China's DRAM Champion Goes Public -- and 6.6 Million Shares Are Left Unsold

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) disclosed on the evening of July 21 that 6.586 million of its shares went unpurchased by online (retail) investors at its Shanghai STAR Market IPO, equivalent to 57.04 million yuan. The offering was priced at 8.66 yuan per share.

CXMT, founded in 2016 and based in Hefei, is China largest and most advanced designer, developer and manufacturer of DRAM -- the memory chip found inside every phone, computer and server. Globally, Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron command roughly 90 percent of the market; CXMT is the only other player with a meaningful share, just under 8 percent.

The company financials have swung dramatically. CXMT lost money for three straight years -- net losses of 8.33, 16.34 and 7.15 billion yuan from 2022 to 2024, over 30 billion yuan in total. It returned to profit in 2025 with net income of 1.875 billion yuan. For the first quarter of 2026, revenue hit 50.8 billion yuan, up 719 percent year on year, with net profit of 24.76 billion yuan, up 1,688 percent, as AI-driven demand for memory exploded.

Analysts pegged the rationale for CXMT valuation at a simple multiple: the overseas DRAM giants trade around a 20x price-to-earnings ratio. If CXMT delivers over 100 billion yuan in annual net profit, a 20x multiple would imply a market value of 2 trillion yuan. Skeptics note the figure carries significant optimism built in.

The 6.6 million-share pullout is a small fraction of the total -- the syndicate underwriters absorbed the abandoned shares and a further 31,567 offline (institutional) shares. But for a high-profile domestic champion IPO, the episode is a visible reminder that even breakthrough technology firms cannot take demand for granted on China equity markets.