Chinese semiconductor manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies: The wider industry impact

CXMT is China’s leading producer of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips.

Announcing the milestone on Chinese social media platform Weibo, CXMT confirmed it has commenced high-volume mass production of the next-generation LPDDR6 memory silicon specifically to power Xiaomi’s forthcoming 18 Fold device, according to news agency Reuters. Xiaomi stated earlier this week that the Xiaomi 18 Fold is anticipated to feature an upgraded iteration of its custom 3nm mobile processor, the Xring O3, engineered with native support for LPDDR6 memory architecture. Because of alleged connections to the People’s Liberation Army, earlier this year, a report in The Financial Times said that Apple lobbies the Trump administration for clearance to buy memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese company that the Pentagon has put on a blacklist.

Chinese semiconductor manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is set to supply its newly developed LPDDR6 DRAM chips for Xiaomi ’s upcoming flagship foldable smartphone, both enterprises have said. One person said Apple approached the commerce department to get a nod from the Trump administration. The manufacturing breakthrough arrives less than twelve months after CXMT began mass-producing its previous-generation LPDDR5 components. The LPDDR6 component stands as CXMT’s most sophisticated mobile Dynamic Random-Access Memory (D-RAM) chip to date, significantly closing the technical disparity between the domestic chipmaker and leading international rivals such as SK Hynix and Samsung. Notably, Apple is not barred from buying chips from CXMT, or YMTC, another Chinese memory chipmaker. But the Pentagon has put both companies on its Chinese Military Company blacklist. Recently, CXMT also became China’s most valuable company.