Goldman Warns 'Memory Industry Has A New Problem' As China Chipmaker CXMT Explodes Over 450% In IPO Debut

Goldman Warns 'Memory Industry Has A New Problem' As China Chipmaker CXMT Explodes Over 450% In IPO Debut

BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, JUL 27, 2026 - 02:25 PM Chinese memory giant CXMT, which we have discussed extensively in recent weeks due to its critical role in the Chinese memory supply chain (here, here, here and here), and which Apple is hoping to use as an alternative DRAM supplier to the Big 3 cartel (Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron), surged over 470% in its STAR Market debut today, briefly reaching an implied valuation of over $500bn and surpassing Intel in market cap. At its closing price of 49 yuan on Monday, the maker of dynamic random-access memory chips is valued at about 3.3 trillion yuan ($488 billion), surpassing all other A-share companies. “The stock’s opening was largely in line with my expectations, but the sharp move higher after the open has been remarkable,” said Ao Fei, managing director at Beijing Xinhan Capital. “Given how scarce pure-play memory names are in the A-share market, I wouldn’t rule out a period of speculative frenzy in the first few trading days,” he added, referring to China’s onshore equities market. The retail portion of the IPO was 212 times oversubscribed, with individual investors submitting 9.4 million orders for 7.07 trillion yuan worth of shares - about 10 times the comparable order book of SpaceX’s world record IPO.

The blockbuster debut of the second-largest initial public offering in China’s history - raising as much as 66.6 billion yuan- underscores investors’ voracious appetite for a company viewed as central to Beijing’s ambitions to build a self-sufficient semiconductor industry. CXMT has emerged as the nation’s best hope of challenging foreign suppliers in DRAM chips, a critical component used in everything from smartphones to AI servers. Despite the impressive debut, the Chinese chip behemoth remains well below SK Hynix’s $881 billion market capitalization and Micron’s $1 trillion.