Earlier today we reported that China's highly touted DRAM memory maker CXMT recently surpassed Tencent to become China's most valuable company.
That may be just the start, because hot on the heels of the biggest Chinese IPO this decade, comes that "other" Chinese memory maker, Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) which has now broken into the world’s top three NAND flash memory suppliers by volume for the first time, marking a milestone for China’s semiconductor ambitions as it strives to narrow the revenue gap with global rivals in high-value data-center storage.
The Wuhan-based chipmaker captured 14% of global NAND bit shipments – a measure of total storage capacity shipped rather than total chip units – in the second quarter, narrowly overtaking Japan’s Kioxia, according to data from Counterpoint Research published on Wednesday.
Samsung Electronics retained the global lead with a 25% market share, while SK Hynix – including its Solidigm subsidiary – was second at 22%.
YMTC’s shipments climbed 22% year on year and 5% quarter on quarter, driven by expanding supplies to domestic electronics manufacturers and the increased production of its latest-generation 3D NAND architecture, Counterpoint said.
Despite its surge in shipment volume, YMTC’s market position lags in dollar terms. The company ranked fifth globally in NAND revenue for the quarter, placing it behind both US-based Micron Technology and Kioxia.
The gap stems from YMTC’s heavy exposure to lower-margin consumer products and a relatively small footprint in enterprise solid-state drives (eSSDs), which command higher pricing.
The product mix imbalance is increasingly squeezing revenue as artificial intelligence reshapes global storage demand.
eSSDs accounted for 48% of total global NAND bit shipments in the second quarter, nearly doubling their 26% share from a year earlier. Counterpoint attributed the surge to a broader shift in AI workloads from model training towards inference, which requires vast amounts of fast storage for frequently accessed data sets.
The research firm projected server eSSDs would account for more than half of all NAND bits shipped by the end of the year.
To capture this higher-margin market, YMTC planned to shift its product mix further towards eSSDs in the second half of the year to cement its third-place global standing, supported by expanding avenues for capital, Counterpoint said.
The strategy comes as YMTC continues to scale its manufacturing operations despite years of US trade restrictions designed to limit its access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
Morgan Stanley said in May that YMTC was increasing utilization in its second fabrication plant in Wuhan while advancing construction and tool installation at a third facility. The bank estimated the company would add about 35,000 wafers per month of capacity this year, with substantially larger increases planned for 2027 and 2028.
The expansion aligns with Beijing’s push to localise China’s AI infrastructure, which would drive growing domestic demand for home-grown eSSDs and high-bandwidth memory through installation in data centres, Bernstein Research said in May.