Market Share
~1-2% global DRAM
Key Product
DDR4 and LPDDR4X DRAM (19nm class)
Full briefing▼ Expand
ChangXin Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. (CXMT), also known as CXMT or 长鑫存储, was founded in 2016 in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. The company received substantial investment from the Hefei city government and other state-linked funds as part of China's broader push to develop an indigenous memory semiconductor industry. DRAM manufacturing is one of the most technologically demanding semiconductor processes: it requires tight control of capacitor structures, word-line patterning at sub-20nm half-pitches, and extremely uniform thin-film deposition — all without the benefit of EUV, which CXMT cannot access. CXMT has focused on producing LPDDR4X (used in mobile devices) and DDR4 (used in PCs and servers) at 19nm-class nodes, which places it approximately two to three process generations behind Samsung and SK Hynix. CXMT's primary customers are domestic Chinese smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and some PC module assemblers that purchase DRAM for final assembly. This position reduces China's exposure to DRAM import dependencies in lower-end consumer electronics, though for high-performance computing, AI training workloads, and data center applications — which require DDR5, LPDDR5, and HBM — CXMT does not yet produce competitive products. Unlike YMTC, CXMT has not been placed on the U.S. Entity List as of mid-2025, though it has received attention from U.S. policymakers and is subject to export licensing requirements for the most advanced fab tools. Silicon wafers from suppliers including Shin-Etsu continue to flow to CXMT. The company's long-term trajectory depends heavily on whether domestic Chinese equipment makers can supply the advanced patterning tools needed to shrink below 15nm — a threshold that would allow CXMT to begin competing for mainstream server DRAM sockets.
Connected companies
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Critical path — raw silicon to deployment
The tightest single-source dependencies, in order.
EQUIPMENT
ASML
EUV & DUV lithography systems
MATERIALS
Shin-Etsu Chemical
300mm silicon wafers and photoresist
MATERIALS
SUMCO
300mm and 200mm silicon wafers
MEMORY (HBM)
CXMT
DDR4 and LPDDR4X DRAM (19nm class)
CLOUD PROVIDERS
Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud AI, Hanguang 800 NPU, Qwen LLM
CLOUD PROVIDERS
Huawei Cloud
Huawei Cloud EI (AI), Ascend 910-based ModelArts platform
Export controls touching CXMT
China Gallium & Germanium Export Controls (Aug 2023)
China's Ministry of Commerce and Customs implemented export licensing requirements for gallium and germanium products, effective August 1, 2023. The controls cover 8 gallium-related items (including gallium metal, gallium nitride, and gallium arsenide) and 6 germanium-related items (including germanium metal, germanium dioxide, and germanium epitaxial growth wafers). Exporters must apply to the Ministry of Commerce for licenses, which are reviewed for national security and non-proliferation considerations. China produces approximately 80% of the world's gallium and 60% of its germanium, making these controls a direct leverage point over semiconductor and compound-semiconductor supply chains globally.
▲ 13 companies affected
Netherlands EUV & DUV Lithography Export Control (Sep 2023)
The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs required ASML to obtain export licenses for its deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems and extended the existing ban on EUV systems. ASML is the sole manufacturer of EUV machines globally; the controls prevent China from acquiring the equipment needed to produce chips at leading-edge nodes. The policy was developed in alignment with U.S. and Japanese export control frameworks.
▲ 12 companies affected
U.S.–Netherlands–Japan Trilateral Chip Equipment Alignment (Jan 2023)
Following extensive diplomatic negotiations, the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan reached an informal multilateral agreement — announced on or around January 27, 2023 — to align their semiconductor equipment export control frameworks. The Netherlands subsequently imposed DUV licensing requirements on ASML (effective September 2023), and Japan expanded its controls to 23 categories of advanced fab equipment (effective July 2023). The trilateral alignment effectively closed the most significant loopholes in restricting China's access to the equipment needed for leading-edge chip production, since restrictions by any single ally could previously be circumvented through the others.
▲ 12 companies affected
QWho supplies CXMT?
CXMT relies on 8 upstream suppliers across the AI chip supply chain.
ASML (Sole maker of EUV lithography machines), Shin-Etsu Chemical (World's largest silicon wafer supplier), SUMCO (#2 global silicon wafer supplier; duopoly with Shin-Etsu controls ~55% of world supply), Kokusai Electric (Critical supplier of batch ALD and CVD furnace systems essential for NAND and DRAM production), Lam Research (Leading supplier of etch and deposition equipment), and 3 more.
QWhat does CXMT make?
China's leading DRAM maker, targeting DDR4/DDR5 at mature nodes without EUV
Key products DDR4 and LPDDR4X DRAM (19nm class)