20 ms·
China DRAM Maker CXMT Targets $4.2B IPO as It Takes on Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron
- amluto 10mo agoI wish them luck. The other major DRAM makers use ASML machines, and I’m curious how competitive CXMT will manage to be without them.
- eek2121 10mo agoNo DRAM manufacturer I know of uses ASML. DRAM is several years behind on lithography due to complexity/differences. Outside of that, I hope China can manage to obtain a foothold in silicon, the world, especially NVIDIA, Micron, Hynix, etc. definitely needs a wake up call. The AI world was spooked when China released an MIT licensed LLM model that outperformed others in many metrics at the time, let us hope that others can follow on this success.
- cpldcpu 10mo agoAll of them use ASML lithography, including CXMT. They are, of course, a bit slower in EUV adoption. But its already there: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/micron-samples-ground-breaking-euv-based-memory-new-dram-process-slashes-power-consumption-by-20-percent-and-boosts-performance-by-15-percent https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/micron-sampl... https://www.techinsights.com/blog/samsung-d1z-lpddr5-dram-euv-lithography-euvl-memory-techstream-blog https://www.techinsights.com/blog/samsung-d1z-lpddr5-dram-eu...
- nerdsniper 10mo agoNo thank you, for the overconfident misinformation. Of the three large DRAM companies in the world Micron is the only one based in the USA. Micron s/uses/“will use” ASML’s EUV machines[0] in New York. Micron shares some info on their EUV DRAM process[1]. DRAM composed 80% of Micron’s revenue, NAND is about 20%. 0: https://www.syracuse.com/business/2023/09/mind-boggling-machines-are-headed-for-microns-clay-fabs-and-so-are-the-worlds-top-chip-suppliers.html https://www.syracuse.com/business/2023/09/mind-boggling-mach... 1: https://www.micron.com/products/memory/1gamma-dram-technology https://www.micron.com/products/memory/1gamma-dram-technolog...
- kevin_thibedeau 10mo ago> Micron uses ASML’s EUV machines in New York Will use. The fab isn't built yet.
- boojums 10mo agoMicron's FQ1 2026 report says they expect their 1-gamma process (uses EUV) to the be the majority of their bit output by the second half of the year. The same report says they've already begun sampling 1-gamma parts to OEMs, so they must have a fab somewhere using EUV already. https://investors.micron.com/static-files/530bd7ed-a8c8-4687-af4a-8c129f740e09 https://investors.micron.com/static-files/530bd7ed-a8c8-4687...
- kevin_thibedeau 10mo agoThe Boise plant is being reactivated and is not ready for EUV production yet. The Syracuse plant won't be running until 2030. Their Japan and Taiwan fabs are scheduled for the 1-gamma rollout.
- arjie 10mo agoA bit harsh. It's just information outdated by a year. The majority of DRAM by all big manufacturers is still on DUV tech AFAIK. Micron's "1-gamma" is pretty new. It's been less than a year since Micron started shipping DRAM based on that process. And to the OP's comment: CXMT won't be making stuff for an Nvidia H100 any time soon haha, but there's a lot of stuff out there that's not that.
- tooltalk 10mo agoChina was the largest buyer of ASML systems last quarter, or about 45+%. DRAMs don't need EUV (yet?)
