[Edaily Reporter SOYEON KIM ] "It’s CXMT."

When I recently asked a high-ranking official in the domestic semiconductor industry who the biggest competitor threatening the future of Korea’s memory industry was, the answer pointed to just one company: Changxin Memory (CXMT), China’s largest DRAM manufacturer.

Backed by the Chinese government’s full support, CXMT has secured nearly 15 trillion won in capital through an initial public offering (IPO) and is now hot on the heels of the South Korean memory industry. Concerns are growing that China’s strategy—which saw it overtake South Korean companies in the liquid crystal display (LCD) market by leveraging massive financial resources and state support—could now be replicated in the memory semiconductor sector.

Amid the U.S.-China competition for technological supremacy, China has made self-reliance in AI semiconductors a national strategy, and CXMT is a key pillar of its push to become a semiconductor powerhouse. The IPO review process, which typically takes six months to a year, was cut in half. Shareholders included the Hefei municipal government and central government-backed funds, as well as banking-affiliated private equity (PE) funds and leading Chinese Big Tech companies such as Xiaomi, Alibaba Cloud, and Tencent. It is being described as a “national project” in which the state, capital, and the industry have been fully mobilized.

CXMT, which is set to list on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the 27th, will raise 66.6 billion yuan (approximately 14.7 trillion won) through its public offering. This amount significantly exceeds the initial estimate of 5 trillion won. The company plans to allocate the funds primarily toward expanding DRAM production capacity, next-generation DRAM research and development (R&D), and upgrading production facilities.

CXMT’s DRAM market share stood at 8% as of the first quarter of this year—lower than that of SamsungElectronics and SK hynix—but it has expanded sharply compared to the same period last year (3%). Analysts predict that if the company continues to boost production yields and expand capacity, a head-to-head competition with Korean firms in the general-purpose DRAM market could materialize sooner than expected.

Jeon Byeong-seo, director of the China Economic and Financial Research Institute, said, “Investing large sums of capital in upgrading production facilities will rapidly improve yields, significantly increasing the amount of DRAM that can be produced from the same wafer,” adding, “This will also ensure price competitiveness.”