ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) overtakes Tencent to become China's most valuable company, reaching $524 billion valuation just 17 days after IPO. Chinese DRAM/HBM fab now larger than tech giants.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has become the most valuable Chinese company, surpassing Tencent with a market capitalization of $524 billion compared to the internet giant's $511 billion. The crossover occurred on Thursday despite CXMT's shares falling 1.2% on the day; Tencent declined further after revealing a 176% surge in capital spending on AI infrastructure in its second-quarter results. CXMT achieved this milestone less than three weeks after its IPO on July 27, when its shares surged 466% on their first trading day in Shanghai.
Tencent reported second-quarter revenue of RMB 204.8 billion ($30.3 billion), up 11% year-over-year, while capital expenditure climbed 176% to RMB 52.8 billion as the company purchased computing capacity for AI models and agents. Free cash flow turned negative at RMB 13.8 billion. The results triggered a 5.34% decline in Tencent's U.S.-listed shares, extending a 26% decline for the year, even as the company's domestic games revenue grew 17% and marketing services revenue rose 22%. Notably, Tencent is a CXMT customer, having signed a $3 billion server DRAM agreement with the memory maker in June.
CXMT's rapid ascent reflects strong demand for semiconductor manufacturing. Beyond Tencent, CXMT signed a five-year server DRAM deal worth more than $7 billion with ByteDance in July, and server products have grown from 8.4% of CXMT's revenue in 2024 to 26.5% in 2025. Market sentiment appears to reward the supplier while penalizing the buyer, as investors recognize that the same capital spending benefiting Tencent's AI ambitions flows directly to CXMT's bottom line.
CXMT held 7.67% of the global DRAM market in 2025, according to its IPO prospectus. At $524 billion, its market capitalization represents roughly half of Micron's $1 trillion valuation and approximately 60% of SK hynix's $880 billion. The company plans to narrow the gap through construction of a sixth mega-fab and aims to capture 30% of the global DRAM market by 2030, though it remains at a technological disadvantage as its rivals use EUV lithography tools that CXMT does not yet possess.
Financially, CXMT swung to an operating profit of 35.43 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) in the first quarter from a loss of 2.83 billion yuan a year earlier, bolstered by elevated DRAM prices amid the ongoing memory shortage. The company became the first semiconductor firm to top mainland China's stock market in its 35-year history, raising $8.6 billion in an IPO whose retail tranche was 212 times oversubscribed.
Analyst assessments diverge sharply on CXMT's valuation. Nomura's price target of 116 yuan implies further upside, while Morningstar's fair value estimate of 14.90 yuan suggests the stock is trading at more than three times its intrinsic value.