An AI-generated image of a chip Photo: VCG

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Tuesday disclosed on its website that Chinese memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Holding Co had completed its IPO tutoring filing registration with the Hubei bureau of the CSRC, signaling plans for a market listing. It's the second Chinese memory chipmaker this month to publicly advance its listing process.

Memory chips, which serve as the "memory" of electronic devices, are often described as the "data granary" of the artificial intelligence (AI) era. 

Industry experts described the developments as a historic moment for China's semiconductor industry. They said that the moves highlight how domestic memory chipmakers are accelerating expansion and technological upgrades amid surging global AI-driven demand.

According to the disclosure, two leading Chinese brokerages, CITIC Securities and CSC Financial, were named as the tutoring institutions for IPO of Yangtze Memory Technologies Holding Co. 

On Sunday, the Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed on its website that the STAR Market listing review status of Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) had been restored from "suspended" to "under inquiry," marking the resumption of its IPO review process.

CXMT's IPO review process resumed on the same day it updated and refiled its STAR Market prospectus.

Following the disclosure of their listing progress, the two companies' first-quarter earnings came into view, revealing striking operational growth.

According to CXMT's prospectus published on Sunday, it posted explosive growth in the first quarter of 2026. The company recorded revenue of 50.8 billion yuan ($7.5 billion), up 719.13 percent year-on-year, while net profit totaled 33.01 billion yuan. The company recorded a net loss of more than 2.8 billion yuan in the same period last year.

The earnings report showed that CXMT swung from massive losses last year to striking profitability this year. Notably, CXMT gave an extremely optimistic outlook for its first-half performance. 

According to its prospectus, the company expects revenue for the first half of 2026 to reach between 110 billion yuan and 120 billion yuan, representing year-on-year growth of 612.53 percent to 677.31 percent.

First-half net profit is forecast at between 66 billion yuan and 75 billion yuan, representing year-on-year growth of 1,714.67 percent to 1,934.85 percent, while net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company is expected to range from 50 billion yuan to 57 billion yuan.

Earlier, Chinese media outlet Jiemian News reported that Yangtze Memory Technologies was expanding production capacity at record speed amid a surge in storage chip orders.

The company's revenue exceeded 20 billion yuan in the first quarter, more than doubling from a year earlier, while its NAND flash chip output accounted for more than 10 percent of the global market, approaching the world's third-largest position, according to a source familiar with the matter, Jiemian News reported on April 17.

Until now, a highly concentrated oligopolistic structure characterized the global memory chip industry, according to the industrial research and consulting institution Huajing Industry Research Institute. The dynamic random access memory chip market in particular has long been dominated by Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology, with the combined market share of the three companies exceeding 90 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, the institute said.

"The two memory chipmakers have delivered what can be described as 'epic' earnings results, while both launching or advancing their listing processes within the same month. The significance goes far beyond the financial performance of the companies themselves," Chen Jing, a vice president of the Technology and Strategy Research Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

It marks a crucial transition for China's memory chip industry from a period of strategic investment to a stage of industrial returns, Chen added.

Chen said that the results suggest China's domestic memory chip industry has moved beyond the sector's most difficult stage, with some companies successfully weathering the heavy depreciation costs, intensive research and development spending and low profit margins typically associated with the capacity ramp-up and yield improvement phases.

"Memory chipmakers have emerged as major beneficiaries of the AI boom. As more Chinese storage firms move toward public listings, they are expected to gain greater capital market recognition, accelerate domestic substitution and strengthen China's push into the higher end of the global memory chip industry," Ma Jihua, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday. He noted that China has achieved global leadership in manufacturing scale and production capacity, while continuing to make breakthroughs in high-end products and technological upgrades, with some areas already reaching world-leading levels.

As demand for smartphones, computers, smart wearable devices, and data center servers continues to rise worldwide, the global memory chip market has expanded steadily. Supported by favorable policies and growing market demand, China's memory chip industry has developed rapidly in recent years, according to the Huajing Industry Research Institute. The country's memory chip market was valued at about 458 billion yuan in 2025, the institute said.

Chen said that China's semiconductor industry is evolving beyond simply "filling gaps," entering a more complex stage marked by parallel advances in technological upgrading, capacity expansion and high-end breakthroughs.