Micron surges after steep losses from CXMT’s record IPO

ChangXin Memory Technologies, China's largest DRAM manufacturer, surged 466% on its Shanghai STAR Market debut on July 27, triggering a broad selloff across the global memory chip sector that has dragged down shares of Micron Technology ↗ 18.36%, SanDisk ↗ 25.99%, and Western Digital ↗ 15.37% in the days since.

A Record-Breaking Debut

CXMT raised 57.92 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) in what Reuters called the biggest mainland Chinese semiconductor IPO on record, surpassing SMIC's $7.5 billion Shanghai listing in 2020. Shares closed at 49 yuan on their first day of trading, up from an IPO price of 8.66 yuan, briefly making CXMT the most valuable company listed in mainland China with a market capitalization of roughly 3.3 trillion yuan ($487 billion). Only about 7% of its shares were freely tradable at listing, a small float that amplified the first-day swing.reuters+1

The company reported a profit of 35.4 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2026 after a loss a year earlier, and projected first-half revenue of 110 billion to 120 billion yuan, a more than sevenfold increase. Reports that Apple ↘ 1.41% is evaluating CXMT's DRAM for devices sold in the Chinese market added further momentum to investor enthusiasm.247wallst+1

Memory Stocks Under Pressure

The IPO's ripple effects hit Western memory stocks immediately. On July 27, SanDisk fell roughly 12%, Micron dropped about 5%, SK Hynix ↗ 17.52% declined 8%, and Western Digital slid 7%, according to Yahoo Finance. The selling deepened on July 29, when Micron fell 8.9% as a broader AI chip selloff compounded the competitive concerns, according to Barron's News Corp ↘ 2.57%. By July 30, Micron had rebounded 18% in a single session to close at $874.66, but remained sharply below its late-June highs above $1,000.barrons+4

Analysts at SemiAnalysis estimated that CXMT's DRAM wafer capacity could reach roughly 350,000 wafers per month by the end of 2026, approaching Micron's estimated 385,000. The Chinese firm has been undercutting incumbents on price, reportedly selling 32GB DDR4 modules for about $138.eciks+2

A Divided Outlook

Wall Street remains largely bullish on Micron despite the turbulence. Ben Reitzes of Melius Research has maintained a price target of $2,200, arguing that Micron's contracts with Nvidia ↗ 2.65% and AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ↗ 13.00% for high-bandwidth memory insulate it from commodity DRAM competition. Analysts broadly agree that CXMT remains at least one generation behind in the HBM technology that powers AI data centers.news.ssbcrack+1

Yet CXMT's rapid ascent in commodity memory, combined with Beijing's push for chip self-sufficiency, has introduced a new variable into a sector already grappling with cyclical uncertainty. Whether CXMT's rise represents a lasting structural shift or a speculative frenzy driven by a thin float and state backing may take months to resolve.