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Reuters reports that China's STAR50 index, which tracks AI and semiconductor firms, has dropped roughly 40% over four months, wiping out about $480 billion in market value. Robotics firm Unitree's shares have halved since its August IPO, and chipmaker CXMT has lost more than a quarter of its value in the past month, even as DeepSeek raised $15 billion and Huawei secured a $2.3 billion loan for AI chips.
Samsung Electronics is reportedly planning to convert its Xian factory to produce 286-layer NAND flash chips by year-end, while SK Hynix aims to upgrade its Dalian plant to make chips with 240 or more layers, according to Reuters sources. Both companies are racing to boost advanced memory output as AI data center demand grows, while fending off rising competition from Chinese manufacturers such as CXMT and YMTC.
Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT saw its shares close 7.8% lower Monday despite forecasting net profit of 131-132.5 billion yuan ($19.58 billion) for the first nine months of 2026, reversing a 5.28 billion yuan loss a year earlier. The company also projected revenue of roughly 265-270 billion yuan, a jump of over 230 billion yuan from the same period last year, according to a regulatory filing.
Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) said over the weekend it had advanced new chip architecture that increases memory density, prompting sharp declines in global memory stocks. Micron fell 3.7% in premarket trading, SK Hynix closed 10% lower in Seoul, and Samsung Electronics dropped 7.4%, with SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital also declining. CXMT, which went public on Shanghai's STAR Market in July with a 466% debut surge, reportedly plans to launch a server-memory product based on the new architecture by the end of 2026.
CXMT president Cao Kanyu said the Chinese memory maker plans to ship its first 4F²-based product, a server DDR5 RDIMM, before year-end, though speeds and capacities remain unannounced. The chip uses a denser vertical-transistor cell layout, called Vertical Surrounded Gate, that shrinks cell area roughly one-third versus current 6F² designs, and CXMT says it holds over 300 patent families related to the technology.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) announced at the 2026 World Manufacturing Convention that it has begun mass production of its fifth-generation DRAM platform, called G5. The company says the platform uses new self-aligned quadruple patterning with an 11.95nm active-area half-pitch, a 45:1 capacitor aspect ratio, and a high-k metal gate process, delivering roughly 50% more die per wafer than prior generations.
Chinese memory maker CXMT has started mass-producing chips built on its new G5 process, which shrinks the DRAM active-area half-pitch to 11.95nm through quadruple-patterning lithography and uses storage capacitors with a 45:1 depth-to-width ratio. The first products, 24Gb LPDDR5X chips offering 50% more capacity than CXMT's prior generation, are already shipping in two package formats and appearing in mainstream Chinese flagship smartphones.
According to Reuters sources, Chinese DRAM maker CXMT is considering building an experimental 3D NAND production line at its planned second facility near Beijing, which has yet to break ground. The company has also set up a Beijing research institute reportedly working on NAND flash development, and has discussed potential NAND supply with at least one prospective customer targeting AI storage products. CXMT has not officially confirmed any of these NAND ambitions.
Chinese high-purity quartz maker Jiangsu Pacific Quartz, which already supplies furnace tubes and wafer boats to Lam Research and Tokyo Electron, has had its quartz components certified by a Chinese DRAM producer believed to be CXMT for 300mm wafer production. The materials meet the 4N5–5N purity level needed for semiconductor process equipment, giving China a more domestic supply chain for chipmaking consumables.
Apple is said to be considering ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a fast-growing Chinese DRAM maker, as a potential supplier for some of its China-related memory needs. CXMT has not confirmed Apple by name but says it is open to working with top global customers and claims its products can compete with established suppliers on performance and reliability. The move would give Apple added leverage in talks with existing suppliers Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix and Kioxia.
Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT told investors it is expanding its foothold in premium memory-chip segments, pointing to progress in smartphone and AI-related chip technologies as evidence. The company framed these advances as proof it is closing the gap with established global memory manufacturers.
South Korean court documents allege that Chinese memory maker CXMT ran an internal program called Project Hefei, led by a former Samsung DRAM development chief, to systematically acquire Samsung's manufacturing know-how starting in 2016. Prosecutors say the plan involved poaching Samsung engineers, obtaining a 620-step Process Recipe Plan detailing equipment and production methods, and using it to launch DRAM wafer production by 2018.