China’s biggest memory-chip maker, CXMT, hopes to raise billions in Shanghai IPO as it challenges SK Hynix, Samsung, Micron
China’s biggest memory chip manufacturer, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), is planning an initial public offering in Shanghai as soon as the first quarter of next year, Reuters reported, amidst an AI-driven memory shortage that has driven up revenues for companies in the sector.
Increasing US export controls on chips, including the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that drive advanced AI accelerators, have
spurred a government-backed push for domestic firms such as CXMT to fill the gap.
Founded in 2016 with government backing,
CXMT is currently challenging memory-chip market leaders SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics and Micron with a 16GB chip using DDR5 memory technology and is manufactured with a 16nm process, TechInsights said.
Research firm Counterpoint said it expected CXMT to increase its market share for DDR5 and LPDDR5 memory chips from under 1 percent in the first quarter to 7 percent and 9 percent, respectively, by the end of the year.
Counterpoint said it expected CXMT’s overall chip shipments to increase by nearly 50 percent year-on-year this year, in a sign of the surge in chip demand fuelled by the deployment of AI infrastructure.