- nutjob2 10mo agoIt's an opportune moment given how wildly expensive and in demand DRAM is and hopefully it'll give notice to the incumbents that they'll lose market share if they expand production. As they say in business: "Your margin is my opportunity"
- walterbell 10mo agohttps://www.semiconsam.com/p/why-did-the-memory-chicken-game-keep https://www.semiconsam.com/p/why-did-the-memory-chicken-game... | https://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/95351/1/01%20Jeho%20Lee.pdf https://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/95351/1/01%20Jeho%... Chinese memory makers are the product of massive state backing, with tens of billions of dollars in subsidies and the full weight of the Chinese government behind them. Could Samsung win a power struggle against the Chinese government? .. The market that [Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron] created by surviving is completely different from the past. When there were ten players, even if I cut output, someone else could simply increase theirs. But now that only three remain, everyone knows all too well that if anyone recklessly expands supply, everyone goes down together.. the market paradigm has shifted from a “market share (M/S) war” to “profit maximization.” https://x.com/semianalysis_/status/2005458750296256654 https://x.com/semianalysis_/status/2005458750296256654 The key to (CXMT) achieving 10nm-class DRAM mass production at a speed that seemingly defies physics lies in its complete acquisition of Samsung’s PRP process roadmap—a project that took Samsung five years and 1.6 trillion KRW to develop. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/samsung-engineer-accused-of-leaking-10nm-dram-process-data-to-chinas-cxmt https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/samsung-engi... South Korean prosecutors indicted multiple individuals in a case alleging that a former Samsung engineer leaked advanced DRAM manufacturing process data to [CXMT] .. shedding light on how leaked trade secrets may have accelerated China’s push into 10nm-class memory.. engineers in question allegedly took note of detailed critical manufacturing steps in handwritten notes taken over five years.. handwritten notes remain difficult to track or audit. Investigators say the accused engineer exploited this gap by memorizing and transcribing process flows, which is virtually impossible to police effectively.
- tempest_ 10mo agoBasically the same thing that happened to Nortel.
- walterbell 10mo agoFive years of memorized handwritten notes is a bit more old school corporate/state espionage than remote network breach, https://nationalpost.com/news/exclusive-did-huawei-bring-down-nortel-corporate-espionage-theft-and-the-parallel-rise-and-fall-of-two-telecom-giants https://nationalpost.com/news/exclusive-did-huawei-bring-dow... Security advisor Brian Shields discovered that not one, but seven Nortel executives, including CEO Frank Dunn, had been hacked, and that the hackers were vacuuming an alarming volume of sensitive material out of its databases. By the end of his investigation, Shields says he was able to track the theft of over 1,400 documents.. during a six-month period when bosses allowed him to monitor the stealing. He found evidence the break-in of Nortel’s internal computer network had started no later than 2000, and probably began in the 1990s. He says it lasted past 2009..
- MrGilbert 10mo agoWould love to see them succeed and take on the pc builder market, aka hobbyist market. Honestly, the recent rise in RAM left me behind with a huge amount of disbelief and anger. Anger primarily, because big corporations are responsible for draining the market, while on the other hand a Satya Nadella states that they are sitting on a pile of GPUs they cannot use because of limited power.[1] I simply cannot understand how that will ever be profitable. To me, it just looks like a huge waste of resources. [1]: https://redmondmag.com/blogs/generationai/2025/12/microsoft-is-sitting-on-a-pile-of-unused-gpus.aspx https://redmondmag.com/blogs/generationai/2025/12/microsoft-...
- Neywiny 10mo agoIt's all money circles. Everything's made up and nothing matters
- roenxi 10mo agoHow do you expect this comment to be interpreted? I'm ruling out RAM as a social construct, I'm pretty sure it exists in the physical world.
- Neywiny 10mo agoIt actually kinda doesn't. I more meant around the GPUs where directly or otherwise Nvidia pays Microsoft, Microsoft pays Nvidia, both stocks go up by more than those amounts, profit. But for RAM, Sam Altman didn't put in a purchase order for idk 10 trillion DIMMs or something. He said he would buy a bunch of wafers. A tweet had put it well: he said he'd buy wafers that don't yet exist for computers that don't exist for data centers that don't exist for AI models that don't exist for demand that doesn't exist. So the demand is kinda made up the same way there were TP shortages at the height of covid. There's plenty enough to go around, but one person rocks the boat and everyone goes nuts.
- EA-3167 10mo agoIt’s essentially an economic death spiral, but that has a lot of energy and dynamism until it crashes. In this case as long as NVIDIA prints money and people are willing to play pretend for a paycheck, this will go on. But it will end and who knows how many lives will be ruined in the fall.
