China is achieving something that has long seemed especially difficult in the semiconductor industry: building a memory manufacturer capable of gaining traction in a global market dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is still far from the top three in terms of global market share, but its latest results reveal the speed at which it is growing.
The company recorded revenues of 150.3 billion yuan — about $22.4 billion — during the first half of 2026, an increase of 874% compared to the previous year, according to results released following its IPO and reported by Reuters. CXMT also achieved a net attributable profit of 77.6 billion yuan, reversing the loss of 2.33 billion incurred during the same period the year before.
This leap can be attributed to a particularly favorable combination for memory manufacturers. The expansion of artificial intelligence and data centers has surged demand, while supply constraints have driven up DRAM prices. CXMT has capitalized on this scenario to sell more at higher prices, making it incorrect to attribute all of its revenue growth solely to market share gains.
The scale of this market has also changed radically. Counterpoint Research estimated that global DRAM revenues hit a record of nearly $97 billion just in the first quarter of 2026, marking a year-on-year growth of 260%. Demand from AI infrastructure is consuming conventional memory used in servers and simultaneously increasing the need for high-bandwidth memory, known as HBM.
A Fourth Manufacturer Enters the Scene
The business remains heavily concentrated. In the second quarter of this year, Samsung controlled about 39% of the global DRAM market by revenue, followed by SK Hynix with 26% and Micron with 25%, according to Counterpoint. CXMT captured around 7%, still a considerable distance from any of the three leaders.
However, the evolution is significant. A year prior, CXMT’s international presence was much smaller, and the company relied more on older generation products. TrendForce believes that in mobile device memory, a group of four major manufacturers has formed, consisting of Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, and CXMT. In this segment, the Chinese manufacturer has particularly leveraged its supply capacity of LPDDR4X to close the gap with Micron.
The company’s technological ambition does not stop there. CXMT is accelerating its move to more advanced generations and has just begun mass production of LPDDR6, low-power memory intended for high-performance devices. Reuters reported this Saturday that Xiaomi will use these new chips in its upcoming foldable phone, scheduled for September.
This agreement holds value beyond just acquiring a major customer. Integrating a new generation of memory into a high-performance consumer product allows CXMT to demonstrate that its advancement does not solely depend on scaling up the production of mature technologies. The company has also indicated that it is sending LPDDR6 samples for applications in mobile devices, servers, and smart vehicles.
The next challenge will be even more demanding. Artificial intelligence has made HBM memory, capable of transferring enormous amounts of data to processors, one of the strategic components of the semiconductor market. Here, SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron have a much stronger technological position. Counterpoint notes that CXMT aims to begin producing HBM by the end of 2026, and part of the new industrial capacity it is developing in Shanghai will specifically target chips associated with artificial intelligence.
A Strategic Asset for China
The growth of CXMT takes on another dimension when viewed from Beijing. China has been trying for years to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers and technologies in semiconductors, while the United States has tightened restrictions on Chinese access to certain advanced equipment and technologies.
Memory chips represent an essential part of this race. They do not have the public prominence of Nvidia processors used to train AI models, but they are indispensable for computers, phones, servers, cars, and data centers. The explosion of AI has heightened their strategic importance even further.
CXMT provides China with its own DRAM capacity, which virtually did not exist at this scale a decade ago. Its growth does not mean that the country has eliminated its external dependency. South Korean and American manufacturers still maintain a significant advantage in certain advanced technologies, particularly in HBM, and U.S. restrictions on manufacturing equipment continue to shape the evolution of the Chinese industry.
The difference compared to a few years ago is that China now has a manufacturer of sufficient size to contend for a significant portion of the market. Counterpoint estimated in July that CXMT accounted for around 9% of global DRAM shipments measured by capacity and projected about 11% by 2028. The consultancy believes that the company would need to approach 15% to secure a long-term position against the major manufacturers.
Its expansion is also supported by the capital markets. CXMT’s IPO has provided resources to increase capacity and develop new generations of products, including HBM. The company thus faces a period in which it must demonstrate that the extraordinary financial growth of 2026 can transform into a sustainable industrial position when the current cycle of memory prices normalizes.
This will be the true test. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have been competing for decades in a business characterized by enormous investments, rapid technological changes, and cycles where periods of scarcity can turn into excess capacity. CXMT has benefitted from one of the most favorable moments the industry has experienced, but it is simultaneously using this opportunity to ramp up production, attract capital, and accelerate its technological development.
The 874% growth illustrates just how much its scale has changed in just a year. The upcoming battle will be different: determining whether CXMT can technologically close the gap with the three leaders and establish China as a permanent competitor in one of the most strategic markets of the digital economy.
