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China's leading memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) shot to the top of the mainland's stock market on Monday after its shares surged 530% in their trading debut, making the company the most valuable listed firm in mainland China.
The rally pushed CXMT's market capitalization to 3.65 trillion yuan ($540 billion), surpassing banking giant ICBC after the company raised 66.6 billion yuan in its blockbuster initial public offering.
The stock briefly climbed to CNY 55.03 ($8.13) before giving back part of its gains to trade around CNY 49.
The listing comes as the global race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure drives demand for memory chips used in AI servers and cloud computing, while tightening supplies of DRAM chips found in laptops, smartphones and other consumer electronics.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Hefei, Anhui province, CXMT has grown into China's largest DRAM chipmaker and the world's fourth-largest producer, holding about an 8% share of the global market.
The company operates three DRAM fabrication plants with a combined production capacity of around 300,000 12-inch wafers per month. It is building a fourth facility expected to lift capacity to about 600,000 wafers per month.
Bloomberg reported that CXMT's 66.6 billion yuan IPO was China's largest-ever mainland technology share sale, surpassing the 46.3 billion yuan raised by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. in 2020. The company sold 6.688 billion shares at 8.66 yuan each before any overallotment option.
Newly listed shares on China's mainland exchanges are exempt from daily trading limits during their first five sessions, allowing for sharp price swings.
Retail investors drove much of the demand, with the retail portion of the offering oversubscribed 212 times and about 9.4 million orders submitted for shares worth 7.07 trillion yuan.
CXMT is included on the Pentagon's list of Chinese companies with alleged military ties, although the designation does not prohibit U.S. companies from doing business with the firm.
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