China’s leading memory chipmaker, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), is pushing into the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, a move that could disrupt South Korea’s dominance in advanced semiconductors.
Despite U.S. sanctions aimed at restricting China’s access to cutting-edge chip technology, CXMT has rapidly advanced its capabilities. If the company accelerates mass production of HBM—a high-end product with greater technical complexity than DRAM—it could pose a significant threat to South Korea’s semiconductor industry in the coming years, industry experts warn.
According to industry sources, CXMT is investing in production facilities for HBM2, a second-generation HBM product first mass-produced by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in 2016. While this puts China nearly a decade behind South Korea, analysts say the standardized nature of HBM2 could help CXMT catch up more quickly compared to the latest HBM technologies.
“The speed of China’s progress in chip development is undeniably fast,” an industry official said. “Like DRAM and NAND flash, older HBM designs are already standardized, making them easier to develop. However, whether CXMT can achieve stable mass production within one to two years remains uncertain.”
CXMT’s rapid technological advancements have raised concerns. According to Chinese consulting firm Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, Chinese-made DRAM accounted for 5% of the global market in 2024, up from zero in 2020. Just a few years ago, South Korean industry observers believed it would take China more than a decade to mass-produce DRAM at a competitive level.
Beyond legacy DRAM products such as DDR4, CXMT is reportedly making strides in DDR5 development. Market research firm TechInsights has found that the manufacturing process width of Chinese DDR5 DRAM is approaching that of Samsung and SK Hynix, indicating a shrinking technology gap.
With China closing in, South Korea’s semiconductor leaders face an uncertain future. Already under pressure from an influx of lower-priced Chinese products in the DDR4 market, Samsung and SK Hynix are bracing for even tougher competition ahead.
“Chinese firms are now capable of developing sample products roughly a year after Samsung and SK Hynix release them,” said Yoo Hoi-jun, a professor of electrical engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST). “However, scaling up for mass production remains a challenge.”
Yoo emphasized that South Korean chipmakers must shift their business paradigm and diversify their portfolios to stay ahead, as competing with China on volume and pricing in the commodity memory market will be difficult. He pointed to emerging technologies such as processing-in-memory (PIM) and Compute Express Link (CXL) as potential growth areas.
“PIM is essentially customized DRAM that requires close partnerships with clients and advanced process integration,” Yoo said. “South Korea excels in semiconductor manufacturing technology. With the ongoing AI boom, there are opportunities in the embedded AI market through customized memory solutions such as PIM.”
