The Chinese chip giant enters the stock market. The first day is a triumph: +470% and a record IPO.
The Chinese memory chip company CXMT (formerly ChangXin Memory Technologies) did theirs today triumphal entry on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
It seems that the semiconductor fever is not just a Western phenomenon, because the giant based in Hefei, in the Anhui region, has recorded a phantasmagoric leap of 470% on the first day of trading.
China’s most valued company
The debut of CXMT on the STAR Market in Shanghai overturned the hierarchies of the Chinese stock market in just a few hours.
The shares, placed at 8.66 yuan, opened trading at 49.50 yuan, with a rise that in the first minutes brought the company’s capitalization to around 3.3 trillion yuan, equal to 487.31 billion dollars, well above the 85.5 billion dollars valued during the IPO process.
A leap that made CXMT the most valued company listed in Chinaovertaking the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), so far at the top of the list.
The operation raised between 8.6 and 9.8 billion dollars, for a total of approximately 66.6 billion yuan, resulting Asia’s largest IPO of 2026the second largest ever in China after Agricultural Bank of China’s $22.1 billion placement in 2010.
These record figures are accompanied by equally surprising projections: CXMT expects first-half 2026 revenue to grow more than sevenfoldbetween 110 and 120 billion yuan, with an estimated net profit of between 66 and 75 billion.
A reversal of the trend compared to the loss of a year earlier due to the growing demand for DRAM memories and chips in a context of strong state push towards technological self-sufficiency.
What CXMT does
CXMT is indeed one of the world’s largest manufacturers of DRAM memories (dynamic random access memory), chips used in AI servers, cars and consumer electronics such as smartphones and PCs.
Although it was only founded in 2016, according to CounterpointResearch in 2025 the company held approximately 8% of the global DRAM market, fourth place in the world; behind giants like Samsung Electronics (36%), SK Hynix (29%) and Micron (24%).
CXMT is benefiting greatly from the AI boom and thriving as China pushes for greater self-sufficiency in advanced technologies, grappling with limited access to more sophisticated chips and manufacturing equipment due to US-led export restrictions.
The listing also comes after reports circulated this month that Apple would begin testing the Chinese manufacturer’s DRAM memories for devices sold in China.
CXMT, like other Chinese companies, was included by the Pentagon among those with alleged links to the Chinese armyan accusation that Beijing rejects in most cases but a further sign of how much the company has become a symbol of Beijing’s ambition to reduce foreign dependence in the chip supply chain.
Semiconductor fever continues
CXMT is just the latest symptom of one semiconductor fever that is disrupting markets around the world.
In Taiwan, TSMC has exceeded 2 trillion dollars in capitalizationweighing alone around 45% of the Taiex index, almost triple compared to a decade ago, a weight that has contributed to Taiwan climbing to fifth place among the most capitalized stock exchanges in the world, overtaking India.
In South Korea, Samsung And SK Hynix together they now account for around half of the capitalization of the KOSPI index, compared to just over a quarter at the end of last year; SK Hynix recently surpassed $1 trillion in value alone, making Korea the only country in the world, other than the United States, with two companies listed above this threshold.
In the United States, Nvidia it has a capitalization of approximately 5,090 billion dollars, the highest in the world for a single company, while all stocks in the semiconductor sector have gained over 70% in the last twelve months.
It therefore seems that China’s turn has also arrived, although its financial market remains proportionately much less developed than its economy when compared to the United States and other Western countries.
A precise choice by the Chinese Communist Party, just think that the ratio between market capitalization and GDP in China today stands at 77.1%, compared to 234.3% in the United States according to the Buffett indicator. A gap which however makes CXMT’s leap even more significant.
