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On July 27, 2026, China's capital market witnessed a historic moment—CXMT (688825) officially listed on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. With an issue price of 8.66 yuan and an offering market capitalization of approximately 600 billion yuan, the stock opened at 49.50 yuan in the opening auction, soaring 471.59% and reaching a total market cap of 3.31 trillion yuan—surpassing ICBC to become the largest A-share company by market capitalization.
According to the prospectus, after full exercise of the over-allotment option, the total IPO proceeds could reach up to 66.6 billion yuan, making it the second-largest IPO in STAR Market history (after SMIC) and the largest A-share IPO by fundraising scale in 2026.
As the first accepted case under the STAR Market's IPO preliminary review pilot mechanism, CXMT's listing process took just 148 days—from acceptance on December 30, 2025, to successful listing committee review on May 27, 2026.
01. A New A-Share King Ascends
CXMT was established on June 13, 2016, headquartered in Hefei, Anhui Province. Its core business encompasses the design, R&D, manufacturing, packaging, testing, and full-chain sales of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips. Operating under the integrated IDM (Integrated Device Manufacturer) model—consistent with global memory industry leaders—CXMT is currently the only Chinese mainland company capable of mass-producing general-purpose DRAM with full-process proprietary capabilities.
DRAM serves as the underlying infrastructure of the modern digital economy, powering data centers, smartphones, PCs, smart vehicles, communications equipment, and AI servers—all of which require vast amounts of DRAM for high-speed data read/write operations. China is one of the world's largest DRAM consumer markets, yet domestic supply capacity has long been weak, with high-end memory chips heavily dependent on imports. Against this backdrop, CXMT's founding was fundamentally a strategic mission to strengthen and secure China's memory chip supply chain.
According to CXMT's official disclosures, its DDR5 chips cover 16Gb and 24Gb densities, with speeds up to 8,000 Mbps; its LPDDR5X chips cover 12Gb and 16Gb densities, reaching up to 10,667 Mbps. The company's product portfolio is evolving from mature generations (DDR4, LPDDR4X) toward mainstream high-end markets (DDR5, LPDDR5X).
Based on Omdia data, CXMT's global DRAM market share rose to 7.67% by Q4 2025, ranking fourth globally—behind Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—and first in China. Semianalysis offers an even more optimistic forecast, projecting the company's global share could reach 17% by 2028.
02. Hefei and CXMT: A Story of "Chip" Destiny
The CXMT story begins in 2016, when the "Project 506"—CXMT's predecessor—quietly took root in Hefei. At that time, the global DRAM market was firmly monopolized by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, while China spent hundreds of billions of yuan annually on imports with zero domestic production capacity. Facing this "money-burning abyss," Zhu Yiming—a Tsinghua physics graduate and Silicon Valley-returned semiconductor veteran—stepped onto this barren land with unwavering resolve.
Zhu had already built a successful career with NOR Flash and led GigaDevice to a successful IPO, achieving financial freedom. But he knew the true "throne" was DRAM—the bedrock of the digital age. At age 54, he chose to give it all up, taking on the role of CXMT's full-time CEO with a pledge: "Until CXMT turns profitable, I will take no salary and no bonus."
Yet DRAM—the most fundamental and indispensable memory component in computers, phones, and servers—had long been dominated by the three giants, collectively controlling over 90% of the global market. This is an industry with extremely high technological barriers, extraordinarily long investment cycles, and staggering capital intensity. A single wafer production line requires tens of billions of yuan—far beyond the capacity of typical VCs to endure such prolonged losses and heavy asset investments.
Hefei embraced this project.
According to the plan, Hefei Industry Investment Group partnered with GigaDevice to launch Anhui Province's largest single industrial investment project—the CXMT 12-inch memory wafer fab base, with a total investment of 150 billion yuan. Phase one alone required 18 billion yuan, of which Hefei Industry Investment Group contributed 14.4 billion yuan, an 80% stake.
14.4 billion yuan—invested in a sector with no visible path to profitability at the time. This wasn't venture capital; it was "capital as conviction." Hefei didn't pursue quick-turnaround investment attraction—instead, it answered with the "Hefei Model": state capital as a long-term partner, trading time for space.
