China’s CXMT surpasses Tencent in valuation driven by AI chip demand

Changxin Technology (CXMT) has become China’s most valuable listed company, overtaking Tencent as investor optimism around AI-driven demand for memory chips pushes its valuation to roughly €455bn, highlighting a sharp sector re-rating amid US restrictions and Beijing’s semiconductor ambitions.

Changxin Technology, the memory-chip maker better known as CXMT, has become China’s most valuable listed company only weeks after its market debut, overtaking Tencent as investors bet heavily on demand linked to artificial intelligence. On Thursday, CXMT’s valuation reached the equivalent of about €455bn, compared with Tencent’s roughly €442bn after share-price losses, and the chipmaker widened that lead on Friday. The rise reflects a sharp re-rating of the semiconductor sector rather than a matching scale of business, because Tencent still generates far more revenue: the internet group, whose services include WeChat and online gaming, reported first-half sales of 401bn yuan, or about €52bn, while CXMT had projected 110bn to 120bn yuan for the same period. The gap underscores how intensely markets are pricing in the AI boom, which has driven up demand for DRAM memory chips used in AI servers and data centres while supply remains tight. According to the report, prices for these chips have climbed steeply since the second half of last year. CXMT, China’s largest maker of the chips and, by its own account, the world’s fourth-largest memory producer by capacity, still trails Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron by a wide margin. Its ascent also fits Beijing’s wider push to reduce dependence on foreign semiconductors, a strategy reinforced by US restrictions on the export of advanced chips and manufacturing equipment to China. State-backed Chinese funds and regional investment vehicles are among CXMT’s major shareholders.