China's YMTC now trails West by 1 year on NAND; CXMT trails by 2 years on DRAM and 3 years on HBM, per Korea Semiconductor Industry Association.

According to the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, China's memory chip manufacturers have significantly narrowed their technology gap with global leaders. The Korea JoongAng Daily reported the association's findings: "The technology gap between Korea and China in memory chips has narrowed to three years in HBM, two years in DRAM and one year in NAND flash." This represents substantial progress from the approximately five-year lag that existed previously.

Samsung and SK Hynix began producing 300-layer NAND flash in 2025, while YMTC was producing 270-layer NAND at that time. By 2027, YMTC will transition to 400-layer NAND, narrowing the gap to approximately one year. Similarly, Samsung and SK Hynix commenced DDR5 production in 2023, whereas CXMT started producing DDR5 modules only in 2025, creating a two-year gap. Notably, CXMT is already mass-producing LPDDR5X and has begun producing LPDDR6.

On the HBM front, CXMT currently lags by approximately three years. Although CXMT has started pilot production of HBM3E modules, yields remain low at around 25 percent due to ongoing challenges with Through Silicon Vias (TSVs) that vertically connect the memory stack. CXMT is employing YMTC's X-Stacking 3D NAND technology to build HBM3E stacks on its G4 process, utilizing copper-to-copper hybrid bonding instead of conventional micro-bumps. This approach shortens circuit paths between stacked DRAM layers and enables both companies to manufacture competitive HBM architectures without Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment.

CXMT is also set to receive domestically produced Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) lithography units from Shanghai Aishegna and Yuliangsheng this year, though these suppliers continue to face bottlenecks with projection lenses and light sources. CXMT is aggressively expanding capacity to 300,000 wafers per month by year-end through three 300mm DRAM fabs, each with approximately 100,000 wafers per month capacity. The company plans to add HBM-focused capacity of around 50,000 wafers per month by the end of 2026. Two additional fabs under construction in Shanghai and Hefei will increase total production capacity to 600,000 wafers per month, positioning CXMT to overtake Micron in volume production by 2030.

To overcome process miniaturization constraints, CXMT is implementing High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) technology, which replaces silicon-based insulators with materials such as hafnium oxide (HfO₂). This approach reduces current leakage and thermal waste while improving power efficiency and enabling faster transistor switching. CXMT's application of HKMG to its G4 DRAM process (believed to be on the 1z node) and LPDDR5X products suggests the company is preparing to advance to the 1a node, particularly as it develops its next-generation 15nm G5 DRAM process.

YMTC's production capacity is expected to reach 300,000 wafers per month by early 2027, with some capacity dedicated to LPDDR production. Once YMTC's two new fabs come online in 2027, total capacity will grow to 450,000–500,000 wafers per month by 2028, compared with Samsung's projected NAND capacity of 350,000 wafers per month by the end of 2027.