CXMT posts W15.8tr profit in first half, closing in on Samsung Electronics, SK hynix

CXMT, the Chinese memory chipmaker that listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange last month and became China's most valuable listed company by market capitalization, posted net profit of more than 15 trillion won ($10.9 billion) in the first half of this year.

CXMT disclosed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it recorded first-half sales of 150.31 billion yuan ($22.4 billion), equivalent to about 31 trillion won. That represents an increase of 873.64 percent from the same period last year and already exceeds double the company's full-year sales for 2025.

Net profit attributable to controlling shareholders came to 77.61 billion yuan, or about 15.8 trillion won. The company had posted a loss of 2.33 billion yuan in the first half of last year, making the swing to a large-scale profit all the more striking.

The results also far exceeded the company's own earlier projections. In May, CXMT had forecast first-half sales of 110 billion to 120 billion yuan and net profit of 50 billion to 57 billion yuan. Actual sales came in about 25 percent above the top of that range, while net profit beat it by 36 percent.

Growth accelerated sharply on a quarterly basis as well. Second-quarter net profit reached 52.84 billion yuan, or about 10.8 trillion won, up 113 percent from 24.76 billion yuan, or about 5.1 trillion won, in the first quarter. The gross profit margin for the first half stood at 84.84 percent, and operating cash flow reached 131.16 billion yuan, equivalent to about 26.9 trillion won.

For comparison, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix posted first-half net profit of 118.85 trillion won and 134.27 trillion won, respectively. CXMT's profit is roughly 10 percent of those figures, but its rapid rise — from a large loss last year to a substantial profit this year — has drawn attention to its growing presence in the global memory market.

The surge was driven largely by AI data center investment, which pushed DRAM demand well ahead of supply. As Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron shifted production capacity toward high-value products such as HBM and high-capacity server DRAM, commodity DRAM supply tightened sharply, sending prices soaring from the second half of last year. CXMT benefited from both higher sales volumes and an improved product mix.

Bloomberg said CXMT's results "show the rapid acceleration of China's memory chip growth," adding that the company "is now enjoying the same tailwinds as Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron Technology."

CXMT attributed the performance to rising demand for AI memory and a tightening of DRAM supply as major chipmakers redirected their production lines toward advanced products. The sharp rise in DRAM prices since the second half of last year, combined with higher sales volumes and a better product mix, all contributed to the results.

Founded in 2016, CXMT has grown into the world's fourth-largest DRAM maker after Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron. Its customers include major Chinese IT companies such as Alibaba Cloud, ByteDance, Tencent, Lenovo and Xiaomi, and it listed on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange last month.

The company has also been expanding its customer base beyond China. Apple is reportedly in discussions to source CXMT memory chips for products sold in the Chinese domestic market. Beyond commodity DRAM, CXMT is also developing its own next-generation HBM for use in AI accelerators.

CXMT is rapidly scaling up its production capacity as well. The company currently operates two 12-inch DRAM factories in Hefei and one in Beijing, with a combined monthly wafer capacity of about 300,000 sheets.

Once new production facilities under development in Shanghai and elsewhere come online, monthly capacity could more than double to over 600,000 sheets — approaching the roughly 650,000 to 700,000 wafers Samsung Electronics produces each month.

Goldman Sachs projected that CXMT's net profit would more than double, from 161 billion yuan, or about 33 trillion won, this year to 361 billion yuan, or about 74 trillion won, in 2027. By 2028, the bank expects CXMT to supply about 50 percent of China's domestic DRAM demand and 40 percent of its HBM demand.

CXMT still lags behind Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in advanced technology, however. Goldman Sachs estimated that CXMT is roughly two to three generations behind the Korean chipmakers, and said US export controls — which restrict access to cutting-edge equipment such as EUV lithography tools — make it difficult for the gap to narrow in the near term.