CXMT tops 4 trillion yuan as AI-fuelled memory rally lifts China’s chip champion

Shares jump 12 per cent to a record as bullish signals from SanDisk reinforce expectations that AI-driven memory demand will keep supplies tight

Shares of ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s leading DRAM maker, jumped 12 per cent on Monday to close at a record 61.80 yuan (US$9.16), lifting its market capitalisation to 4.13 trillion yuan and extending its lead as China’s most valuable listed company.

The latest jump appeared largely sector-driven. SanDisk shares surged nearly 30 per cent on Thursday and Friday after its investor day reinforced expectations that artificial intelligence (AI) demand could keep memory supplies tight, while Micron Technology also gained 6.7 per cent last Friday.

SanDisk had reported strong quarterly results earlier this month. At its investor day last week, the NAND maker also forecast solid long-term growth and margins, further boosting confidence in the memory upcycle.

Nomura said the investor day provided greater long-term visibility into the NAND market, pointing to SanDisk’s forecast that solid-state drive (SSD) shipments for AI data centres could reach 1,200 exabytes in 2030. An exabyte equals 1 million terabytes.

Wall Street research firm Bernstein said the presentation made it more bullish on SanDisk, arguing that AI was shifting from a “compute-centric” to a more “memory-centric” architecture as larger models and longer context windows raise memory requirements. It also noted that SanDisk’s planned high-bandwidth flash technology could consume substantially more wafer capacity than conventional NAND, potentially keeping supplies tight for longer.