Chinese flash-memory chipmaker YMTC parent targets $4.9 billion in Shanghai IPO

By Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, Aug 21 (Reuters) - CCSH Corporation, the ‌parent of Chinese flash-memory chipmaker ​Yangtze Memory ​Technologies Co, has taken a major step towards a Shanghai listing that would raise 33 billion yuan ($4.9 billion), as an AI-driven boom lifts China's once loss-making memory-chip champions.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted CCSH's application to list on the STAR Market, the ‌Nasdaq-style board established in 2019 to channel capital into China's strategic and emerging technology companies.

The float follows blockbuster recent ⁠listings by DRAM memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and humanoid-robot developer Unitree, highlighting investor demand for companies seen as central to Beijing's push for technological self-reliance.

The planned offering would rank ‌as the STAR Market's third-largest IPO, after CXMT ‌and China's largest foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).

CCSH plans to issue 1.98 billion to 2.43 billion new shares, implying a post-listing valuation of roughly 275 billion yuan to 330 billion yuan ($41 billion-$49 billion).

CCSH is the listing vehicle, while its wholly owned subsidiary Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) ​is the group's principal operating business, accounting for more than 90% of revenue.

YMTC makes NAND flash chips, which store data in products ranging from smartphones and solid-state drives to data centres and enterprise servers.

The company and CXMT have emerged as China's two leading memory chipmakers after years ⁠of state backing and capital-intensive expansion.

YMTC competes in NAND flash chips with South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, U.S.-based Micron Technology, Japan's Kioxia and SanDisk. CXMT makes DRAM, the working memory ​chips used in computers, smartphones and servers.

Reuters reported last month, citing sources, that YMTC and CXMT had gained pricing power amid tight global supply, in some cases charging Chinese customers more than their larger South Korean competitors.

AI-FUELLED ​TURNAROUND

The prospectus highlights the speed of YMTC's turnaround. Revenue reached 47 billion yuan in ‌the first three months of 2026, nearly five times the level a year earlier.

Net profit attributable to shareholders hit 33.38 billion yuan in the quarter, more than twice the 14.21 billion yuan it earned in all of 2025.

The ⁠gains reflect rising demand from cloud providers building AI data centres. Those companies need large amounts of fast storage for training data, model updates, backups and the information processed by AI services, increasing demand for high-capacity solid-state drives and the NAND chips inside them.

YMTC's factories were running close to full capacity, allowing it to sell ⁠more chips into a market where supply had tightened. Average NAND selling prices in the first quarter were 173% above the 2025 average, while gross margin rose to ​76.8% from 35.3% in 2025, the prospectus showed.

CCSH said YMTC ranked third globally and first in China among NAND suppliers by sales and shipment volume in the first quarter, citing consultancy TrendForce.

The group plans to use 20.8 billion yuan of the intended IPO proceeds to upgrade production lines and 12.2 billion yuan for research and development, ‌including newer generations of NAND chips and faster storage products.

GEOPOLITICAL RISKS

CCSH warned of geopolitical tensions, export controls and supply-chain disruption, but its prospectus did not appear to specifically address YMTC's designation by the U.S. Pentagon as ‌a Chinese military company under Section 1260H.

The Pentagon's list names YMTC, not CCSH, citing its indirect ownership by China's state-assets regulator and affiliations with government agencies.

YMTC was also ⁠added to the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List in 2022, ‌limiting its access to U.S.-origin chipmaking equipment ​and technology.

YMTC has sought to reduce its exposure to such restrictions by expanding use of domestic equipment and developing manufacturing techniques using less advanced tools, Reuters previously reported.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Sharon Singleton, David Holmes ‌and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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