China Memory & Storage

China Memory & Storage is a thematic investing concept covering the Chinese companies that design memory chips, build storage products, and supply the memory-interface layer, together with the two state-backed champions now heading for the public market: ChangXin Memory (CXMT) in DRAM and Yangtze Memory (YMTC) in NAND flash.

CategoryThematic / Semiconductors — memory & storage (China)
Representative companies4
Last updated2026-06-16
Key takeaways
  • China Memory & Storage groups the listed Chinese companies that design memory chips, build storage products, and supply the memory-interface layer, together with the two state-backed champions now heading for the public market: ChangXin Memory (CXMT) in DRAM and Yangtze Memory (YMTC) in NAND flash.
  • The headline events are two of the largest Chinese chip IPOs in years. CXMT cleared its Shanghai STAR Market listing-committee review on May 27, 2026, aiming to raise about 29.5 billion yuan (roughly $4.3 billion), the largest mainland IPO since 2022, while YMTC filed for IPO tutoring in May 2026 on the same STAR Market path.
  • China is climbing the memory ladder fast. CXMT reached 7.67% of the global DRAM market in the fourth quarter of 2025, and YMTC's NAND share roughly doubled to about 13% in the first quarter of 2026, level with Micron and SanDisk, according to Counterpoint Research.
  • The driver is policy plus AI demand. China's Big Fund III committed 344 billion yuan (about $47.5 billion) in 2024 to chip self-sufficiency, just as the AI memory supercycle pushed DRAM and NAND contract prices up more than 50% in a single quarter, per TrendForce.
  • There is no licensed ETF tracking this concept. Because CXMT and YMTC are not yet listed, the publicly investable proxies are A-share names such as GigaDevice (603986), Montage Technology (688008), Longsys (301308), and Ingenic (300223).

What is the China memory & storage concept?

It is the domestic-substitution side of the memory industry, organized as a national value chain. At the top sit the two unlisted fabs: ChangXin Memory (CXMT), China’s largest DRAM maker, and Yangtze Memory (YMTC), its only full NAND flash maker. Around them are the listed specialists investors can actually own: GigaDevice in NOR flash and CXMT-made niche DRAM, Montage Technology in the DDR5 memory-interface chips AI servers need, Longsys in storage modules under the Lexar and FORESEE brands, and Ingenic in specialty and automotive memory through its ISSI unit. The thesis is simple to state and hard to execute: China imports most of its memory and is spending heavily to make it at home.

Why now? A memory supercycle meets a self-sufficiency push

Two forces have converged. The first is the AI memory shortage: TrendForce projects the global DRAM market to jump 144% to $404.3 billion in 2026 and NAND flash to rise 112% to $147.3 billion, with first-quarter 2026 DRAM contract prices up more than 60% quarter over quarter (TrendForce). That price spike lifts every Chinese memory name at once. The second is policy: China’s National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund committed 344 billion yuan, about $47.5 billion, to its third phase in 2024, the largest of the three and aimed squarely at the equipment and materials a domestic memory industry needs (TrendForce).

The result is visible in share gains. CXMT reached 7.67% of the global DRAM market in the fourth quarter of 2025 on Omdia’s data, its share climbing through the year, and now ranks fourth worldwide (Caixin). In NAND, YMTC roughly doubled its share to about 13% in the first quarter of 2026, level with Micron and SanDisk and behind only Samsung, SK Hynix, and Kioxia (Counterpoint via DIGITIMES).

“YMTC has rapidly risen to become the market’s most impressive performer.”

— Counterpoint Research, Q1 2026 NAND market report (DIGITIMES)

The timing is what makes the concept investable in 2026. CXMT cleared its Shanghai STAR Market listing-committee review on May 27, 2026, targeting about 29.5 billion yuan, roughly $4.3 billion, in what would be the largest mainland-China IPO since 2022 (Caixin). YMTC filed for IPO tutoring with the Hubei securities regulator in the same month, putting both champions on a path to public markets that will reset valuations for the entire listed group (TechNode).

Who should consider China memory & storage?

