As memory giants Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) remain in focus, SemiAnalysis analyst Ray Wang told CNBC that China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has captured a striking 10% global DRAM bit share.
While crowning the Chinese firm as an immediate threat, Wang emphasizes that CXMT is years behind industry pioneer SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) in the lucrative artificial intelligence memory race.
SK Hynix Volatility Rattles U.S. Chip Stocks
The memory sector experienced a high-stakes shakeup after South Korea’s SK Hynix debuted its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq on July 10, 2026. A wave of profit-taking quickly triggered a 12.8% corrective slide in its Seoul-listed shares, dragging U.S. peers down.
Geopolitical maneuvering is further intensifying the pressure on American soil. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly pressured SK Hynix and Samsung at a Micron event to construct domestic U.S. AI memory fabs.
Lutnick acknowledged the friction this creates for Micron’s domestic dominance, but emphasized that strengthening the U.S. hardware pipeline takes precedence over individual corporate rivalries.
The Brutal HBM Wafer Allocation Squeeze
According to SemiAnalysis’ Wang, the immediate future for U.S.-listed chip stocks hinges entirely on a severe internal wafer allocation trade-off.
Established giants are aggressively shifting manufacturing capacity away from commodity DRAM to satisfy AI-driven High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) demand.
Wang noted that while China’s domestic champion is a massive volume threat, it lacks the technological sophistication to ease this high-margin crunch.
“I think CXMT right now is already a very serious player, right. They are roughly, in bits, they are roughly 10% of the market share this year,” Wang stated. However, he highlighted the critical engineering deficit: “On HBM, they are roughly four years behind.”
Undersupplied Through 2028
This four-year gap ensures that U.S. giants and SK Hynix will operate in a highly lucrative, sold-out environment.
“We are in a very constrained HBM market so everyone are going to sell out their HBM essentially and essentially translate into their earnings,” Wang explained.
Despite CXMT expanding its footprint, Wang projected that the global market will remain structurally undersupplied through 2027 and into 2028.
How Have These Memory Stocks Performed?
SKHY was down 10.38% since its listing last Friday, but it was up 6.84% in premarket on Tuesday. MU, on the other hand, has surged 228.30% year-to-date, down 4.54% over the month and up 652.43% over the year.
Similarly, SNDK was up 605.16% YTD, down 15.46% over the month and 3,531.96% higher over the year. The stock was 5.00% higher in Tuesday’s premarket.
The ETF tracking the memory stocks in the U.S. Roundhill Memory ETF (NASDAQ:DRAM) has gained 112.22% since its listing in April, and it was up 3.62% in premarket on Tuesday.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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