Over the past year, the memory chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) turned from a cash drainer into China's biggest AI gainer.

According to Financial Times, this high-tech firm based in the Chinese city of Hefei was operating at a loss of about $5 billion for the past ten years. But thanks to all the demand for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) at AI data centers, CXMT's recent fortunes changed in a big way.

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The New York Times reported that CXMT's revenues exploded 700% between 2025 and 2026, reaching $7.5 billion in Q1 2026 alone.

With such dramatic growth, it's only natural that Chinese investors would go crazy for this semiconductor superstar — and that's exactly what happened when it listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Initially, CXMT was priced at 8.66 yuan ($1.28 USD) per share on July 27, which already valued it at $80 billion according to Counterpoint Research. Once CXMT closed its first day of trading, it surged to a closing price of 49 yuan.

Even though this price gives CXMT an eye-popping price-to-earnings ratio of over 1,600, some analysts think the bull run is only beginning. As Financial Times reported, the firm Nomura says its price target for CXMT is 116 yuan, implying about 135% upside from today's prices.​

Can CXMT control the memory market?

While some investors were cheering for CXMT's market debut, AI investors betting on Korean or U.S.-based manufacturers weren't so happy. The three leaders in the AI memory game — SK Hynix [NASDAQ:SKHY], Samsung, and Micron [NASDAQ:MU] — all posted declines in reaction to CXMT's competitive threat.​

Between 2025 and 2026, Counterpoint Research noted that CXMT grew from 3% to 8% of the global market share for memory chips. While that's still behind the three big dogs of DRAM, Counterpoint's analysts believe it has a real chance to break into the upper echelon — provided it can work its way into "a minimum around one-sixth of the DRAM market."

​But there are challenges to CXMT's growth goals. For instance, Reuters pointed out that CXMT faces export controls from the U.S. that limit its ability to get equipment to break into the lucrative high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips game.​