Buyers outside China counting on CXMT to ease the DRAM shortage face full-price quotes or none, keeping Samsung, SK hynix and Micron in control of their memory costs.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) offered Apple no discount on DRAM and declined to sell DDR5 chips to a Taiwanese server maker, according to a Business Weekly report carried by Economic Daily News on October 23 and by TechNews on October 25. A senior industry analyst quoted in the report said that when Apple asked CXMT about pricing, the Chinese company’s memory was "as expensive as the three big makers" and it had no plans to cut prices, a sign that CXMT does not have enough output for China’s own market and has no need to discount abroad.
The second account comes from a vice president at a Taiwanese server maker, who said his company had discussed buying DDR5 from CXMT. "I don’t know if it was the government or other reasons, but anyway, they said they won’t sell," he told the magazine. Neither CXMT nor Apple is quoted in the coverage. Guancha, which carried the story on October 26, said it had contacted CXMT and had not received a reply.
Retelling has hardened the story as it spread. Wccftech, whose October 25 article drew on TechNews, wrote that CXMT rejected Apple’s quote, and the Shanghai news service City News Service said CXMT declined to quote Apple at all. The original rests on one unnamed analyst for Apple and one unnamed executive for the server maker, and neither names the Apple product or the volumes involved.
CXMT’s capacity is spoken for at home
Analysts quoted in the reports tie the pricing stance to a full order book in China. Huang Mao-yuan, Asia-Pacific head of the research firm Yole, said nearly 90% of CXMT’s capacity now goes to Chinese brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo. Wu Chin-jung, a semiconductor observer and former general manager of Microdrive Technology, told Business Weekly that "CXMT’s strategic goal is to supply its DRAM output to China’s major brands and make China self-sufficient." Huang said meeting domestic demand alone was already regarded as a ten-year goal.
CXMT is adding output quickly. Citing Isaiah Research, TechNews reported that three new CXMT fabs are ramping up this year, taking output to 300,000 wafers a month by year-end, and that a new Shanghai fab will lift monthly capacity to 360,000 wafers next year. The new lines will make only DDR5 and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the stacked DRAM used in AI accelerators. Guancha cited higher TrendForce figures: about 320,000 wafers a month now and about 420,000 by 2027.
CXMT held 10% of global DRAM revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up from 4% a year earlier, ranking fourth behind Samsung, SK hynix and Micron. Those three held 38%, 25% and 24%, Guancha reported, citing Counterpoint Research. EastFrontier reported in September that CXMT had reached a tenth of global DRAM revenue.
Apple’s China memory plan has met resistance on two fronts
The October report follows an August round of the same dispute. An August 6 TechNews report said, citing the Korean outlet DigitalDaily, that Apple had sought lower prices for LPDDR5X mobile memory and that CXMT had refused. TechNews said Tim Cook had told Apple’s latest earnings call that the company evaluates suppliers worldwide, including in China. Taiwan’s Commercial Times reported the same day that CXMT had held its quotes at or above Samsung’s and SK hynix’s, and noted that Huawei and Xiaomi had locked up CXMT capacity with long-term contracts at high prices.
Washington has also pushed back. In July, the Financial Times reported that Apple was testing CXMT’s DRAM, MacRumors reported, while Apple led a lobbying effort for wider use of CXMT products. CXMT is on the Pentagon’s 1260H list of companies linked to China’s military. Senator Chuck Schumer and six colleagues then asked Apple to commit to buying no CXMT or YMTC chips for any product and to reply by August 21, according to a later MacRumors report. Apple had told lawmakers the chips would go into devices for the Chinese market.
If CXMT’s quotes match those of the three incumbents, as the reports say, Apple would carry the political cost of buying Chinese memory without the saving that made it attractive.
Server DDR5 and new fabs will test the policy
Taiwanese memory makers are watching the expansion closely. Nanya Technology reported record third-quarter net profit of NT$87.63 billion and a gross margin of 85.7%, yet its shares fell more than 7% on October 13, TechNews reported. Nanya’s main product is DDR4, which CXMT’s new lines will not make, and its new fab is expected to start production around the end of 2027 or early 2028. Wu said CXMT could pass Micron in total capacity as early as 2027.
CXMT still trails in HBM. Huang said it is at least two generations behind the three leaders, and US export controls bar it from buying EUV lithography tools. Anue reported that one industry source saw CXMT’s stance as a domestic priority rather than a capacity limit, while the Taiwanese executive said he did not know the reason.
CXMT’s profits already reflect the shortage, as its nine-month earnings forecast showed. The next marker is a server DDR5 product built on a new 4F² cell design, which TechNews said CXMT plans to launch by year-end. Whether its first customers include a foreign server maker will show if the refusal described by the Taiwanese executive is policy or a matter of timing.