Founded in 2016, CXMT held a 7.67% share of the global DRAM market as of Q4 2025 . The company plans to use the IPO proceeds primarily for memory wafer mass production and R&D, with capacity expansion targets of roughly 300,000 to 380,000 wafers per month .
However, CXMT's prospectus split 29.5 billion yuan across three projects — DRAM technology upgrades, next-generation DRAM research, and memory wafer manufacturing line upgrades — with no dedicated project or disclosed funding commitment for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key growth segment dominated by SK Hynix and Samsung .
According to a report from The Information, a state-backed Shanghai manufacturer has begun mass-producing immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, with first deliveries expected this year to SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, and CXMT . The manufacturer has not been publicly named due to political sensitivities .
Production volumes are tiny compared to ASML's scale. China targets roughly 5 machines in 2026 and about 20 in 2027 . By comparison, ASML shipped 131 immersion DUV systems in 2025 alone . Reuters notes the Chinese tools still lag on performance and reliability and need further testing before mass adoption .
SMIC reportedly tested a Yuliangsheng immersion lithography system as early as September 2025 . Analysts have offered wide-ranging timelines for when Chinese DUV tools might become commercially competitive — from the mid-2030s for 7nm-capable immersion DUV to around 2040 for EUV .
Concerns that CXMT's expansion and China's growing chip tool capability will flood the DRAM market sent shares of rivals sharply lower.
South Korean markets were particularly rattled by the prospect that CXMT may also produce its own lithography equipment . US chip stocks also faced a broad sell-off, with SanDisk falling 11% and Nvidia declining 5% .
ASML is "caught in a US-China squeeze," as Reuters put it . The Dutch company's immersion DUV and EUV machines remain far superior in precision and throughput, and China's output is a rounding error compared to ASML's volume .
China accounted for around 29% of ASML's total sales in 2025, primarily through DUV machines and related services . The pending MATCH Act in the U.S. Congress would explicitly block ASML from selling to or servicing Chinese firms including SMIC, Hua Hong, Huawei, CXMT, and YMTC, potentially impacting 10–15% of ASML's overall sales .
Many analysts believe a meaningful challenge to the established DRAM "Big 3" (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron) or to ASML is still years away . Key reasons:
The market is pricing in a credible long-term competitive threat from China's chip self-sufficiency push, hitting memory stocks hard. But the actual near-term displacement of SK Hynix, Micron, or ASML remains very small — the sell-off is driven more by sentiment and fear of future capacity oversupply than by any immediate loss of market share.