ChangXin Memory Technology Jumps Over 450% on STAR Market Debut, Hefei State Shares Worth Over RMB 1 Trillion

On July 27, 2026, ChangXin Memory Technology listed on the STAR Market, opening with a gain of over 450% and briefly reaching a total market capitalisation exceeding RMB 3 trillion during the session. Based on the closing market capitalisation that day, the approximately 33% stake held by the Hefei state-owned system had a book value of more than RMB 1 trillion. Hefei's general public budget revenue for the full year 2025 was less than RMB 100 billion.

In 2016, Hefei invested RMB 13.5 billion in ChangXin Memory Technology, at a time when China's memory chip sector was almost entirely blank. ChangXin accumulated losses of over RMB 36 billion over eight years. Hefei set an overall risk tolerance of up to 40% for its angel investment fund, with a maximum allowed loss of 100% per project, and introduced a clear operational list for "due diligence exemption," stipulating that as long as the investment decision followed prescribed due diligence procedures, information disclosure, and collective decision-making processes, the responsible personnel would not face excessive accountability even if the project ultimately failed.

Around 2013, Hefei explicitly proposed building an "IC Capital," against the backdrop of its three pillar industries—home appliances, flat-panel displays, and automobiles—encountering chip bottlenecks during transformation and upgrading. In the memory chip field, China's independent production capacity was nearly zero, with 96% of the global market monopolised by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. ChangXin Memory Technology targeted this shortfall. Around the "chain leader" ChangXin, companies such as Cambricon, Tongfu Microelectronics, and Padun Technology subsequently settled in Hefei. The city now hosts over 450 integrated circuit upstream and downstream enterprises, covering the entire chain from design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, to materials and equipment. In 2025, Hefei's integrated circuit industry output value exceeded RMB 151.4 billion, an increase of about 7.4 times from approximately RMB 18 billion in 2016.

In 2023, the global memory industry entered a downturn, with the three giants Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron sharply reducing capacity utilisation and cutting capital expenditure. ChangXin Memory Technology was not yet profitable, recording a net loss attributable to the parent of RMB 16.34 billion in 2023. Hefei chose to counter-cyclically increase support, helping ChangXin continue to ramp up R&D investment and capacity expansion, with production line utilisation rising from 85.45% to 94.63%. Hefei adhered to its role as an "industry organiser" in investment, assisting ChangXin in jointly funding the purchase of a patent portfolio from Canada's Wi-LAN to bypass technology barriers, and establishing provincial and municipal special task forces to provide full-process services for project construction and financing.

Hefei's industrial investment adopts a "dual-track parallel, independent decision-making" mechanism: state-owned investment platforms conduct project evaluation and investment decisions based on market-oriented investment logic, while government departments perform investment promotion assessments and implementation guarantees according to industrial policy logic. The two tracks operate independently and are ultimately coordinated at the municipal level. In April 2026, Shanghai issued 16 state-owned asset guidelines, clarifying the direction of "combining annual and long-cycle assessments" and "not simply using individual project or single-year profit or loss as the assessment basis."