China’s memory industry is quickly closing the technology gap with South Korean manufacturers. According to the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA), the gap has narrowed to roughly one year in NAND flash, two years in DRAM, and three years in HBM, down from a difference previously estimated at more than five years. YMTC and CXMT’s progress also comes at a time of strong AI-driven memory demand.
China’s memory progress: the key points in 30 seconds
- The KSIA puts the technology gap with China at 1 year for NAND, 2 for DRAM, and 3 for HBM.
- YMTC already accounts for 14% of global NAND revenue in the second quarter of 2026, and also reached third place by shipment volume.
- CXMT reached 10% of the DRAM market by revenue in that quarter, up from 4% a year earlier.
- CXMT has begun mass production of LPDDR6, already used in a Xiaomi flagship phone.
- The progress doesn’t yet mean technological or manufacturing parity: especially in HBM, manufacturing yield remains a limitation.
YMTC and CXMT are closing the gap at high speed
The KSIA’s reference doesn’t mean China currently has the same technology as Samsung, SK hynix, or Micron. It refers to generations of technological difference, a metric used to gauge roughly how much time separates Chinese manufacturers from their rivals in certain categories.
The difference is especially striking in NAND flash. According to information based on the Korean association’s data, Samsung and SK hynix began producing NAND with around 300 layers during 2025, while YMTC was working with products of around 270 layers. The cited roadmap suggests YMTC could reach around 400 layers by 2027. That figure is a technology projection, not a capability currently available.
The layer count alone also isn’t enough to determine which memory is technically superior. Density per wafer, interface speed, power consumption, manufacturing yield, the rate of good chips, and cost per bit all matter too. In any case, YMTC has already shown it can compete on volume: Counterpoint Research credits it with 14% of global NAND shipments in the second quarter of 2026, enough to overtake Kioxia and enter the top 3.
In revenue terms, Counterpoint also places YMTC at 14% of the NAND market during that quarter. Samsung held 28%, SK hynix 19%, Micron 15%, and Kioxia 14%.
This is significant because it shows YMTC’s progress no longer depends solely on future capacity expansion. The company is increasing its presence in a global market under strong supply-and-demand pressure.
Artificial intelligence is behind a significant part of that shift. Counterpoint estimates that enterprise SSDs already accounted for 48% of NAND bits shipped in the second quarter of 2026, up from 26% a year earlier. The growth of AI servers is shifting an increasing share of production toward higher-capacity enterprise storage.
CXMT advances in DRAM and is already producing LPDDR6
The other piece is CXMT, which specializes mainly in DRAM. Here too, progress has been fast.
Counterpoint’s data shows CXMT reached 10% of the global DRAM market by revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up from 4% in the same quarter of 2025. Samsung held 38%, SK hynix 25%, and Micron 24%.
CXMT’s growth isn’t limited to ramping up production of earlier generations. The company announced on September 7 that its LPDDR6 had entered mass production and was making its commercial debut in the Xiaomi 18 Fold. CXMT specifies a capacity of 16 GB and a maximum speed of 12,800 Mbps, though it also notes that its performance figures come from internal testing.
This development matters especially because LPDDR memory is used in mobile devices and other systems where both bandwidth and power consumption matter. CXMT’s arrival in LPDDR6 therefore widens the number of segments where it can compete.
But mass production doesn’t automatically mean CXMT has caught up with Samsung or SK hynix on every front. Available capacity, wafer yield, manufacturing consistency, and qualification by major customers are variables just as important as the chip’s commercial generation.
HBM remains the toughest ground
The situation changes when it comes to HBM, the high-bandwidth memory used alongside AI accelerators.
The KSIA still puts the technology gap between China and South Korea in HBM at around three years. CXMT has begun moving toward HBM3E, but the information available points to yield problems during the early manufacturing stages. Wccftech, citing information tied to the KSIA, reports yields near 25% and difficulties related to TSVs, the vertical connections that link the different layers of an HBM stack.
This point matters because HBM isn’t simply about making a faster DRAM. Manufacturers need to produce sufficiently good memory dies, process them, create the vertical connections, stack the chips, control power and temperature, and then pass customer validation testing.
That’s why the three-year technology gap in HBM doesn’t contradict CXMT’s progress in conventional DRAM or LPDDR6. These are products with different manufacturing and packaging requirements.
It also explains why China’s progress doesn’t by itself guarantee an immediate drop in memory prices. The additional supply can increase competition, but the impact depends on how much new capacity reaches the market, which products each company can manufacture, at what yield, and at what cost.
The market also remains under pressure. Counterpoint recorded strong growth in both DRAM and NAND in the second quarter, while demand tied to AI infrastructure continues to absorb a significant share of production. In NAND, prices rose 55% between the first and second quarters of 2026, according to its data.
The picture 2026 leaves behind, then, is more complex than a simple swap between manufacturers. China is closing the gap at a pace that seemed unlikely just a few years ago, and YMTC already has a visible position in NAND while CXMT gains share in DRAM. But HBM remains a bigger technological barrier, and production capacity, yields, and commercial qualification will determine how much of that progress actually translates into memory available for PC, mobile, server, and AI accelerator makers.
