ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), regarded as a vanguard for China's semiconductor industry self-reliance, surged more than 400% on its first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the 27th (local time), claiming the top spot in market capitalization among mainland Chinese listed companies.

Challenging the DRAM semiconductor market currently oligopolized by Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron, the world's fourth-largest player CXMT closed its first day of trading on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market, the Shanghai Stock Exchange's high-tech board, also known as China's Nasdaq) at 49.0 yuan, up 465.82% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of 8.66 yuan.

According to the Chinese portal Baidu, CXMT shares opened at 49.50 yuan (up 471.59%) and spiked as high as 55.03 yuan (up 535.45%) during intraday trading.

For the STAR Market, there are no price fluctuation limits during the first five trading sessions following an IPO.

Based on the closing price, CXMT's market capitalization reached 3.28 trillion yuan (approx. 711.7 trillion won), easily surpassing the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which previously held the top spot with a market cap of 2.76 trillion yuan (approx. 598.9 trillion won).

This is double the market capitalization of major liquor maker Kweichow Moutai, which stands at 1.61 trillion yuan (approx. 349.4 trillion won).

Furthermore, according to the market capitalization tracking site CompaniesMarketCap, CXMT also surpassed the market cap of U.S. semiconductor firm Intel, which stands at $465.66 billion (approx. 683.8 trillion won).

According to the same site, the market caps of Samsung Electronics ($1.138 trillion / approx. 1,671 trillion won), SK Hynix ($880.1 billion / approx. 1,292 trillion won), and Micron ($1.04 trillion / approx. 1,527 trillion won) remain in the 1 quadrillion won range.

On this day, CXMT's trading volume reached 141.2 billion yuan (approx. 30.6 trillion won), marking the first time in history that a daily trading volume for an A-share (ordinary shares issued by Chinese companies in mainland China using RMB) exceeded 100 billion yuan.

Founded in 2016, CXMT raised 57.92 billion yuan (approx. 12.5 trillion won) by issuing 6.888 billion new shares at an IPO price of 8.66 yuan through its recently held initial public offering amid a semiconductor industry boom driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Its market capitalization at the time of the IPO was 579.2 billion yuan (approx. 125.1 trillion won).

Including the over-allotment option, the total scale of new shares issued could reach up to 7.69 billion shares, with the offering size reaching 66.61 billion yuan (approx. 14.4 trillion won).

CXMT's IPO is the largest in the Asian stock market this year and the largest ever for a Chinese semiconductor company, surpassing Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation's (SMIC) 46.3 billion yuan (approx. 10 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 (approx. 14.6 trillion won) listing in 2010.

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

In the first quarter of last year, CXMT's market share was only around 3%.

CXMT plans to invest the funds raised through this IPO into expanding production lines and advancing DRAM technologies.

CXMT estimates that its revenue for the first half of this year will surge by more than 600% year-on-year to reach between 110 billion and 120 billion yuan (approx. 23.8 trillion to 26 trillion won).

However, CXMT warned in its IPO prospectus regarding the semiconductor industry cycle that uncertainties remain regarding the impact of AI advancement on DRAM demand.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)