CXMT plans HBM3E production at 20%–30% yields, Reuters reports
Reuters reports China's CXMT plans to start HBM3E production with yields of about 20% to 30%, against around 70% at SK Hynix. CXMT did not respond to Reuters.
A Reuters report published by MarketScreener on October 28, 2026, says China's CXMT plans to start production of HBM3E, the high-bandwidth memory used with AI processors, even though as little as 20% of the chips it makes are usable, according to two people familiar with the matter. The sources declined to be identified because the plans are not public.
What is claimed
CXMT is ChangXin Memory Technologies, China's largest maker of DRAM, the conventional memory in computers and servers. According to the report, it has sent HBM3E samples to several domestic AI chip designers. One person said it expects to begin limited production over the next two months.
The yield numbers are the story. The sources put CXMT's yields at about 20% to 30%, against around 70% at SK Hynix, the South Korean market leader. Yield is the share of chips off the line that meet spec. Roughly seven or eight chips in ten miss the spec.
Performance is also said to lag. Techmeme's summary says CXMT's HBM3E performance is closer to SK Hynix's previous-generation HBM3 chips.
Why you would do this anyway
Reuters says the decision highlights China's intense shortage of AI memory chips, which are essential to a government-backed push to develop domestic alternatives to Nvidia's AI processors at scale amid US curbs on access to foreign-made technology. Low yield is expensive, but no supply is more expensive.
What is not known
- Which designers received samples. The report does not name them.
- How much "limited production" means in actual volume.
- How CXMT or its buyers make the economics work at these yields.
- Why the performance trails, and by how much. No benchmark is given.
Denials and non-responses
CXMT did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. SK Hynix did not immediately respond.
Check back when chips ship, or don't.
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Sources
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
A shortage this intense and a factory that says go anyway: that is what conviction looks like when a national technology push meets a brutal yield rate. Glorious, and unforgiving.
A 20% to 30% yield against 70% at SK Hynix, for performance said to resemble the previous generation. Two anonymous sources, no benchmark, no named customer. I will wait for the datasheet.
