Shares of Chinese memory-chip maker CXMT surged 466% on their Shanghai STAR Market trading debut, closing at 49 yuan against an IPO price of 8.66 yuan and touching an intraday high of 55.03 yuan.
The offering raised approximately 57.92 billion yuan, or roughly $8.6 billion, making it Asia's largest initial public offering so far this year.
The rally lifted CXMT's market capitalization to about 3.3 trillion yuan, or approximately $487.7 billion, up sharply from roughly $85.5 billion during the IPO process itself.
The surge made CXMT China's most valuable listed company, overtaking Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's long-standing market-cap leader.
Trading volume underscored the scale of investor demand: about 141.1 billion yuan worth of CXMT shares changed hands on debut day, making it the first Shanghai-listed A-share stock to exceed 100 billion yuan of turnover in a single session.
The debut came despite a recent selloff across global technology stocks, suggesting Chinese investors are treating exposure to CXMT as a distinct, less correlated bet on domestic chip self-sufficiency rather than a proxy for global tech sentiment.
Analysts pointed to the current global memory-chip supercycle as the primary driver of investor appetite for the stock.
The listing arrives as U.S. export controls continue to restrict Chinese access to advanced semiconductor technology, positioning CXMT as a central pillar of Beijing's push to build a self-sufficient chip industry, particularly in the memory components that underpin AI infrastructure.
For boards in the technology and semiconductor supply chain, the valuation signals how much capital Chinese investors are willing to commit to domestic chip champions even without full technological parity with global leaders such as Micron and Samsung.
It also raises the stakes for Western memory producers, who now face a better-capitalized state-aligned competitor with direct access to Chinese domestic demand.
Directors should watch whether CXMT's valuation holds once the initial listing euphoria fades, and monitor whether the scale of this raise accelerates capacity expansion that could affect global memory-chip pricing over the next several quarters.
Source: The Economic Times / Reuters
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