CXMT swung to a net profit on nearly 10-fold first-half revenue growth and took 10% of the global DRAM market in the second quarter, as Xiaomi adopted its latest mobile memory chips in a flagship phone and the Chinese maker pushes into higher-end smartphone and AI memory long led by Samsung and SK Hynix.
ChangXin Memory Technologies is closing the gap with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix faster than many expected, and the numbers from its first-half results make the case: revenue rose nearly tenfold and the Chinese maker swung to a net profit, while its slice of global DRAM hit double digits in the second quarter.
"Some of our products are now capable of competing with those of leading global memory makers in terms of performance, quality and supply stability," General Manager Zhao Lun told investors Monday, adding that CXMT's integrated manufacturing model lets it "dynamically adjust product mix and production pace" to market swings.
The clearest proof sits in smartphones, a market the two Korean chipmakers have long dominated. Xiaomi confirmed its coming flagship will use CXMT's latest-generation mobile memory chips, one of the first commercial deployments of the technology in a top-tier device. CXMT's LPDDR6, which it began mass-producing at a peak data rate of 12,800Mbps, delivers up to 60% higher bandwidth and 20% lower power draw than its LPDDR5X running at 10,667Mbps, and made its debut in Xiaomi's 18 Fold foldable. Samsung has showcased its own LPDDR6 but disclosed no mass-production timeline, while SK Hynix plans to ship its 16Gb version in the second half.
The advance is starting to show up in the share tables. Counterpoint Research estimated CXMT took 10% of global DRAM in the second quarter, up from 4% a year earlier, while TrendForce put its revenue share at 9.5% in 2Q26 versus 7.6% in the prior quarter — fourth behind Samsung at 39.4%, SK Hynix at 24.9% and Micron at 23.3%. CXMT's capacity is reported fully booked through 2027 at a 95% utilization rate, and its gross margin hit 87% in Q2, roughly in line with the incumbents.
The bigger prize is AI memory. Asked about high-bandwidth memory, the fast-growing chips used alongside AI processors, Zhao said only that CXMT would keep advancing products and processes per its roadmap. Goldman Sachs estimates CXMT could supply roughly half of China's DRAM demand and as much as 40% of its HBM demand by 2028. RMB 9 billion of the RMB 29.5 billion IPO proceeds is earmarked for advanced DRAM research, with HBM and advanced packaging named priorities.
Zhao also left the door open to Apple, saying CXMT remains open to working with customers worldwide while declining to discuss specific relationships. Analysts caution the maker's limits are real: without EUV lithography equipment, CXMT faces higher costs and lower yields on identical products, and one industry official said Chinese phone makers still lean on Korean memory for export models while CXMT chips go into domestically sold ones. "If CXMT keeps expanding supply backed by Chinese government subsidies, its yields will improve," the official said. "As we saw in the LCD industry, China's technology capabilities can surge rapidly, so it should not be underestimated."
For investors, the question is how fast that yield curve bends. CXMT's Shanghai-listed shares (688825) have rallied on the turnaround, and a sustained push into HBM would put it in direct competition with SK Hynix, the segment's leader, and Samsung in the industry's fastest-growing corner. The incumbents' pricing power in commodity DRAM is already thinning as Chinese supply grows; the risk is that CXMT's subsidized capacity compresses margins across the sector before its own cost structure matures.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
