ChangXin Memory Technologies’ first day on the A-share market quickly became a new pressure point for global memory stocks.
During U.S. trading on Monday, memory-chip names fell sharply and weighed on the broader market. SanDisk (SNDK) dropped more than 10% intraday and was down about 14.6% at its session low. The stock was also 47% below its record high set on June 22, while its market value had shrunk by about $170 billion over the past month. SK Hynix ADRs (SKHY) fell as much as 10% during the session. Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate Technology (STX) were down more than 9% and 8%, and Micron Technology (MU) at one point fell more than 7%.
By the close, SanDisk, SK Hynix ADRs, Western Digital, Seagate and Micron were down about 11%, 7.5%, 4.2%, 4.1% and 2.3%, respectively. SK Hynix also logged its first close below its IPO price since its U.S. listing on July 10, ending the day 4% under the offer price.
The broader chip complex weakened as well. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index was down about 5% at its intraday low and underperformed the three major U.S. stock indexes before finishing the session down 2.2%. At their respective lows, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were off about 0.4% and 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average stayed in positive territory throughout the day.
CXMT listing prompts a global rethink on memory valuations
The market largely traced the sell-off to CXMT’s listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market the same day. As China’s largest DRAM producer, the company saw its shares jump more than 460% on debut, lifting its market capitalization above RMB 3 trillion. That move pushed investors to reassess the competitive outlook for the DRAM industry over the next several years.
Several foreign media outlets said the concern was not CXMT’s short-term earnings profile. The bigger issue was whether the global DRAM supply structure could shift in the future. Analysts said that after completing the largest IPO in Asia this year, CXMT now has much stronger access to capital. That may improve its ability to expand capacity, fund technology development and move toward higher-end AI memory products including HBM. For global memory leaders that had already rallied sharply, the prospect of stronger long-term competition became a fresh reason for repricing.
Some commentary said investors are worried that, with CXMT’s fundraising complete, additional DRAM supply could be released faster in the future. That would weaken the market’s optimistic view that memory prices can keep rising. At the same time, memory names including Micron, SK Hynix and SanDisk had already posted large gains, so any perceived change in the competitive setup was more likely to trigger profit-taking when valuations were high.
Other commentary described Monday’s move as a repricing event. Demand for HBM driven by AI remains strong, but investors have started to reconsider whether conventional DRAM could enter a more competitive phase earlier than expected if Chinese manufacturers continue to improve both capacity and technology. That, in turn, could affect industry margins.
Not all analysts agreed with the scale of the reaction. Some said the market may have read too much into the listing.
At present, CXMT’s products are still concentrated in conventional DRAM categories such as DDR4 and DDR5. Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung, by contrast, are seeing their fastest profit growth from AI memory products, especially HBM. With U.S. export restrictions still in place, CXMT faces a high technical hurdle if it wants to enter the high-end HBM segment in the near term. That means the structure of the global AI memory market is unlikely to change fundamentally any time soon.
CXMT raises about RMB 57.9 billion as debut trading tops RMB 140 billion
CXMT’s IPO had already drawn global attention before trading began.
The company raised about RMB 57.9 billion, or roughly $8.6 billion, setting a new high for IPO proceeds in Asia this year. On Monday, its first trading day, the stock closed 465.82% above its offer price. Its total market capitalization reached RMB 3.28 trillion, surpassing Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to become the largest company in the A-share market by total market value. The article said that valuation was equivalent to two Kweichow Moutai companies.
Turnover in CXMT shares exceeded RMB 140 billion during the day, making it the first A-share stock on record to surpass RMB 100 billion in single-day trading value.
Public information cited in the report shows that CXMT was established in 2016. It is China’s largest DRAM chip manufacturer and one of the country’s key companies in independently developing and mass-producing DRAM. Its products cover consumer electronics, PCs, servers and automotive electronics, and the company is still pushing forward with development of newer products including DDR5.
Chinese media broadly said the listing was more than a milestone for the country’s semiconductor industry. It also showed that the capital market is assigning a higher valuation premium to domestic advanced manufacturing and hard-tech companies. Investors are now watching whether the IPO proceeds will support advanced process R&D, capacity expansion and a more complete domestic memory supply chain.
HBM remains the key battleground in AI memory
Even so, most institutions still believe Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung have an advantage in AI memory that will be hard to dislodge in the short term.
Demand for AI servers has surged, making HBM one of the tightest semiconductor products in the global market. Micron and SK Hynix supply nearly all of the HBM used by AI chip makers such as Nvidia, and that business has become a core driver of profit growth for both companies.
For that reason, many analysts see Monday’s decline in memory shares as more of a sentiment-driven valuation reset than a turning point in industry fundamentals. As AI infrastructure buildout continues, demand for high-end memory could still grow at a rapid pace.
Bernstein analyst Mark Li went a step further and said the sector pullback created a new entry opportunity. He expects global memory-chip market revenue to exceed $1.3 trillion by 2027 to 2028, with AI-era data center construction continuing to support demand growth for both DRAM and HBM.