Two of China’s top memory chipmakers are launching their most aggressive expansions ever as a severe global supply crunch creates a golden opportunity for emerging players to close the gap with market leaders, Nikkei Asia has learned.
ChangXin Memory Technologies, better known as CXMT, the country’s top maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), is expanding plants in Shanghai, with total capacity to be some two or three times that of its home base in Hefei, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
The plants are expected to make DRAM for servers, computers, automotive applications and other electronics, the sources said. Equipment installation is planned for around the second half of 2026, with production to start in 2027, they said. The chipmaker is also expanding its production lines for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a crucial artificial intelligence component, in Shanghai.
“The company’s plants in Hefei and Beijing are already running at full capacity,” one of the people familiar with the matter said. “They see very high demand, mainly from local companies, to expand capacity as soon as possible.”
Wuhan-based Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), the nation’s leading maker of NAND flash memory, is building its third plant in the city, aiming for production to start in 2027, Nikkei Asia earlier reported.
YMTC has now decided that in addition to making NAND, 50% of the new plant’s capacity will produce DRAM memory, sources briefed on the matter said, adding that the company will also partner with another local memory assembler to build HBM for AI computing.
Three people told Nikkei Asia that YMTC has largely overcome the foreign export controls that have curbed its access to chipmaking equipment by finding ways to produce memory chips using less advanced machines. The company has also finalized the development of its own DRAM products, they said.
“They [YMTC] started to develop their own DRAM more than two years ago. They have the technological foundation and the market, now it is only a matter of time for them to produce quality DRAM and HBM going forward,” said one of the people whose company supplies YMTC.
YMTC was at one point poised to become an Apple supplier, with the US company verifying its NAND flash memory products for use in iPhones. This plan was disrupted, however, when YMTC was added to the US Entity List, a trade blacklist, in 2022. The company later found growth thanks to Beijing’s push to localize tech supplies and a surging memory chip market.
“It is the best timing for them to secure a solid position in the global supply chain, as whoever has memory chips on hand is a winner,” said an executive with a material supplier to Micron, CXMT, and YMTC. “We estimate the bright outlook for the memory sector is going to last for at least two years and beyond.”
AI computing demand is driving a supercycle in the global memory chip market, with prices up hundreds or even thousands of percent on the year. This surge has already disrupted multiple electronics markets and product planning for 2026. Several industry executives told Nikkei Asia that Chinese memory chipmakers’ expansions will mainly serve local demand.
DRAM temporarily stores data, enabling rapid access that directly affects system performance. HBM, which is built from stacked DRAM chips, is critical for AI computing because it allows fast data transmission. NAND flash memory, meanwhile, serves as the primary storage in electronic devices, with rising AI inference, or deployment, demand driving increased usage.
China’s CXMT is the world’s fourth largest DRAM maker, behind Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, with a market share of about 11.1% by capacity, according to Yole Group. That figure is expected to grow to about 13.9% by 2027, Yole estimated. CXMT already counts many major tech players such as Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo among its clients, according to an IPO sponsorship Letter by China International Capital Corporation.
CXMT has already successfully produced older-generation DDR4 and LPDDR4 products and has decided to migrate to more advanced DDR5-class DRAM. The company also aims to support domestic demand for HBM, as supplies have been cut off by US restrictions.
At the end of 2025, it filed an IPO application to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, saying it aims to raise RMB 29.5 billion (USD 4.1 billion) for production line upgrades and R&D.
YMTC has also gained market share thanks to China’s policy-driven demand for local supplies. Yole estimates that its share by wafer capacity is about 12% in 2025 and could expand to 15% by 2028.
“Chinese memory chipmakers are expanding capacity to meet surging demand, based on our supply-chain checks,” said Gary Huang, head of Asia at Yole Group. “The global memory supply crunch has created a favorable environment for emerging players, giving them healthier financial conditions to support expansion,” he said.
“China’s push for localization and government support are also helping. Together, these factors are encouraging more companies to adopt alternative sources of memory supply, creating new business opportunities for these players,” Huang added.
YMTC and CXMT did not respond to Nikkei Asia‘s requests for comment.
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.