China's CXMT swings to $19.6B profit as AI fuels memory boom
What's the deal? ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) said it expects net profit of between US$18B and US$18.2B for the first nine months of 2026, reversing a US$726M loss a year earlier. The Chinese chipmaker projected revenue of US$36.4B to US$37.1B, up more than sevenfold from about US$4.4B, in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday, October 17.
Why now? CXMT credited surging demand for AI computing power since the second half of 2025, which has strained the global market for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and pushed prices sharply higher. For the third quarter alone, it forecast revenue growth of 589% to 619% year on year and a swing to net profit of US$7.34B to US$7.55B.
What's the endgame? CXMT makes DRAM chips and has been gaining on established players Samsung ElectronicsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, SK HynixDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Micron Technology. It accounted for about 10% of global DRAM revenue in the third quarter of 2026, up from 5% a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research.
What could go wrong? Shares fell 6.5% on Monday, October 19, despite the forecast. Chip stocks broadly have come under pressure over worries about AI financing, and some analysts have flagged a possible supply glut after years of shortages.
The signal: The results point to a sector-wide boom as much as a CXMT breakthrough — incumbents are also profiting from tight supply and rising AI-memory investment. The scale of the profit should not be read as proof that CXMT has caught up in advanced memory, where technical and production constraints remain.
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