- tonyhart7 10mo agoneed some competition right as of price of ram is as much as expensive as GPU or entire system
- dworks 10mo agoSince I'm in China, I took a look at Taobao hoping to find cheaper ddr5 sticks made with CXMT chips. Unfortunately, they are the same price or only marginally cheaper than Hynix sticks (1900 - 2300 rmb for 32g ddr5). Perhaps capacity at CXMT is not very high yet.
- amluto 10mo agoOr maybe CXMT is not dumb? If the worldwide price of some commodity is $100 and you can produce an item that is nearly as good as everyone else’s, would you sell it for $98 or for $50? Or the supply of non-CXMT DRAM is sufficient poor right now that Chinese buyers, of which there are plenty, are willing to pay approximately as much for CXMT’s product as for anyone else’s? CXMT’s real ability to reduce prices will come (if it does) by adding enough supply to drive down prices everywhere, or at least everywhere that is willing to import CXMT’s products without absurd tariffs.
- walterbell 10mo agoThat depends on whether your investor (China) also sells integrated products whose sales would increase if RAM were cheaper, e.g. smartphones or mini PCs with bundled LPDDR5, https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/your-laptop-is-about-to-become-a-casualty-of-the-ai-grift https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/your-laptop-is-abou... Research and development in conventional computing are already suffering. Investment in efficient CPUs, affordable networking equipment, edge computing, and quantum-adjacent technologies has slowed as capital and talent are pulled into AI accelerators. This is precisely backward. Narrow AI — focused on real-world tasks like logistics, agriculture, port management, and manufacturing — is where genuine productivity gains lie. China understands this and is investing accordingly.
- dworks 10mo agoMini PCs seems to be the perfect vector, since the only serious manufacturers are Chinese brands. International brands only seem to dabble in this sector.
- TheRealPomax 10mo agoNot sure how you're taking on Samsung or Micron when both of them have pulled out of the market...?
- icegreentea2 10mo agoMicron pulled out of the consumer market, they're still making DRAM. There's been no news on Samsung exiting any DRAM market as far as I can tell?
- walterbell 10mo agohttps://tech.yahoo.com/computing/articles/ram-shortage-stay-samsung-clears-044507205.html https://tech.yahoo.com/computing/articles/ram-shortage-stay-... > Samsung is officially stepping in to shut down the panic. The company has firmly denied reports that it plans to kill off its consumer SATA SSD production. In a direct statement, a spokesperson made it clear: the rumors are false, and Samsung isn’t going anywhere.
- arjie 10mo agoMicron hasn't pulled out of the market CXMT is in. They make DRAM chips, same as CXMT. They might also make DIMMs for servers and so on, but CXMT is primarily competing with the DRAM chip stuff.
- lysace 10mo agoMy bet is on illegal price fixing, for the nth time.
- tooltalk 10mo agoI don't think illegal price fixing is the only thing to worry about if China comes to dominate the business. better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
- almaight 10mo agoTechnological communism means that everyone can afford the latest technology.
- coliveira 10mo agoOf course, people always forget that communism is based on huge production of everything. That's why China can continue to do this and break capitalist companies.
- heavyset_go 10mo agoThis is strictly state capitalism, and not communism, at work and I'd argue that the "state" qualifier is redundant.
- coliveira 10mo agoYes, to achieve communism, state capitalism is a necessary tool. I'm not saying it will be achieved, but that's how it could progress.
- coliveira 10mo agoGreat, this is an area that clearly needs more production and lower prices, something China is exceedingly good at.
- dartharva 10mo agoIt's good that if not anything, the AI giant's antics have shaken up the industry awake and made us aware of how finicky the current status quo is with essential commodities for the entire world being choked up by a handful of suppliers. In the end as new entrants increase, with fortune, the consumers shall eventually be better off as things settle.
