Chinese memory manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies announced on August 29, 2026, that it has begun mass production of advanced LPDDR6 mobile DRAM chips. The components will debut in Xiaomi’s upcoming 18 Fold flagship foldable smartphone, paired with an in-house 3-nanometer processor, marking a major commercial milestone for domestic semiconductor production.
ChangXin Memory Technologies Reaches Mass Production Milestone
Chinese dynamic random-access memory producer ChangXin Memory Technologies has officially initiated high-volume manufacturing of its LPDDR6 mobile memory chips. According to a statement released by CXMT, the rollout represents the world’s first commercial deployment of LPDDR6, bringing a next-generation memory standard to market ahead of several overseas competitors. South Korean memory makers are on a similar timeline for volume production of this next-generation technology, and SK hynix is close to mass production.
Public filings and company announcements indicate that the memory chips reach peak transfer speeds of up to 12,800 Mbps and capacities of up to 16GB per chip. As detailed in the company’s 2026 interim report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the peak speed is about 20 percent faster than the maximum threshold of the previous LPDDR5X generation. LPDDR6 builds on where LPDDR5X left off, which could reach speeds of up to 10.7 Gbps when highly overclocked, while the new standard aims for significantly higher speeds. Additionally, CXMT is producing these chips with a 16 Gb capacity, equivalent to 2 GB, and the memory IC is housed in a package-on-package casing featuring about 1,295 pins in a ball grid array.
Xiaomi 18 Fold Integrates Domestic LPDDR6 and Xring O3 Silicon
The newly minted memory modules will find their first commercial home in the upcoming Xiaomi 18 Fold, a flagship foldable device scheduled to launch in September 2026. Xiaomi confirmed that it will use memory from CXMT in the new device, while Xiaomi founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun congratulated the memory maker on the milestone on Weibo. Reportedly, Xiaomi is the first customer for CXMT’s domestic LPDDR6 memory, and since the foldable phone is scheduled to launch in September, customer shipments are already underway.
The foldable smartphone pairs the memory directly with Xiaomi’s proprietary 3-nanometer Xring O3 processor, which was unveiled on August 24 as the first chipset to support LPDDR6 memory. Industry observers note that while CXMT has announced the transition from customer validation to mass production, initial shipment volumes and factory manufacturing yields have not been publicly disclosed. CXMT’s interim report states that LPDDR6 samples are being provided to major customers for validation not only for smartphones, but also for servers and smart vehicles.
Financial Rebound and Ongoing Legal Challenge Against the Pentagon
The manufacturing milestone coincides with a period of sharp financial growth for the Hefei-headquartered chipmaker in its first report since going public. In a half-year financial report released Friday, CXMT posted revenue of 150.31 billion yuan (approximately $22.4 billion or $22.36 billion) from January to June, surging 873.64 percent year-on-year. Net profit attributable to shareholders reached 77.61 billion yuan ($10.8 billion), reversing a 2.33-billion yuan loss from the same period a year earlier. The company launched the previous generation of LPDDR5 chips into volume production less than a year ago.
Amid its commercial expansion, CXMT remains locked in a legal dispute with United States authorities. On August 29, the company filed a lawsuit against the US Defense Department over its inclusion on a list of companies that the United States believes assist the Chinese military, a classification first applied in January 2025.
“CXMT is not a military company and has no affiliation with the Chinese military. It designs and manufactures DRAM products for commercial and civilian use only, not for military use.”
CXMT, corporate statement sent to Global Times on Saturday
The company stated that it spent more than a year providing information to challenge the designation and seek removal from the list, arguing according to Reuters that the Pentagon’s decision was arbitrary, lacked evidentiary support, and violated its due-process rights. The U.S. Department of Defense has not commented on the ongoing legal proceedings. Meanwhile, global competition in the memory sector intensifies, with South Korean memory giant SK hynix advancing toward volume production, announcing earlier that its LPDDR6 memory modules would feature a 16 Gb capacity on the sixth-generation 10 nm node, known as 1c, running at up to 14.4 Gbps.
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