It fits an investor who wants direct exposure to China’s import-substitution story and can tolerate both deep memory cycles and policy risk. For an individual investor, the recent numbers are dramatic: Longsys swung to a 3.86 billion yuan net profit in the first quarter of 2026, about 2.7 times its full-year 2025 profit, and GigaDevice’s net profit rose more than 500% year over year as the shortage lifted prices (Caixin). Those gains ride a price spike that can reverse, so the concept belongs in a satellite sleeve held across a full cycle.

For an institutional allocator, the concept is the onshore complement to a global memory book. The listed proxies trade on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, giving China A-share exposure that a Korea or Taiwan memory sleeve does not, and they are levered to a clear policy tailwind in the Big Fund’s 344 billion yuan third phase (TrendForce). The practical caveats are governance and access: state capital is the large shareholder behind the unlisted champions, and the CXMT and YMTC listings will reprice the comparables, so position sizing should anticipate that re-rating (SCMP).

Why does China memory & storage work? Key drivers

The first driver is captive demand. China is the world’s largest consumer of memory, and CXMT already supplies domestic handset makers such as Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Oppo, which gives a homegrown maker a guaranteed first market while it closes the technology gap (Caixin). The second is state capital at a scale no private company could match, channeled through the Big Fund into fabs, equipment, and materials (TrendForce).

The third driver is the export-control forcing function. After Washington added YMTC to the Entity List in December 2022 and tightened memory and HBM equipment rules in 2024 (CSIS), Chinese fabs had to localize their tools, and the domestically made share of equipment used in China rose to 35% in 2025, led by NAURA and AMEC (TrendForce). The fourth is technology momentum: YMTC’s Xtacking wafer-bonding architecture pushed it to a 294-layer fifth-generation 3D NAND, and Samsung reportedly licensed YMTC’s hybrid-bonding patents for its own next-generation NAND, a rare case of the industry leader licensing from a Chinese challenger (Tom’s Hardware; DIGITIMES).

Which companies represent China memory & storage?

The two headline names, CXMT and YMTC, are not yet listed, so the representative table below holds the four A-share proxies investors can own today. Each is a different slice of the chain: GigaDevice in specialty memory, Montage in the memory-interface layer, Longsys in storage modules, and Ingenic in automotive and specialty memory.

CompanySectorWhat it does
GigaDevice Semiconductor (603986) Technology · Specialty Memory (NOR Flash, Niche DRAM) & MCUs China's leading specialty-memory chip designer and a global top-tier NOR flash supplier. GigaDevice also sells self-branded niche DRAM manufactured by ChangXin Memory (CXMT) and is the domestic leader in 32-bit microcontrollers. First-quarter 2026 revenue rose 119% year over year to 4.19 billion yuan as the memory shortage lifted both volumes and prices.
Montage Technology (688008) Technology · Memory Interface & Interconnect Chips China's leader in DDR5 memory-interface chips: register clock drivers, data buffers, and the MRCD/MDB modules that high-bandwidth AI-server memory depends on. Montage is a lead developer of the JEDEC DDR5 RCD standard and one of only two first-generation MRCD/MDB suppliers worldwide. Interconnect chips drove a 62.2% gross margin in 2025.
Longsys Electronics (301308) Technology · Storage Modules & Solutions (NAND, DRAM) China's largest storage-module and storage-solutions company, owner of the retail Lexar brand and the embedded FORESEE brand, making eMMC, UFS, SSDs, and DRAM modules. Its margins are highly geared to the memory price cycle: first-quarter 2026 net profit reached 3.86 billion yuan, about 2.7 times its entire 2025 profit, as memory prices spiked.
Ingenic Semiconductor (300223) Technology · Specialty & Automotive Memory (via ISSI), AIoT Compute A fabless designer whose memory business runs through its acquisition of ISSI (Integrated Silicon Solution), supplying specialty and automotive-grade DRAM, SRAM, and NOR and NAND flash, alongside AIoT compute and analog chips. Memory is its largest segment, and first-quarter 2026 net profit jumped 332% year over year to 319 million yuan.

What are the risks of China memory & storage?

The same forces that lifted these companies can work against them.

