CCSH Corporation, the parent of Chinese flash-memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), has taken a significant step toward a Shanghai listing aiming to raise 33 billion yuan ($4.9 billion). This move is fueled by an AI-driven boom that has transformed China's memory-chip industry. The Shanghai Stock Exchange has accepted CCSH's application to list on the STAR Market, a Nasdaq-style board designed to support strategic Chinese technology companies.
The planned offering would be the third-largest IPO on the STAR Market, following CXMT and SMIC. CCSH intends to issue 1.98 billion to 2.43 billion new shares, which implies a post-listing valuation of approximately 275 billion yuan to 330 billion yuan ($41 billion-$49 billion). YMTC, a wholly owned subsidiary of CCSH, is the group's primary operating business, contributing over 90% of its revenue. YMTC specializes in NAND flash chips, essential for various products from smartphones to data centers.
The company has seen a remarkable financial turnaround, with revenue reaching 47 billion yuan in the first three months of 2026, nearly five times the amount from a year prior. Net profit attributable to shareholders hit 33.38 billion yuan in the first quarter, more than double its entire 2025 earnings of 14.21 billion yuan. This growth is attributed to surging demand from cloud providers building AI data centers, which require substantial high-capacity storage. YMTC's factories are operating near full capacity, and average NAND selling prices in Q1 2026 were 173% above the 2025 average, with gross margin rising to 76.8% from 35.3% in 2025. According to TrendForce, YMTC ranked third globally and first in China among NAND suppliers by sales and shipment volume in the first quarter.
CCSH plans to allocate 20.8 billion yuan of the IPO proceeds to upgrade production lines and 12.2 billion yuan for research and development, focusing on newer generations of NAND chips and faster storage products. However, the prospectus acknowledged geopolitical tensions, export controls, and supply-chain disruptions. YMTC has been designated by the U.S. Pentagon as a Chinese military company and added to the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List in 2022, limiting its access to U.S.-origin chipmaking equipment and technology. YMTC has reportedly been working to mitigate these restrictions by increasing its use of domestic equipment and developing manufacturing techniques that require less advanced tools.
YMTC has completed its pre-IPO tutoring, a crucial step for listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market. Industry experts like Zhang Lin from Fareast Credit Rating Co. believe the next two years present a significant opportunity for China’s memory industry, characterized by both volume and price advantages. Counterpoint Research indicated that YMTC held 14% of global NAND flash memory shipments in Q2 2026, ranking third worldwide. The company has begun mass production of 267-layer 3D NAND chips and is developing products with over 300 layers.
