Yuji Sugimoto led Bain Capital's acquisition of Toshiba Memory, now known as Kioxia. Shiho Fukada/Bloomberg/Getty Images Kioxia became Japan's most valuable listed company as the AI memory boom sent shares soaring. Bain's dealmaker says South Korea's chip champions benefit from faster, centralized decision-making. He says Kioxia could never have made it this far under Toshiba's ownership. Kioxia may have become Japan's most valuable company amid the AI boom, but South Korea's chip giants still