A company founded ten years ago is now the most valuable one listed in mainland China. CXMT is the memory-chip maker at the center of Beijing’s semiconductor ambitions. It finished its first day of Shanghai trading worth about $484 billion — more than Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, and just short of Tencent.
A 466% opening day
The IPO was priced low on purpose. Shares sold at 8.66 yuan — about $1.28 — a conservative price analysts said reflected industry uncertainty and a desire to guarantee a pop. It worked. The stock closed at 49 yuan, a 466% first-day gain for investors lucky enough to win the share lottery.
CXMT is raising at least $8.55 billion and says the money will upgrade production lines and technology. The growth underneath is genuinely startling. First-quarter revenue rose to $7.5 billion, from less than $1 billion a year earlier. Profit hit $3.66 billion, helped by a memory shortage that let CXMT push through generous price increases.
It is building three new factories that would more than double capacity by the end of 2027.
The oligopoly gets a fourth member
Until now, memory chips were a three-company club: SK Hynix and Samsung of South Korea, and Micron of the United States. Research firm SemiAnalysis predicts CXMT’s global share will grow to 12% next year, from an estimated 9% in 2025 — a solid No. 4. Right behind it is YMTC, a Chinese flash-memory maker planning its own Shanghai listing as soon as this year.
CXMT admits its chips still trail the leaders. U.S. export controls block it from buying top-of-the-line Western chip-making equipment. So it improvises — multi-patterning to squeeze more circuitry onto a wafer, and advanced packaging that stacks chips in unconventional ways. Analysts say those tricks raise error rates and hurt yield — the percentage of usable chips on a wafer — which remains below industry standards. But the chips are good enough for consumer electronics and AI data centers.
Apple wants in; the market flinched
Here is the twist: an American giant wants to buy. Apple chief executive Tim Cook and top executives have pitched President Trump on using CXMT and other Chinese chips in Apple products sold outside the United States. Micron is fighting the idea, arguing it would hurt American industry.
Near term it may not matter. CXMT says its capacity falls short of demand inside China, and Beijing has told memory makers to serve local buyers first. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote that even a successful Apple lobbying effort would not materially lower costs — though “Apple has every reason to secure an additional source.”
The listing did not happen in a vacuum. The same weekend, the Journal detailed Beijing’s drive to end its dependence on Nvidia within three years. Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang is running it, complete with a closed-door Huawei chip briefing and a national committee of top companies and labs.
The market noticed. Nvidia fell 5% Monday, dropped below Apple in value, and snapped a 272-trading-day streak as the largest U.S. company.