Water-cooled servers installed at the Global Switch Docklands data center campus on Monday, June 16, 2025 in London, UK.
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BEIJING – According to Counterpoint Research, Yangtze Memory Technologies is rapidly expanding its market share in key chip areas.
The company, also known as YMTC, ranked third in the world in second-quarter shipments, behind South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix, but ahead of its U.S. rival. micron Japan’s Kioxia, Counterpoint data released Wednesday showed.
That’s if you look at Micron’s NAND memory division, which accounts for about a quarter of its revenue. NAND chips retain data even when the device is powered off, but they are slower and cost much more than the faster DRAM memory chips, which account for about three-quarters of Micron’s revenue.
According to the report, YMTC ranked third with a 14% share. MS Hwang, Counterpoint’s research director, said the company narrowly defeated Kioxia a year ago, but then retreated in the months since.
“YMTC is expected to make further progress in 2027 and 2028. From that perspective, YMTC’s third place this quarter carries great weight in the competitive environment,” Huang said.
He said memory makers need a minimum market share of 15% to cover capital expenditures for future growth.
YMTC is preparing to go public in mainland China, following the blockbuster debut of DRAM-focused Chinese memory chip company CXMT last month.
According to another report from Counterpoint earlier this month, CXMT accounted for 7% of the DRAM market in the second quarter, ranking fourth behind Micron, SK Hynix and market leader Samsung.
Both the DRAM and NAND memory chip markets reached record sales of nearly $100 billion and $46 billion, respectively, in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint.
Despite increasing shipments, YMTC still lags behind Micron and Kioxia in terms of NAND chip revenue, the research firm said. YMTC still sells more to consumer applications than data centers, a business expected to account for half of all available NAND by the end of 2026, the company noted.
To boost NAND production, SK Hynix will resume investment in a facility in the Chinese coastal city of Dalian after a four-year hiatus, South Korean media reported this week. SK Hynix did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