  • Price cyclicality. Memory is a commodity. Contract prices that rose more than 50% in a quarter can fall as fast once supply catches up, and TrendForce’s growth forecasts are projections, not floors (TrendForce).
  • Export controls. YMTC is on the US Entity List and its equipment access is restricted; CXMT has avoided listing so far but remains a candidate, so a single rule change can reset the investment case (CSIS).
  • Technology gap. CXMT’s DDR5 meets mainstream benchmarks but still lags the global leaders in manufacturing process, and Chinese makers compete mostly in the lower and middle tiers of the market (Caixin).
  • IPO and governance risk. The two champions are unlisted and state-backed, and the listed proxies are onshore A-shares with their own liquidity, disclosure, and valuation profile that the CXMT and YMTC IPOs will reprice (SCMP).

Related concepts, securities & terms

Related indices & ETFs

There is no licensed ETF that tracks this concept, and no Akros index covers it. Because CXMT and YMTC are not yet listed, direct exposure means owning the individual A-share proxies. The closest same-region fund is a broad China A-share semiconductor ETF rather than a memory-specific one; see the frequently asked questions below for a labeled example and its official product page.

Frequently asked questions about China memory & storage

What is the China memory & storage concept?

It is the set of Chinese companies along the memory and storage value chain: the DRAM and NAND fabs ChangXin Memory (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory (YMTC), the specialty-memory and storage-module designers that are publicly listed, and the memory-interface layer that AI servers need. The thesis is China's drive to replace imported memory with domestic supply, funded by state capital and accelerated by the 2025 to 2026 AI memory shortage that pushed DRAM and NAND prices up more than 50% in a quarter (TrendForce).

What are CXMT and YMTC?

They are China's two memory champions. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), founded in 2016 in Hefei, is the country's largest DRAM maker and the fourth-largest globally, with 7.67% of the world DRAM market in the fourth quarter of 2025 (Caixin). Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), founded in 2016 in Wuhan, is China's only full 3D NAND flash maker and the inventor of the Xtacking wafer-bonding architecture; its NAND share reached about 13% in the first quarter of 2026 (Counterpoint via DIGITIMES).

When will CXMT and YMTC go public?

CXMT is the furthest along: it cleared the Shanghai STAR Market listing-committee review on May 27, 2026, targeting a raise of about 29.5 billion yuan (roughly $4.3 billion), which would be the largest mainland-China IPO since 2022, with trading expected in the second half of 2026 (Caixin). YMTC is earlier in the queue: it filed for IPO tutoring (pre-listing counseling) with the Hubei securities regulator in May 2026, with China Securities and CITIC Securities as sponsors, and was reported to be aiming for a STAR Market application as soon as mid-2026 (TechNode).

How big is China's share of global DRAM and NAND?

Still a minority, but rising quickly. In DRAM, CXMT lifted China's footprint to 7.67% of the global market by the fourth quarter of 2025 on Omdia's data, its share climbing through the year, while Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron still hold the bulk of the market (Caixin). In NAND, YMTC's share roughly doubled from 8% a year earlier to about 13% in the first quarter of 2026, tying Micron and SanDisk and trailing only Samsung at 29%, SK Hynix at 18%, and Kioxia at 14% (Counterpoint via DIGITIMES).

Why is China pushing memory self-sufficiency?

Because memory is a strategic import China wants to make at home, and US export controls have made the case sharper. China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, the Big Fund, committed 344 billion yuan (about $47.5 billion) to its third phase in 2024, the largest of the three, aimed largely at chip equipment and materials (TrendForce). Washington added YMTC to its Entity List in December 2022 and tightened memory and HBM equipment rules in 2024 (CSIS), which has pushed Chinese fabs to adopt domestic tools, whose share of equipment used in China rose to 35% in 2025 (TrendForce).

Which companies represent the China memory & storage concept?

The two headline names, CXMT and YMTC, are not yet listed, so the publicly investable proxies are four A-share companies. GigaDevice (603986) leads in NOR flash and sells niche DRAM made by CXMT. Montage Technology (688008) makes the DDR5 memory-interface chips AI servers need. Longsys (301308) is China's largest storage-module maker, owner of the Lexar brand. Ingenic (300223) supplies specialty and automotive memory through its ISSI unit. All four reported sharply higher first-quarter 2026 results as the memory cycle turned up (Caixin).

