China’s CXMT to favour domestic suppliers in US$5.2b memory-chip capacity push: source

Chinese memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) plans to invest 34.9 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion) in expansion, with a large portion of the capital going to domestic suppliers of chipmaking equipment, according to a source.

The firm, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market, would spend 24.1 billion yuan on a new technology research and development project and another 10.8 billion yuan on the second phase of a wafer testing base, according to a Monday stock filing.

The spending plan underscores the capital-intensive nature of the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) producer’s push into more advanced products. Nearly 22.4 billion yuan, or about 93 per cent of the R&D project’s budget, would go towards equipment purchases, the filing said.