- The Chinese memory maker will spend 13 billion yuan on technology development and 5 billion yuan on a new testing facility
- The move comes as CXMT’s share of the global DRAM market approaches 10% and AI demand keeps memory supplies tight
Chinese memory giant CXMT (长鑫存储) plans to invest 18 billion yuan ($2.68 billion) of excess proceeds from its recent IPO in technology development and a new DRAM testing facility, deepening its push into advanced memory technology and integrated manufacturing.
The company said on September 28 that its board approved a plan to use 13 billion yuan of excess IPO proceeds for a new technology R&D project.
It also plans to provide 5 billion yuan to a wholly owned subsidiary to build the second phase of a wafer testing base.
The two projects have total investments of 24.1 billion yuan and 10.8 billion yuan, respectively.
The R&D project in Hefei is scheduled to take 30 months to build, with 92.94% of its investment earmarked for equipment purchases. The project will focus on DRAM process upgrades and product design.
The testing project, with a construction period of 37 months, will add a factory providing testing and module assembly for DRAM chips.
Building deeper capabilities
CXMT’s move comes just two months after its listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market, where it raised 66.3 billion yuan after fully exercising its over-allotment option.
The company had 36.8 billion yuan in excess proceeds, making the latest 18 billion yuan allocation almost half of that pool.
CXMT said the R&D investment will accelerate process upgrades, increase memory density, reduce power consumption and improve performance as customer requirements evolve.
The testing project addresses a different bottleneck. As CXMT expands production capacity and product lines, external testing and packaging providers could face capacity constraints, the company said.
Building its own testing capacity would help secure supply, lower testing costs and give CXMT greater control over the final stages of production.
The strategy also strengthens CXMT’s integrated device manufacturing, or IDM, model by bringing chip design, wafer fabrication, testing and module assembly under one broader system.
China’s DRAM push gains momentum
The investment comes as CXMT is rapidly increasing its presence in the global DRAM market.
TrendForce estimated that CXMT accounted for 9.5% of global DRAM revenue in the second quarter, up from 7.6% in the first quarter.
Its quarterly DRAM revenue nearly doubled from the previous quarter, putting it in fourth place globally behind Samsung, SK hynix and Micron.
The broader memory market is also being reshaped by AI demand. IDC forecasts global DRAM revenue to reach $418.6 billion in 2026, up 177% from a year earlier, as hyperscalers buy more high-performance memory for AI infrastructure.
Against that backdrop, CXMT is putting part of its newly raised capital into technology development and downstream manufacturing rather than relying solely on wafer capacity expansion.
The shift suggests that as CXMT closes the gap with the world’s leading DRAM makers, its next challenge is not simply producing more memory, but building the process technology and manufacturing infrastructure needed to compete deeper into the global market.
Header image credit: CXMT’s official website
