China's first ten-figure domestic DRAM contract: CXMT locks Tencent for $2.94B
TL;DR
CXMT signs a 20-billion-yuan ($2.94B) long-term server-DRAM supply contract with Tencent, locking in its biggest domestic buyer days before its STAR Market IPO.
Reuters reported on June 29 that CXMT — China's largest DRAM maker — has signed a long-term server-DRAM supply contract with Tencent worth «over 20 billion yuan» (about $2.94 billion). Three people close to the matter disagreed on duration: two said the deal runs three years, the third said up to five. The dollar figure was consistent. It is the first ten-figure long-term contract a Chinese memory fab has won from a top-tier domestic hyperscaler.
CXMT's STAR Market IPO registration cleared the China Securities Regulatory Commission on June 12, targeting 29.5 billion yuan in proceeds at a valuation pushing the 300-billion-yuan tier. The three-to-five-year Tencent contract goes straight into the prospectus.
SemiAnalysis pegs CXMT as the world's fourth-largest DRAM player in 2025 with roughly 7.7% market share, behind Samsung, SK hynix and Micron. Q1 2026 revenue hit 50.8 billion yuan, up nearly 700% year-on-year, while DRAM contract prices surged 95% quarter-on-quarter. AI dragged server memory into a super-cycle; the three international giants' HBM and high-end DDR5 capacity is essentially committed to NVIDIA and US hyperscalers, leaving Chinese hyperscalers queueing behind US money.
Tencent's cloud unit is in an AI data-center arms race with ByteDance and Alibaba Cloud; a memory cut-off would freeze server lines outright. Sourcing from CXMT settles price, geopolitical risk, and pre-IPO friend pricing in one move. CXMT's customer list already includes Alibaba Cloud, ByteDance, Lenovo and Xiaomi. Apple has separately petitioned the US Commerce Department for a license to source memory from CXMT.
Hefei's existing lines plus a new Shanghai fab will lift monthly DRAM wafer output from 300,000 to 600,000 wafers — a doubling inside a year. Morgan Stanley and SemiAnalysis both expect the super-cycle to run through at least H2 2027.
Korea announced 800 trillion won yesterday to double DRAM output in five years. CXMT spent $2.94 billion today to bolt down its biggest domestic buyer.
via Reuters / Yahoo Finance / Prism News / SemiAnalysis / Sina Finance
CXMT's STAR Market IPO registration cleared the China Securities Regulatory Commission on June 12, targeting 29.5 billion yuan in proceeds at a valuation pushing the 300-billion-yuan tier. The three-to-five-year Tencent contract goes straight into the prospectus.
SemiAnalysis pegs CXMT as the world's fourth-largest DRAM player in 2025 with roughly 7.7% market share, behind Samsung, SK hynix and Micron. Q1 2026 revenue hit 50.8 billion yuan, up nearly 700% year-on-year, while DRAM contract prices surged 95% quarter-on-quarter. AI dragged server memory into a super-cycle; the three international giants' HBM and high-end DDR5 capacity is essentially committed to NVIDIA and US hyperscalers, leaving Chinese hyperscalers queueing behind US money.
Tencent's cloud unit is in an AI data-center arms race with ByteDance and Alibaba Cloud; a memory cut-off would freeze server lines outright. Sourcing from CXMT settles price, geopolitical risk, and pre-IPO friend pricing in one move. CXMT's customer list already includes Alibaba Cloud, ByteDance, Lenovo and Xiaomi. Apple has separately petitioned the US Commerce Department for a license to source memory from CXMT.
Hefei's existing lines plus a new Shanghai fab will lift monthly DRAM wafer output from 300,000 to 600,000 wafers — a doubling inside a year. Morgan Stanley and SemiAnalysis both expect the super-cycle to run through at least H2 2027.
Korea announced 800 trillion won yesterday to double DRAM output in five years. CXMT spent $2.94 billion today to bolt down its biggest domestic buyer.
via Reuters / Yahoo Finance / Prism News / SemiAnalysis / Sina Finance
