Chinese Memory Maker CXMT Now Costs More Than Samsung Despite Cheap DDR5 Promises

Just a year ago, the PC industry expected Chinese memory maker CXMT to drive down DRAM prices the way it once did with NAND chips. The opposite happened. A 64-gigabyte DDR5-5600 RDIMM server module built on CXMT chips now costs 18,999 yuan in China, or roughly $2,800, while a comparable Samsung module is priced at around $1,240.

A reversed scenario

For the past two years, the narrative around CXMT has been the same: the Chinese manufacturer, backed by state subsidies, would flood the market with cheap DDR5 chips and force Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron to cut prices. Instead, CXMT has set its server module prices above Samsung's level, not below it. The company is no longer competing on price, but on availability of a product that is now in short supply.

CXMT's edge today is simply that it has memory in stock. Demand from Chinese data centers building infrastructure for AI models has grown so sharply that the manufacturer can dictate prices to customers who have no alternative anyway, given foreign suppliers are subject to export restrictions.

Where the shortage comes from

The key reason is the decision by the three largest memory makers, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, to shift production capacity toward HBM, the high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators such as Nvidia's chips. HBM production consumes about three times more silicon wafer area per gigabyte than standard DDR5, so every gigabyte of HBM means fewer production lines left for ordinary DRAM.

The effect shows up in the numbers for the whole market. Contract prices for standard DRAM rose 93 to 98 percent in the first quarter of 2026, and global DRAM revenue reached about $97 billion in the same period, up 81 percent quarter over quarter. CXMT benefited the most of all, posting a 719 percent year-over-year revenue increase.

Not even Huawei got a discount

The scale of CXMT's negotiating leverage shows up in its dealings with domestic customers. The company refused to lower the price of server DDR5 memory even for Huawei, one of China's largest tech conglomerates. The relationship continues nonetheless, suggesting Huawei simply has no other supplier ready to deliver comparable volumes of memory chips made in China.

CXMT is meanwhile announcing ambitious plans to expand production capacity, from roughly 200,000 wafers a month currently to 600,000, thanks to new plants in Hefei and Shanghai. But higher supply doesn't necessarily mean lower prices any time soon, since AI-driven demand is growing just as fast.

If you need to buy memory, buy it now. Don't wait for lower prices, because they won't come for the next few years - a representative of distributor Lexar

What this means for buyers

For companies and consumers outside China, the situation carries a similar message, even though CXMT modules rarely reach Western shelves. With Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron redirecting production toward HBM, and a Chinese player raising prices instead of undercutting them, the pressure on global DDR5 prices isn't easing. It's another sign that rising RAM prices in laptops, computers, and servers stem from a structural cause, not a temporary one, and trace directly back to investment in AI infrastructure.

For Polish companies buying server hardware or planning to expand their own infrastructure, this means reckoning with higher memory costs for a longer stretch, regardless of whether the supplier is Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, or CXMT itself. The hope for a cheaper Chinese alternative that would ease pressure on the market has not materialized, at least for now.