长鑫科技据报年底小批量试产LPDDR6，追赶三星、SK海力士和美光

China’s state-backed CXMT Corp. is poised to produce smartphone memory chips that are on par with the industry’s most advanced designs, highlighting the speed at which Beijing is gaining ground in a field critical for AI deployment.

The chipmaker, which is blacklisted by the Pentagon, is preparing to manufacture advanced low-power memory chips in small quantities around the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said. Production will take place once prototype testing yields satisfactory results, the people said, asking not to be named discussing internal plans. Mass production will follow at a later date, one of them said.

If realized, the milestone would mark a breakthrough in Beijing’s yearslong pursuit of technological self-sufficiency, serving as a testament of how far China has come in reducing reliance on foreign components. A roadmap to mass production of the mobile memory chips would allow CXMT to compete against the likes of Micron Technology Inc., SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. and take advantage of a global shortage that has become one of the biggest bottlenecks for top consumer electronics brands including Apple Inc.

A CXMT spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a query sent via email. The development was reported earlier by Chinese news outlet Yicai.

The cutting-edge chip, known as sixth-generation low-power double-data-rate memory, offers substantially faster data-transfer speeds and greater power efficiency than its predecessors, helping smartphones and laptops run AI applications locally. Mastering the manufacture of such chips, called LPDDR6, would boost revenues at CXMT, which completed a blockbuster initial public offering in Shanghai last month.

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But while CXMT’s new chip is in roughly the same product category as the industry’s top players, it would still need to produce such chips at scale to compete. SK Hynix introduced its 16-gigabyte LPDDR6 chip in March, saying it’s 33% faster and 20% more power-efficient than LPDDR5X. Samsung also announced it has a similar product in its pipeline.

Memory chipmakers are benefiting from an AI boom that’s pushing companies like Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to reserve years’ worth of production capacity, leading to severe shortages and price surges. In June, Apple raised prices of all its Macs, iPads, home devices and the Vision Pro.

Executives at the Cupertino, California-based company have lobbied US policymakers to clear the way for it to procure chips from Chinese chipmakers including CXMT. But lawmakers have pushed back on such attempts, warning that the iPhone maker risked becoming reliant on a US adversary for crucial components.