April, ordered staff not to demand another large increase in those talks. He did not rule out future hikes. For now the job is to hold the high level already in the book. “If we raise prices too much we hurt our own market and growth. Hyperscalers have finite budgets.” Second-quarter NAND ASP rose 70% from the first quarter. The quarter before that more than doubled. Ota said another 70% step is unlikely. Keep squeezing and the labs cut capex. That would cut the cycle he wants to keep. Demand itself is still firm. Some customers want supply contracts out to 2030. Holding the line is also a way to lock those multi-year books. The print already shows the squeeze. April–June net profit was 869 billion yen, about $5.5 billion, 48 times a year earlier. Sales were 1.77 trillion yen, more than four times. The stock is about 18 times last year’s level. On SK Hynix, Ota closed the door. Antitrust plus the Sandisk joint NAND plants make a formal tie-up unrealistic, he said. The two are not talking joint production. That answers SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung’s August comment that closer work was under review. High and stable beats one more 70% print. If Kioxia will not take the last dollar, do Samsung and Micron still try to, or does the NAND ceiling get set in Tokyo? $MU