Is there an ETF that tracks China memory & storage?

No fund tracks this concept directly, and there is no Akros index for it. The closest same-region proxy is a broad China A-share semiconductor ETF rather than a memory-specific one: for example the ChinaAMC CNI Semiconductor Chip ETF (159995) on the Shenzhen exchange, managed by China Asset Management, which tracks the CNI Semiconductor Chips Index and holds memory names including GigaDevice and Montage (China Asset Management). It is a diversified chip fund, not a pure memory play, so memory is only part of its exposure. Always check fees, holdings, and risk before investing.

Is China memory & storage a good long-term buy for an individual investor?

It suits an investor who wants leverage to China's import-substitution story and can stomach both memory cyclicality and policy risk. The upside is visible in the numbers: Longsys swung to a 3.86 billion yuan profit in the first quarter of 2026, about 2.7 times its full-year 2025 profit, and GigaDevice's net profit rose more than 500% (Caixin). The catch is that those gains ride a price spike that can reverse, and the sector sits squarely in the US-China export-control crossfire (CSIS). It belongs in a satellite sleeve sized for a full cycle, not a one-quarter trade.

How does China memory & storage fit an institutional China or EM tech mandate?

As the domestic-substitution complement to a global memory allocation. The listed proxies are A-share large and mid caps on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, so they give onshore China exposure that a Korea or Taiwan memory sleeve does not, and they are levered to a policy tailwind, the Big Fund's 344 billion yuan third phase (TrendForce). The caveats are access and governance: many of these names are onshore-listed, state capital is a large shareholder of the unlisted champions, and the CXMT and YMTC IPOs will reset the comparable valuations for the whole group (SCMP).

What are the main risks of the China memory & storage concept?

Four stand out. First, cyclicality: memory prices that rose more than 50% in a quarter can fall as fast when supply catches up (TrendForce). Second, export controls: YMTC is on the US Entity List and the equipment supply chain is restricted, while CXMT has so far avoided it but remains a candidate (CSIS). Third, a technology gap: CXMT's DDR5 still lags the global leaders in manufacturing process. Fourth, IPO and governance risk: the headline champions are unlisted and state-backed, and the proxies are onshore A-shares with their own liquidity and disclosure profile.

Sources & references

  1. AI Architecture Evolution Set to Drive Memory Market Revenue to a New Peak in 2027 · TrendForce, 2026-01-22
  2. ChangXin Clears Key Hurdle for Record STAR Market IPO · Caixin Global, 2026-05-28
  3. China's CXMT Takes Aim at Global Leaders With High-End DDR5 Memory Chips · Caixin Global, 2025-11-26
  4. Memory Shortage Works Out for Chinese Chipmaker CXMT · Caixin Global, 2026-05-19
  5. How China's Hefei Model Spawned a Chipmaker's Multibillion-Dollar IPO Plan · South China Morning Post, 2026-06-09
  6. China's Memory Chipmaker YMTC Advances IPO Plans · TechNode, 2026-05-20
  7. YMTC Revenue Surges as NAND Flash Market Hits Record in Q1 2026 (Counterpoint Research) · Counterpoint Research / DIGITIMES, 2026-06-03
  8. Understanding the Biden Administration's Updated Export Controls · Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 2024-12-11
  9. China's Big Fund Phase Three Commences, Injecting 344 Billion RMB Into Semiconductor Industry Growth · TrendForce, 2024-05-27
  10. China's Domestic Chip Equipment Adoption Beats 2025 Target at 35%, Led by NAURA, AMEC · TrendForce, 2026-01-12
  11. Samsung to License Yangtze Memory Hybrid-Bonding Technology for Next-Generation NAND · DIGITIMES, 2025-02-25
  12. Chinese Chipmaker Ships Record-Breaking Chips: YMTC Quietly Begins Shipping 5th-Gen 3D TLC NAND · Tom's Hardware, 2025-01-30
  13. Chinese Memory Makers Led by CXMT Advance in the DRAM Market, Challenging Samsung, SK hynix and Micron · TrendForce, 2025-01-16
  14. ChinaAMC CNI Semiconductor Chip ETF (159995) — product page · China Asset Management (ChinaAMC), 2020-01-20