China's largest DRAM maker, CXMT, is pushing a plan to build an additional production plant in Beijing. As demand for memory rises with the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), the company is moving to expand its commodity DRAM capacity to speed its chase of Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and U.S. firm Micron.
According to Reuters on the 4th, CXMT is reviewing a plan to build an additional 12-inch wafer-based DRAM plant in the Yizhuang area in southeastern Beijing. It is discussing financing methods with the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, and some state-owned enterprises are said to have expressed interest in investing.
The talks are in the early stages, and the specific investment size, capacity, and construction schedule have not been finalized. The industry generally sees that building a single advanced memory plant typically requires more than $10 billion (about 14.3 trillion won).
CXMT currently operates three plants, including in Hefei, Anhui province, and Beijing. Each plant's monthly capacity is said to be about 100,000 wafers. In addition to the Beijing plant, it is pursuing new production facilities in Hefei and Shanghai.
If all the plants under way begin operations, CXMT's total capacity is expected to double from the current 300,000 wafers per month to 600,000. The expansion is seen as an effort to respond to rising DRAM demand driven by investments in AI servers and data centers and to back China's push for semiconductor self-sufficiency.
CXMT is rapidly increasing its share with a focus on commodity DRAM. According to Counterpoint Research, CXMT's global DRAM market share rose from 3% in the first quarter of last year to 8% in the first quarter of this year. It ranks fourth worldwide after Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron.
However, there are assessments that a technology gap remains with Korean companies in high bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced DRAM processes. U.S. restrictions on exports of semiconductor equipment to China, which make it difficult to secure advanced production tools, are also cited as a factor that could determine the actual pace of expansion.