China's CXMT has announced a breakthrough in next generation memory chip design, unsettling established players Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron and rippling through global chip markets.
Targeting LPDDR5X, and claiming to near the leading edge
CXMT said in September that it had achieved a breakthrough in the design of LPDDR5X, a high performance mobile memory chip, describing its own technology as now close to the leading edge of global memory chip production. The announcement rattled markets, with Asian tech shares, memory chip stocks in particular, coming under pressure in its wake.
New competition for established players
The high end memory chip market has long been dominated by South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, along with Micron Technology of the United States. CXMT's announcement is being read across the industry as a sign that China's memory chip sector is narrowing the technology gap with those established leaders, particularly in mobile and high performance memory. Industry watchers caution, though, that Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron still hold their own advantages in more advanced product lines such as high bandwidth memory, and that the competitive balance is unlikely to shift overnight.
