China’s YMTC is reportedly developing high-speed LPDDR5X memory at its Wuhan fabs, extending the NAND specialist’s ambitions into a DRAM market dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.
Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. is preparing to move beyond its long-standing focus on NAND flash and into the DRAM market, with reports that the Wuhan-based chipmaker is developing LPDDR5X memory capable of speeds of up to 9,600 MT/s. According to Counterpoint Research, the work is being tied to the company’s Fab 3 site in Wuhan and marks a notable broadening of YMTC’s memory strategy at a time when China is seeking more domestic supply in a sector still dominated globally by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.
The move matters because YMTC has spent years under tighter external constraints. The company was added to the US Entity List in late 2022, limiting access to advanced foreign equipment and complicating its ability to scale with conventional manufacturing routes. Rather than relying on the most advanced lithography tools, YMTC is said to be using a 4F² cell architecture built around vertical channel transistors, a design that shrinks the area occupied by each memory cell and allows higher density without requiring a corresponding leap in the base process node.
That engineering choice appears to build on work already under way elsewhere in the company. Reports cited by TugaTech say Fab 2 has been used since October 2025 as a research line for 16-gigabit LPDDR5 devices running at 7,500 MT/s, with thousands of wafers processed each month for testing and validation. The new LPDDR5X effort is expected to shift commercial production to Fab 3, where YMTC is preparing a larger-scale operation better suited to the vertical architecture.
Even so, the transition from prototype to volume manufacturing is not guaranteed. The chips still need to prove themselves on heat management, power consumption, reliability and cost before they can be shipped at scale. If YMTC succeeds, the company could strengthen China’s effort to build a more self-sufficient memory supply chain and add another contender to a market that has so far been shaped by a small group of established global suppliers.
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