By Greg Gao
(JW Insights) Apr 21 -- China’s DRAM memory chip maker Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT长鑫存储) plans to file for a domestic initial public offering this year at a value of $14.5 billion, reported Bloomberg on April 20.
The memory chip maker known as CXMT aims to list on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR board at a valuation of no less than RMB100 billion ($14.5 billion), a milestone debut that could help galvanize the country’s technology aspirations, said Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company in the process of picking underwriters and the size of the IPO hasn’t been finalized, said the people.
Founded in May 2016 and based in Hefei, central China’s Anhui Province, CXMT is an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) specializing in design and manufacturing DRAM used in a wide range of popular consumer products, including mobile devices, computers, servers, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IOT).
CXMT is one of a handful of major Chinese firms that embody Beijing’s ambitions to match the US technologically, particularly in the semiconductors that drive most advances from AI to self-driving cars.
It’s one of the largest Chinese makers of DRAM storage chips, an industry dominated by international players including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology but that could serve as a launchpad for more advanced semiconductor development down the road, according Bloomberg.
It’s unclear how investors will gauge a CXMT IPO, given the Biden administration is orchestrating a campaign to block Chinese firms’ access to cutting-edge technologies from design software to manufacturing equipment.
Washington in December last year blacklisted Yangtze Memory Technologies, a state-backed flash memory maker in Wuhan, effectively capping China’s capabilities in advanced 3D NAND chips. YMTC had been in talks to supply chips to Apple for the iPhone before that development.
CXMT makes chips that temporarily store data on phones, computers and servers for central processing units to compute. It operates a 12-inch wafer fab in its home city of Hefei in central China’s Anhui province, according to its website, said the report from Bloomberg.
