YMTC, China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., has told investors that it intends to become the world’s largest NAND flash producer by the end of 2027, a goal that would put the Wuhan-based company ahead of both Samsung and SK hynix. The ambition surfaced during recent meetings tied to the company’s initial public offering, where executives outlined plans to close the gap with the sector’s established leaders.
Last week, YMTC filed to raise 33 billion yuan, or roughly EUR 4 billion, on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market. The bulk of the proceeds is earmarked for production line upgrades and research and development, the two areas the company sees as central to scaling its output.
How Far YMTC Has to Climb
Reaching the top spot would require YMTC to nearly double its market share in about 16 months. Counterpoint Research placed the company at roughly 14% of global NAND shipments in the second quarter, tying it with Kioxia. By comparison, market leader Samsung held about 25%, while SK hynix and its Solidigm subsidiary together accounted for around 22%. Analysts currently rank YMTC third worldwide and first in China by both NAND revenue and shipment volume for the first quarter.
The company’s financial turnaround has been steep. YMTC has been profitable only since 2024, yet it reported first-quarter revenue of 47.04 billion yuan, or about EUR 6 billion, and net profit of 33.38 billion yuan, more than double its total net profit for all of 2025. Gross margin climbed from 5.45% in 2023 to 35.3% in 2025 and reached 76.77% in the first quarter of 2026, with fabs running at 98.02% capacity utilization. Those gains came at a cost, with 96.39 billion yuan in capital outlays on long-term assets and 15.95 billion yuan in cumulative R&D spending over the reporting period. The resulting depreciation and amortization charges of 50.95 billion yuan leave margins exposed if memory prices decline.
Inside the IPO and Its Valuation
YMTC plans to issue between 1.98 billion and 2.43 billion A-shares, representing 10% to 12% of its post-offering capital, in a deal sponsored by CITIC Securities and CSC Financial. Of the proceeds, 20.8 billion yuan is allocated to mass production line upgrades and 12.2 billion yuan to advanced R&D. That implies a post-listing valuation of 275 to 330 billion yuan, though the shares are expected to trade well above that once trading begins, with pricing likely set conservatively under regulatory guidance.
The offering echoes the path taken by ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s leading DRAM maker, which raised EUR 7 billion in July in Asia’s largest IPO this year and surged 466% on its debut. By mid-August, CXMT had passed Tencent to become the most valuable company listed in China. Both firms are adding capacity through new fabs in Shanghai and Wuhan.
Supply Concerns and Export Restrictions
That expansion has drawn attention from investors elsewhere in the sector. Joanna Yang,
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Image: tomshardware.com
