Seoul [South Korea], September 1 (ANI): China's CXMT has started small-scale HBM3E production, marking an initial move into advanced memory as domestic technology firms work under tighter access to foreign semiconductors, according to a news report by The Korea Herald citing The Information.
The Chinese memory manufacturer produced the high-bandwidth memory chips in limited volumes and supplied them for testing to domestic artificial intelligence chip developers, including Alibaba Group's chip division T-Head and Beijing-based Cambricon Technologies. If the trials succeed, the domestic processor developers plan to integrate the memory into commercial offerings next year, ahead of CXMT's targeted capacity expansion in 2027.
As per the news report, the production development occurred against the backdrop of trade measures that restricted the flow of high-end memory and fabrication tools to China. The United States placed advanced high-bandwidth memory under export restrictions in December 2024 after identifying the component as vital for large-scale artificial intelligence training and inference workloads. High-bandwidth memory links vertically stacked DRAM dies to deliver the data transfer rates required alongside processors in computing clusters.
Mark Calderhead, an innovation center manager at Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML, noted that the output supported domestic manufacturing targets.
"It is a major step forward for China's domestic chip supply chain," the news report quoted Calderhead.
Calderhead also stated that the progress reduced reliance on foreign-controlled memory technology, while pointing out that South Korean manufacturers maintained a technological lead by advancing past HBM3E into HBM4 production and HBM4E sampling.
According to the news report, South Korean leaders SK hynix and Samsung Electronics began commercial manufacturing of HBM3E in 2024, roughly two years prior to CXMT's initial volume run. Both firms advanced to HBM4 manufacturing and delivered HBM4E customer evaluation samples featuring data-transfer rates of up to 16 gigabits per second per pin.
People familiar with CXMT indicated that the company faced low manufacturing yields and trailed the primary market manufacturers by an estimated three to five years. CXMT, T-Head, and Cambricon issued no public confirmation regarding the trial runs, and the manufacturer did not release yield metrics, technical specifications, or customer qualification milestones.
The high-bandwidth memory initiative followed market share gains by CXMT in conventional dynamic random-access memory. Citing market research firm Counterpoint Research, the Korea Herald noted that CXMT secured seven per cent of global DRAM revenue in the second quarter, placing fourth behind Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron as the fastest-expanding supplier due to domestic market sales.
The company also raised 57.9 billion yuan (USD 8.6 billion) in its July Shanghai listing to fund technology upgrades, research and expanded production, giving CXMT additional resources as it pushes into HBM.
Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint, stated that the newly secured funding and expanding capacity strengthened company operations.
Shah cautioned, however, that the company's high-bandwidth memory capability remained "unproven at scale." (ANI)
China's CXMT starts small-scale HBM3E production to supply domestic AI chipmakers
