Chinese chipmaker soars 500pc as AI fuels shortages
Chinese chipmaker soars 500pc as AI fuels shortages
Louis GossMon, July 27, 2026 at 12:52 PM UTC
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CXMT makes memory components used in data centres, smartphones and other electronics - Pedro Pardo /AFP
A Chinese chipmaker has soared by almost 500pc on its first day on the stock market to become the country’s most valuable listed company.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), which makes memory components used in data centres, smartphones and other electronics, rose by as much as 535pc on Monday and was still up 466pc as Asian markets closed.
After the surge, the company was valued at 3.3tn yuan (£365bn) on the Shanghai stock exchange, making it mainland China’s most valuable company. The company raised $8.5bn (£6.4bn) as part of its initial public offering.
CXMT is China’s biggest maker of memory components, which have soared in price amid the AI boom.
The AI industry has been grappling with ongoing shortages of dynamic random-access memory (Dram) chips – the same technology made by CXMT.
These chips are used in everything from smartphones to AI data centres. But high demand for data infrastructure has seen the world’s biggest chipmakers switch to producing more advanced processors intended for sale to AI giants rather than the sort of chips used in consumer electronics, driving up prices.
CXMT was launched in 2016 as ChangXin Memory Technologies as part of a Chinese government push to develop the country’s semiconductor industry.
It secured the support of the local government in China’s province of Hefei, which continues to own a 37pc stake in the chipmaker through various funds.
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The company has three factories, including two in Hefei and another in Beijing, and is building a fourth in Shanghai.
It sells chips to some of China’s biggest technology companies, including TikTok-owner ByteDance and smartphone and telecoms business Huawei.
It is now the fourth biggest memory chipmaker in the world, making around 8pc of the world’s Dram supply, behind South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix and the US company Micron Technology.
SK Hynix, the South Korean chipmaker, earlier this month raised $26.5bn from its own float on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
CXMT was founded by Zhu Yiming, its long-serving chairman, whose stake in the business has made him a billionaire.
China has invested heavily in building up its semiconductor industry, as US export restrictions have limited its access to the most advanced AI processors from US giant Nvidia.
The share price for CXMT’s surge comes despite a widespread sell-off in stocks linked to the AI boom in recent weeks. The falls have been driven by concerns about a wave of new Chinese AI bots that have threatened to challenge the dominance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Investing in semiconductors is a core part of Beijing’s “made in China” strategy, which aims to boost the country’s hi-tech industries.
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Source: “AOL Money”
