China's Hottest AI Chip Stock Is Now Worth Nearly As Much As Intel

China's CXMT has surged into the ranks of the world's most valuable chipmakers, less than three weeks after its blockbuster Shanghai debut. On Friday, CXMT's shares on Shanghai's tech-heavy Star market were 4% higher at midday. CXMT was worth $540.5 billion, according to LSEG data. That put the memory-chip maker just behind Intel at $552.6 billion and ahead of Chinese tech giant Tencent at $505.8 billion. That made CXMT the world's 24th-most-valuable company in LSEG's ranking. Chip giant Nvidia topped the ranking with a market cap of about $5.5 trillion. CXMT's climb toward Intel has also coincided with the US chipmaker's shares pulling back last month amid a broader chip sell-off and concerns over massive AI investments. Tencent has lost ground, too. Its Hong Kong-listed shares have fallen about 26% this year amid concerns about rising AI spending and the potential impact of AI on its software business. CXMT, formerly known as ChangXin Memory Technologies, is China's largest producer of DRAM memory chips. The company, headquartered in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui, raised about $8.6 billion in its July 27 IPO. Its shares closed 466% above their IPO price on their first day, making CXMT the most valuable company listed in mainland China. CXMT's IPO gives it "much more cash to spend for capex," Bernstein analysts wrote in a report on Wednesday. CXMT is already the world's fourth-largest DRAM producer, behind Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron. Last month, Nomura said it expects its share of global DRAM production to rise from about 10% to roughly 18% by the end of 2028.