According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, Chinese chipmaker CXMT (688825.SS) is getting ready to enter the rapidly expanding flash memory chip industry, which is controlled by Samsung Electronics and other international competitors. This move would increase its client base in the face of a global memory shortage.
Additionally, the move would put the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip specialist up against domestic competitor YMTC in one of the fastest-growing segments of the semiconductor industry.
Industry executives predict that the global memory shortage caused by artificial intelligence servers will last until at least 2027.
In July, Kwak Noh-jung, CEO of SK Hynix, stated that 2027 might be the worst year for the industry in terms of supply, while TrendForce anticipates that the tightness in NAND supply will only lessen in the second half of the following year.
According to TrendForce, manufacturers have also focused capital expenditures on DRAM and high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, which has limited NAND flash capacity expansions and exacerbated shortages in this market.
While NAND stores data in computers, phones, and data centers, DRAM supplies the working memory that processors employ.
According to two of the individuals, CXMT, also known as ChangXin Memory Technologies, intends to set up a NAND flash memory research and development manufacturing line at its new facility in Beijing. The company has also set up a research institute in the Chinese capital and projects there include NAND development, one source said.