During CXMT's darkest days—three consecutive years of losses exceeding 30 billion yuan—Hefei didn't pull out or pressure the company. Instead, it continued to inject capital, embodying the role of "patient capital." Hefei's decision-makers understood that the chip industry takes time; short-term returns couldn't be the measure. It would take a decade of steadfast commitment to cultivate an entire industrial ecosystem.
By 2026, surging demand from AI computing triggered an explosive inflection point for CXMT. Q1 2026 revenue skyrocketed 719% year-over-year, with net profit reaching 24.76 billion yuan—a staggering 1,688% increase, with single-quarter earnings surpassing full-year 2025. The H1 2026 performance guidance further amazed the market, projecting revenue of 110–120 billion yuan and attributable net profit of 50–57 billion yuan. Huaxi Securities offered a neutral outlook of 2–3 trillion yuan stable post-IPO market cap, with an optimistic scenario reaching 4 trillion yuan. Guotou Securities outlined four valuation scenarios: 1 trillion, 1.5 trillion, 2.3 trillion, and 4.25 trillion yuan.
03. The Venture Capital City: From "Boldest Bet" to "Smartest Investment"
CXMT is not Hefei's first winning bet.
From BOE to NIO, from Nexchip to CXMT, Hefei's state capital has executed a consistent series of landmark industrial investments—placing heavy bets in early stages when technologies were unproven and commercial prospects unclear. This earned Hefei the reputation as China's "most formidable venture capital city."
But Hefei isn't playing venture capital—it's playing industrial commitment. VC logic is about diversified bets waiting for the winners to emerge; Hefei's approach is concentrated firepower and deep partnership, with no exit clock. Through state-owned investment platforms, the government injects equity capital into tech enterprises, solving "financing difficulties" during early-stage and technology-intensive periods. Simultaneously, it emphasizes supply chain recruitment and ecosystem cultivation, building supporting systems around core industries.
Public data shows that in Q1 2026, Anhui Province added 14.565 billion yuan in capital commitments, of which Hefei contributed 9.897 billion yuan—68% of the provincial total, a significant jump from 42% in the same period last year, cementing its dominant position in the province's fundraising landscape.
Today, Hefei is building its "654X" industrial system—six leading industries, five emerging industries, and four future-oriented industries. Evolving from "investment-driven attraction" to industrial "forest cultivation," Hefei is transforming from a "venture capital city" into an "industrial ecosystem city."
04. Beyond Chips: Anhui's "Second Growth Curve" in Biopharma
Beyond semiconductors, another industrial pillar is rising in Anhui—biopharmaceuticals.
In 2025, Hefei's biopharma sector delivered impressive results: over 1,000 companies in the value chain, annual revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan, and manufacturing output value growing 5.8% year-over-year. Hefei has gathered 10 listed biopharma companies and over 500 "above-designated-size" enterprises. The Hefei biopharma cluster has been selected for Anhui Province's 2026 Advanced Manufacturing Cluster list.
In 2026, Anhui Province set a target for its biopharma industry to approach 400 billion yuan. Hefei is positioned as the core zone for biopharma and high-end medical devices, actively building a "fund forest" with over 30 billion yuan selected or co-invested in biopharma funds, including a 5-billion-yuan municipal-level biopharma special fund.
From integrated circuits to biopharma, from next-gen displays to new energy vehicles, Hefei's industrial landscape continues to expand. CXMT's success is not the final destination—it's a microcosm of the "venture capital city's" flowering industrial ecosystem. With CXMT as a cornerstone project, Hefei is poised to become the leading city in Central China.
As a long-term biopharma-focused investment institution, Efung Capital has long-established ties with Anhui's provincial state-owned industrial groups, Hefei Industry Investment Group, and other institutions—working side by side to accompany portfolio companies as their core technologies journey from lab to production line.
It is precisely this strategic resolve spanning the two hard-tech arenas of "chips" and "pharma" that has forged Anhui's distinctive "two-wheel drive" industrial landscape.
From "China Chips" to "China Biopharma," from Hefei the "venture capital city" to Anhui the "industrial ecosystem," a new regional economic model—rooted in hard tech and sustained by long-term commitment—is rapidly taking shape on the land between the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers.