China's Memory Chipmaker CXMT Debuts on Shanghai Stock Exchange, Instantly Becoming Mainland's Top Firm by Market Cap

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), regarded as a vanguard for China's self-reliance in the semiconductor industry, made its debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange today, instantly claiming the top spot for mainland market capitalization.

As the world's fourth-largest player challenging the DRAM market currently oligopolized by Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron, CXMT began its first trading session on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market (a market dedicated to science and technology stocks).

According to Chinese portal Baidu, CXMT's stock price, which had an initial public offering (IPO) price of 8.66 yuan, soared 476% right after the market opened to 49.88 yuan, and stood at 46.88 yuan, up 441.34%, as of 9:36 AM, six minutes into the trading session.

For the STAR Market, there are no limits on stock price fluctuations during the first five trading days following the listing.

As of 9:36 AM, CXMT's market capitalization reached 3.14 trillion yuan (approx. 680.2 trillion won), surpassing the 2.75 trillion yuan (approx. 595.7 trillion won) market cap of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which previously held the top spot.

Later, CXMT's stock price temporarily pared its gains and dropped to the 38-yuan range, briefly shifting the top spot, but by 9:50 AM, CXMT's market cap climbed back to 3.01 trillion yuan (approx. 652.2 trillion won) to retake first place.

Reuters pointed out that due to lock-up restrictions and other factors, only about 6% of the total shares are freely tradable at the time of listing, which could heighten stock price volatility.

Through its recently conducted IPO, CXMT issued 6.888 billion new shares at an offering price of 8.66 yuan, raising 57.92 billion yuan (approx. 12.5 trillion won).

CXMT's IPO is the largest on Asian stock markets this year and the largest ever among Chinese semiconductor companies, surpassing SMIC's 7.5 billion dollars (approx. 11 trillion won) in 2020.

It is also the second-largest listing on the Chinese mainland stock market since Agricultural Bank of China's 10 billion dollar (approx. 14.6 trillion won) listing in 2010.

However, Chinese media outlet National Business Daily reported that views are divided regarding the post-listing stock trend, noting that alongside optimism fueled by the AI boom, there is also caution rooted in the memory industry's cyclical nature of roughly three to four years.

The report explained that the post-listing period could potentially mark the peak.

According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, global DRAM market shares by revenue in the first quarter were led by Samsung Electronics (38%), SK Hynix (29%), and Micron (22%), while CXMT's share also rose to 8%.

Just in the first quarter of last year, CXMT's market share hovered around the 3% level.

CXMT plans to channel the funds raised through this IPO into expanding production lines and advancing its DRAM technology.

Research firm Morningstar noted that while CXMT could benefit from expanding domestic AI demand in China, there would be limits to expanding its market share in the AI chip sector due to the technological gap with industry leaders.

(Photo provided by CXMT, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.