Chinese MEMORY is No Longer the Cheap Alternative

China’s largest DRAM maker, CXMT, is reportedly charging more than Samsung’s roughly $1,240 price for comparable 64GB DDR5 server memory modules. Reuters said, “for months, Chinese chip manufacturer, CXMT had been hiking prices on Huawei, one of the country’s biggest technology companies. The chipmaker held firm when Huawei demanded relief from the escalating costs, according to two people familiar with the matter.” CXMT spent years competing as a cheaper, state-backed alternative. Now, AI data-center demand has tightened conventional memory supply, while Beijing has steered state-owned buyers toward domestic suppliers. Reuters reports CXMT has secured a five-year agreement worth more than $7 billion yuan with ByteDance and another worth over $3 billion with Tencent. The company generated $7.5 billion in Q1 revenue, up 719% year over year, and is preparing to debut in Shanghai following an $8.6 billion IPO. New factories could more than double production capacity to over 600,000 wafers per month.