CXMT, which Reuters calls China’s biggest DRAM supplier by revenue, reported July-to-September revenue of RMB 118.7 billion, up 613.18% from a year earlier, and net profit of about RMB 89.0 billion, according to its third-quarter report filed on the Shanghai STAR Market on 30 October 2026.
Only RMB 54.4 billion of that profit is attributable to CXMT’s own shareholders. By our arithmetic that is 61.2%; the other 38.8%, about RMB 34.5 billion, belongs to minority interests. At the rate implied by Bloomberg’s conversion, about 6.67 yuan per dollar, total net profit is about $13.3 billion and the shareholders’ share about $8.2 billion, also our arithmetic.
Business Pill · The Memory Wall
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on the memory wall. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss CXMT or these results.
The key insight: CXMT reported July-to-September net profit of about RMB 89.0 billion on RMB 118.7 billion of revenue, but only RMB 54.4 billion, 61.2% by our arithmetic, is attributable to its own shareholders; the rest belongs to minority interests.
CXMT says its third-quarter revenue rose about 19.30% from the second quarter, while net profit attributable to shareholders rose about 3.01% quarter on quarter, to RMB 54.43 billion. Excluding non-recurring items, attributable profit was RMB 55.24 billion. The report says gross margin was about 89.53%, up about 1.94 percentage points from the previous quarter.
The company attributes the revenuegrowth to rapid growth in global computing demand and capacity reallocation by major manufacturers, which left global DRAM in short supply, alongside its own capacity build-out. It says sales volumes and prices both rose sharply.
For the first nine months, CXMT reports revenue of RMB 269.0 billion, up 738.51%, and net cash from operating activities of RMB 254.8 billion. Its cash holdings stood at RMB 285.2 billion on 30 September, against RMB 52.0 billion at the end of 2025.
CXMT’s July-to-September 2026 margin ladder as a share of RMB 118.7 billion revenue: gross margin 89.5% as stated in its third-quarter report; pre-tax profit 83.4%, net profit for all owners 75.0% and net profit attributable to CXMT shareholders 45.9%, by our arithmetic from the report. The gap between the last two is profit attributable to minority interests.
Where the Profit Goes
Pre-tax profit was RMB 99.0 billion, or 83.4% of revenue, by our arithmetic. Net profit for all owners was 75.0% of revenue, and the slice attributable to CXMT shareholders was 45.9%. The chart below shows that ladder; the gap between the last two steps is profit attributable to minority interests.
Over nine months, minority interests took RMB 64.5 billion of RMB 196.5 billion in net profit, or 32.8% by our arithmetic. In the third quarter that share rose to 38.8%, which is why attributable profit grew far more slowly than revenue.
The shareholder list in the report shows Zhejiang Alibaba Cloud Computing holding 2.32 billion shares, or 3.42%. The National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II holds 7.74%, and Hefei-based entities hold the largest stakes. We reported in July on Alibaba’s CXMT stake.
How the Margins Compare
CXMT’s nine-month operating margin works out to 80.4%, by our arithmetic. That matches the 80.4% operating margin we calculated for Kioxia’s July-to-September quarter, which we found level with SK hynix. The measures differ: CXMT’s figure covers nine months and Kioxia’s one quarter.
Bloomberg reports that the 19.3% quarter-on-quarter rise was a “far more modest rise than the 90%-plus jump it managed in the second quarter from the first”, in a sign that an AI-fueled rally in Chinese memory chip prices “may be losing steam”.
CXMT also filed a plan to buy back between RMB 1 billion and RMB 2 billion of its shares at no more than RMB 72.69 each, according to its buyback announcement. The plan needs shareholder approval. The company says DRAM built on its sixth-generation process has completed engineering-sample validation.
The Structural Read
As we read the report, the quarter’s attributable profit rose about 3.01% from the second quarter while revenue rose about 19.30%, because a larger share of net profit went to minority interests: 38.8% in the quarter against 32.8% over nine months, by our arithmetic.
As we read the margins, CXMT’s nine-month operating margin of 80.4%, by our arithmetic, sits level with the 80.4% we calculated for Kioxia’s latest quarter, though the periods differ.
As we read the balance sheet, cash holdings rose to RMB 285.2 billion on 30 September from RMB 52.0 billion at the end of 2025, alongside RMB 254.8 billion of nine-month operating cash flow, and CXMT has now proposed a buyback of RMB 1 billion to RMB 2 billion.
Bloomberg, Chinese Memory Leader CXMT’s Sales Surge Yet Growth Slows, 30 October 2026
“CXMT Corp. posted a sevenfold surge in quarterly revenue, though the pace of acceleration slowed in a sign that an AI-fueled rally in Chinese memory chip prices may be losing steam”
Three Implications
FOR CXMT The company says DRAM built on its sixth-generation technology platform has completed engineering-sample validation, and its nine-month R&D spending rose about 73.03% to RMB 11.07 billion.
FOR ITS SHAREHOLDERS Alibaba Cloud holds 3.42% and the national chip fund’s second phase 7.74%, per the report; the proposed buyback caps the price at RMB 72.69 a share and needs shareholder approval.
FOR MEMORY BUYERS CXMT attributes its growth to a global DRAM shortage driven by computing demand; our prior coverage reports BofA cutting its 2027 iPhone estimate on memory costs.
The framework puts it as “Memory is becoming the new compute. HBM growth is outpacing accelerator demand, making memory the rate-limiting factor in the AI scaling equation.”
As we read it, CXMT’s 89.5% gross margin on conventional DRAM shows the pricing side of that claim reaching commodity memory as well as HBM. The framework was published in December 2025 and does not discuss CXMT.
What Is Not Established
The third-quarter report is unaudited. It does not break out high-bandwidth memory sales or name customers. The report states figures in yuan; dollar amounts here are our conversions at the rate implied by Bloomberg’s revenue figure, not CXMT’s. The report does not say which subsidiaries the minority interests sit in.
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CXMT reported third-quarter revenue of RMB 118.7 billion, up 613.18%, and net profit of about RMB 89.0 billion, of which RMB 54.4 billion, or 61.2% by our arithmetic, is attributable to its own shareholders.
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A note on sourcing. CXMT figures come from its unaudited third-quarter report and buyback plan filed in Chinese on 30 October 2026; English renderings and dollar conversions are ours. Figures labelled our arithmetic are our own calculations.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