- chhxdjsj 10mo agoAnyone got any tips on ways to buy ipos/equity on Shanghai STAR exchange? I want unitree and cxmt
- chvid 10mo agoMe too - these are incredibly interesting companies and the valuations are modest. Unfortunately as far as I can see it is not possible from where I am (Denmark). Some Hong Kong shares and linked Shanghai shares are available in interactive brokers but not these ipoes.
- dworks 10mo agoYou cannot buy these. You can only buy companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen that are enrolled in Stock Connect, which has certain requirements that means these small IPOd companies cannot be enrolled. It is possible that there mutual funds or ETFs in HK that are available, and hold these types of companies.
- peter_d_sherman 10mo agoI asked Perplexity.ai to list all of the DRAM manufacturing companies that it could. What follows is that list: Samsung Electronics – https://www.samsung.com https://www.samsung.com SK hynix – https://www.skhynix.com https://www.skhynix.com Micron Technology – https://www.micron.com https://www.micron.com ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) – https://www.cxmt.com https://www.cxmt.com Nanya Technology – https://www.nanya.com https://www.nanya.com Winbond Electronics – https://www.winbond.com https://www.winbond.com Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) – https://www.psmc.com.tw https://www.psmc.com.tw Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit (JHICC) – http://www.jhicc.com http://www.jhicc.com GigaDevice – https://www.gigadevice.com https://www.gigadevice.com Etron Technology – https://www.etron.com https://www.etron.com Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI) – https://www.issi.com https://www.issi.com Elite Semiconductor Memory Technology (ESMT) – https://www.esmt.com.tw https://www.esmt.com.tw Zentel Electronics – https://www.zentel.com.tw https://www.zentel.com.tw Alliance Memory – https://www.alliancememory.com https://www.alliancememory.com AP Memory Technology – https://www.apmemory.com https://www.apmemory.com AMIC Technology – https://www.amictechnology.com https://www.amictechnology.com Hua Hong Semiconductor – https://www.huahong.com https://www.huahong.com (Note that I have not researched each of these companies individually... There may be errors in the above list (some may be DRAM resellers, some may be defunct, etc., etc.))
- tooltalk 10mo agoThe first three dominate 95+% of the market.
- PixyMisa 10mo agoAnd the next two are 95+% of what's left after that.
- peter_d_sherman 10mo agoThat's true. Coke and Pepsi dominate the worldwide drink market, but due to the immense size of the market, there are always up-and-coming competitors. Go to your local superstore, supermarket, or your local convenience store. You'll find Coke and Pepsi, lots of it, but you'll also find no-name drinks and sodas from drink companies that are not as well established yet or well known. That those exist is a good thing, at least for consumers, at least for those that consume, because the root of all consumer prosperity brought on by capitalism (global trade = capitalism, regardless of the names of countries involved) comes from the relentless competition brought on by two or more companies, ideally as many as possible... We would not have the super high performing desktop computers we have today if it were not for the historic early competition between AMD and Intel (later entered by other CPU manufacturers), and we would not have choice if it were not for competition. Getting back to DRAM manufacturers, The first three do dominate 95+% of the market as of 2026. But there might be some interesting up-and-coming smaller companies to watch... Let's remember that OpenAI came from basically nowhere -- to give Google a run for its money -- as did Google with Microsoft's behemoth 20+ years ago... What new DRAM manufacturer might be the next up-and-coming DRAM manufacturer in the space? Well, we don't as-of-yet know... but the space is an interesting one to watch, to be sure! But you are correct! The first three do currently dominate 95+% of the market as of 2026...
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- bgbntty2 10mo agoWould love to see a new player make ECC RAM or even rowhammer-resistant RAM. I'd accept the price increase and the performance penalties for such RAM.
- bschmidt25004 10mo ago[dead]
- rldjbpin 10mo agoDRAM is relatively less complex to get into for those encouraged to get into semiconductor manufacturing. while there is a time and resource lag and probably a decent chunk of time before these could match the sota, here's to more competition to break the oligopoly. it has become this due to the cyclical mania and bad margins on the troughs killing companies. hopefully this current hunger for memory make it less painful down the line.