CXMT forecasts $19.8bn profit as AI-driven memory shortage sends prices soaring

China’s CXMT expects a dramatic swing from loss to profit in the first nine months of 2026 as surging AI demand tightens global DRAM supplies and lifts prices.

Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT is on course to post a dramatic turnaround for the first nine months of 2026, with preliminary figures pointing to net profit of 131 billion to 132.5 billion yuan, or about $19.6 billion to $19.8 billion. That compares with a loss of 5.3 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier, underscoring how sharply the market for dynamic random-access memory has improved in less than a year.

Revenue is expected to have climbed to 265 billion to 270 billion yuan from 32.1 billion yuan a year earlier, according to the company’s filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Bloomberg reported that the scale of the increase reflects a severe tightening in global memory supply as artificial-intelligence systems have driven demand for chips used in phones, personal computers and servers. CXMT said the shortage began in the second half of 2025 and has pushed prices higher across the sector.

The company also said it has expanded output and improved factory utilisation, allowing it to extract more chips from each silicon wafer. In a separate move, chairman Zhu Yiming proposed a share buyback of 1 billion to 2 billion yuan over 12 months, with the repurchased stock to be used for employee incentive schemes or cancelled, according to The Paper.

CXMT’s rapid rise has also drawn close attention because it is a newer entrant in a strategically important industry. The company listed in Shanghai in July, when its shares surged 466% on debut, and its market value was about 3.06 trillion yuan at Friday’s close. In September, CXMT said its fifth-generation DRAM had entered mass production, although that claim has not been independently verified by outside testers. Some Western memory-kit makers, including Corsair, have already begun using Chinese DRAM components.