CXMT, China's largest DRAM maker, saw its first-half revenue jump nearly tenfold from a year earlier on surging memory demand driven by the artificial intelligence industry and rising DRAM prices.
According to China Business News on the 29th, CXMT disclosed the previous day that it posted first-half revenue of 150.31 billion yuan (about 30.8 trillion won) this year. That was up 873.64% from a year earlier. Net profit was 77.605 billion yuan (about 16 trillion won), swinging to a large surplus from a net loss of 2.33 billion yuan (about 470 billion won) in the first half of last year.
CXMT said, "Global computing demand has surged, and as major companies adjusted capacity, the world DRAM market suffered a supply shortage, driving prices sharply higher." The company expected the supply shortfall and price uptrend to continue in the second half.
Morgan Stanley estimated that CXMT's monthly wafer capacity this year will reach 300,000 units and annual revenue will total 388.9 billion yuan (about 79.7 trillion won), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. That would account for about 13% of global DRAM wafer capacity and about 11% of shipments on a bit basis. However, UBS assessed that Chinese DRAM firms' technology lags the global leaders by two to three generations, and their chips' relatively larger die sizes put them at a cost disadvantage.
CXMT listed on Shanghai's STAR Market on the 27th of last month. Based on the closing price of 58.60 yuan on the 28th, its market capitalization reached 3.978 trillion yuan (about 815.8 trillion won), ranking No. 1 among companies listed on China's A-share market.
Meanwhile, CXMT has drawn attention by filing a lawsuit against the Ministry of National Defense. According to Reuters, on the 28th local time, CXMT filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to overturn the ministry's designation of the company as a "Chinese military enterprise," arguing the designation was arbitrary and lacked sufficient basis.
The U.S. Department of Defense first designated CXMT in January last year under the Biden administration, and the Trump administration kept CXMT on the list when it updated it in June. Since being designated, CXMT has for more than a year submitted related materials seeking to be removed from the list.