China's memory chip expansion challenges established industry leaders with new high-value moves

Chinese memory manufacturers are gaining ground in the global DRAM and NAND markets, with CXMT reaching 10% of the sector amid rapid demand growth driven by AI and data centre build-outs, sparking shifts among industry giants.

China’s growing footprint in memory chips is now showing up in the numbers. In the second quarter of 2026, ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, reached 10% of the global DRAM market, up from 8% in the previous quarter and 4% a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research data cited by several industry reports. That places the Chinese company firmly among the sector’s major players, even as the market remains led by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.

The expansion comes as demand for memory used in AI systems continues to outpace supply. Counterpoint’s figures, as reported by HuaweiCentral, show DRAM revenue rose 57% quarter on quarter and 385% year on year in the second quarter, while NAND flash revenue also surged. The broader market is being lifted by data centre build-outs, high-bandwidth memory demand and a persistent shortage of advanced manufacturing capacity.

Micron has so far benefited from that backdrop. CoinCentral reported that the US group increased its DRAM share to 24% from 22% in the first quarter, while its NAND share rose to 15% from 13%. More importantly for investors, the company’s high-bandwidth memory output is said to be fully booked through the end of 2026 under binding, take-or-pay contracts, giving it a degree of revenue visibility that lower-end competition from China does not yet threaten.

By contrast, SK Hynix and SanDisk have lost some share in the latest data. SK Hynix’s DRAM portion fell to 25% from 29% in the previous quarter, while SanDisk’s NAND share slipped to 11% from 13%, according to the same reporting. That does not necessarily imply weakening businesses: SK Hynix has been redirecting resources towards high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, a move that may depress near-term market share while improving its position in a more profitable segment.

Chinese suppliers are also pushing beyond legacy products. Tom’s Hardware reported that YMTC now holds 14% of the global NAND market and has set a target of becoming the world’s largest NAND producer by the end of 2027. CXMT, meanwhile, has been linked to risk production of HBM3E and has announced mass production of LPDDR6, moves that suggest China is trying to close the gap in higher-value memory categories as well as commoditised chips.

Even so, the industry still faces hard physical constraints. Advanced AI memory requires far more wafer capacity than standard DRAM, and clean-room space and extreme ultraviolet lithography remain bottlenecks. For now, that means the market looks less like a zero-sum battle and more like a stretched supply chain in which Chinese manufacturers are gaining share, but established groups such as Micron and Western Digital still have strong order books and long-term demand behind them.