Chinese chipmaker shares surge nearly 470% in blockbuster stock market debut — SkimNews
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- ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) shares surged nearly 470% on their Shanghai Stock Exchange Star Market debut, pushing market valuation to roughly 3.3 trillion yuan ($487bn; £365bn) and making it the most valuable listed company in mainland China.
- CXMT, founded in 2016 by Chairman Zhu Yiming and headquartered in Hefei, Anhui Province, manufactures DRAM chips powering AI data centres, mobile phones, PCs, and tablets, and plans to use IPO proceeds to expand memory chip production and R&D.
- Hargreaves Lansdown's Anna Macdonald told the BBC the extraordinary jump reflected that only 7% of shares were available for trading, with demand far outstripping supply.
- The blockbuster debut contrasts with a sharp global tech sell-off this month and a Chinese stock market slump that wiped out more than $1.5tn in recent weeks, offering rare comfort to Beijing's financial officials.
- Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron currently dominate around 90% of global DRAM production, positioning CXMT as China's flagship challenger in the memory chip race.
- SK Hynix raised $26.5bn earlier this month in New York via 177.9 million ADRs priced at $149 each — the largest-ever US listing by a foreign firm — and saw shares surge as much as 17% on debut before giving back gains.
- TrendForce analyst Ellie Wong said memory prices have more than doubled in recent months and customers seeking to diversify suppliers amid persistent shortages should 'significantly benefit CXMT.'
Why it matters: CXMT's $487bn valuation leapfrogs every other mainland-listed company, and the surge landed despite a $1.5tn Chinese equity slump and global tech rout — meaning Beijing's self-sufficiency push now has a flagship homegrown DRAM champion competing with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron for the first time at scale, with TrendForce noting customer diversification tailwinds through 2027.
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