Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT debuts at record valuation with 472% first-day gain, becoming China's highest market-cap company

Shares of Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT Corp. soared 472 percent in their stock market debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, following the completion of a 66.6 billion yuan (USD 9.8 billion) initial public offering—one of the largest listings in China's history. The company, formerly known as ChangXin Memory Technologies, sold 6.688 billion shares at an IPO price of 8.66 yuan each. Shares opened at 49.50 yuan on their first day of trading, lifting the company's market capitalisation to around 3.3 trillion yuan and briefly making it the most valuable company listed on mainland Chinese exchanges.

The blockbuster debut reflects robust retail investor demand, a limited free float, and growing optimism surrounding China's domestic semiconductor industry. Analysts attributed the strength to confidence in CXMT's position as a key player in Beijing's strategy to reduce dependence on foreign semiconductor suppliers amid ongoing US export restrictions.

Originally expected to raise around 29.5 billion yuan, strong investor demand enabled CXMT to nearly double the size of the offering, making it the second-largest IPO in China's history and the biggest semiconductor listing on the country's STAR Market. The proceeds will finance capacity expansion, research and development, and efforts to strengthen the company's position in advanced memory technologies, including high-bandwidth memory used in AI data centres.

CXMT is currently the world's fourth-largest producer of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) chips, which are widely used in smartphones, personal computers, cloud infrastructure, and AI servers. With global demand for AI hardware continuing to rise, the company has emerged as central to China's long-term strategy of achieving greater self-reliance in semiconductor manufacturing, as Beijing invests heavily in developing domestic chipmakers capable of competing with international leaders such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. The successful listing is expected to attract additional investment into other domestic semiconductor companies, reflecting growing investor confidence in China's semiconductor sector and its ambitions to build an independent ecosystem.