China's leading memory chipmaker is seeking to raise up to $9.8 billion in an initial public offering as the country counts on homegrown hardware to boost its position in the artificial intelligence race.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) wants to rival US giant Micron and South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in memory chips used in AI data centres.
The Anhui-based company said Tuesday it would raise at least 57.9 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) in a share sale and listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
That could rise to as much as 66.6 billion yuan ($9.8 billion) if its overallotment option is used.
It would mark China's largest mainland IPO since 2010, and its biggest ever mainland tech share sale -- beating the 46.3 billion yuan raised by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp in 2020.
Advanced memory chips are in huge global demand as key components in AI servers, sending profits skyrocketing for producers and fuelling a major shortage of the less flashy DRAM memory chips used in laptops, phones and other electronics, pushing up prices.
US giant Apple, feeling the pinch of shortages, is reportedly testing CXMT's DRAM chips for use in its products.
CXMT is on the Pentagon's list of Chinese companies with alleged military ties, although that does not prohibit US firms from doing deals with them.
China and the United States are locked in a race for dominance in the fast-moving AI field, and analysts say CXMT could play an important role in Beijing's push to reduce reliance on foreign hardware.
"It's a milestone in our country's semiconductor industry development," Larry Yang, chief economist of First Seafront Fund Management, told AFP.
Domestic memory chip production will provide a strong foundation for China's AI buildout, said Zhang Guobin, founder of Chinese semiconductor industry website eetrend.com.
The IPO will also make China's stock market more attractive to investors, he said.
Founded in 2016, CXMT is the world's fourth-largest DRAM chipmaker, with nearly eight percent market share, behind Samsung, SK hynix and Micron.
Public subscriptions will begin on Thursday, with the IPO price set at 8.66 yuan per share.
Liang Dongjian, partner at Huaxin Capital, said CXMT's IPO signals to suppliers of chipmaking equipment and materials that there is a rapidly growing super-customer.
"This kind of pull effect from a market leader works better than any industrial policy," he told AFP.
