HONG KONG -- Shares of CXMT, China’s largest memory chipmaker, shot skyward Monday as they began trading in Shanghai in mainland China’s biggest initial public stock offering in recent years. CXMT’s shares surged 466 per cent in their first day of trading. The company has become the most valuable one listed on a mainland Chinese exchange, with an estimated market capitalization of about 3.3 trillion yuan (more than US$487 billion). But that’s still smaller than those of South Korean and American memory chipmakers like Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology. CXMT, or ChangXin Memory Technologies, is among many chipmakers that have profited mightily from the boom in artificial intelligence. Its business is thriving as China pushes for greater self-sufficiency in leading edge technologies while contending with limited access to advanced chipmaking machines due to American-led restrictions. The company raised at least $8.6 billion with the offering, priced at 8.66 yuan ($1.3) per share, in its listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-like STAR market, also known as the Science and Technology Innovation Board. It was mainland China’s second largest IPO after the $22.1 billion share offering of Agricultural Bank of China in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2010. Founded in 2016 in the eastern city of Hefei, CXMT is one of the world’s largest makers of DRAM, or “dynamic random access” memory chips, a kind of semiconductor used in everything from AI servers to autos and consumer electronics like smartphones and personal computers. “CXMT plays a critical role in China’s AI push, particularly in the face of U.S. export controls,” said Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert in China’s technology policies. U.S. restrictions have also barred China from importing powerful HBM, or high-bandwidth memory chips -- a high-performance type of DRAM. The company’s revenue surged to 50.8 billion yuan ($7.5 billion) on jumping demand from the rapid rise of AI in the first three months of 2026, a more than 700 per cent rise year-on-year. Soaring use of AI has led to a global memory chip shortage, driving up prices for some computers and smartphones. One big question, Chan said, is whether CXMT could help with the broader shortage. CXMT is seen as China’s best shot at developing its own cutting-edge HBM chips to power Chinese AI models, Chan said. But it also faces many challenges, including supply chain bottlenecks in scaling up manufacturing capacity, since its access to the world’s most best chipmaking tools is highly restricted, forcing it to depend on Chinese equipment makers. According to Counterpoint Research, a technology research firm, CXMT was the world’s fourth biggest DRAM memory chipmaker in 2025 by shipments, taking up roughly 8 per cent of the global market. Samsung Electronics accounted for 36 per cent, SK Hynix 29 per cent and Micron about 24 per cent. In the first three months of this year CXMT accounted for approximately 9 per cent of global shipments. By 2028, its market share is forecast by Counterpoint Research to reach about 11 per cent. But the research firm estimated CXMT will likely need at least a 15 per cent global market share to be competitive in the long term. “Trade restrictions on tools are remaining as the key challenge for CXMT,” said MS Hwang, a research director at Counterpoint who specializes in memory semiconductors. Some U.S. lawmakers have also recently called for President Donald Trump’s administration to block American companies from buying CXMT’s memory chips over national and economic security concerns. CXMT is one of many Chinese companies the Pentagon says have links to the Chinese military. Beijing has rejected such designations in most cases. CXMT’s public share offering followed a $26.5 billion IPO by South Korea’s SK Hynix on the Nasdaq earlier this month. ___ Chan Ho-him, The Associated Press AP journalist Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.
