China's CXMT is building a full supply chain to take on the world's biggest memory chip makers

ChangXin Memory Technologies, China’s most ambitious memory chip company, is doing something that would have sounded like fantasy five years ago. It’s building a vertically integrated supply chain designed to compete head-to-head with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, the three companies that have controlled the global DRAM market for decades.

The company recently locked in a 20 billion yuan (roughly $3 billion) long-term DRAM supply agreement with Tencent, one of China’s most powerful tech conglomerates.

The numbers tell the story

CXMT currently holds an estimated 4% to 11% share of the global DRAM market, depending on whether you measure by shipments or production capacity.

CXMT posted a gross margin of 37.8% for its most recent fiscal year, which trails Samsung’s 39.4% and Micron’s 39.8% by barely a couple of percentage points.