Chinese memory company CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) announced on the 29th local time that it will be the first in the world to mass-produce the next-generation mobile DRAM LPDDR6. (Photo = Solution News)
Chinese memory company CXMT has announced that it will be the first in the world to mass-produce the next-generation mobile DRAM LPDDR6. This marks China’s first declaration of commercializing a new mobile memory standard ahead of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which have long led the market.
CXMT disclosed the official mass-production launch of LPDDR6 on social media platform Weibo on the 29th local time. The first product to feature it will be Xiaomi’s foldable phone, the “18 Fold,” scheduled for release in September. Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, said, “Xiaomi’s self-developed AI processor, Xuanjie O3, will be the first to support CXMT’s LPDDR6 and will be first installed in the 18 Fold.”
◆ What is LPDDR6?
LPDDR6 is the next-generation standard for low-power DRAM used in smartphones and tablets. DRAM is temporary storage that holds data while a device is working, and faster transfer speeds improve processing performance. CXMT said its product supports a maximum transfer speed of 12,800 Mbps and a capacity of 16 Gb.
LPDDR6 is drawing attention because of artificial intelligence (AI). As on-device AI—running AI directly on smartphones without going through cloud servers—becomes more widespread, memory performance that can quickly exchange large amounts of data has become critical. LPDDR6 is considered a key component supporting this computing, and its use is expected to expand in the future to PCs, servers, and vehicles.
China Securities Journal described the mass production as the world’s first LPDDR6 commercialization, saying that a Chinese memory company had achieved the world’s first mass production in a high-spec memory standard.
◆ A challenge to the Samsung-SK stronghold
CXMT’s technological catch-up is putting pressure on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Both companies have also been working to secure an early position in the LPDDR6 market. SK hynix completed development of a 16Gb LPDDR6 using its 10-nanometer-class sixth-generation (1c) process in March and has forecast supply in the second half of this year. Samsung Electronics unveiled an LPDDR6 product at CES 2026 in January, but did not announce a specific mass-production schedule.
It is still too early to make a simple comparison of technological levels. Although CXMT has taken the title of “world’s first mass production,” the scale of its shipments backed by Chinese government subsidies, as well as actual performance and yield, remain separate issues. Still, the fact that China, long seen as a follower, has reached the point of standing shoulder to shoulder with Korean companies in the next-generation standard is clear.
The outlook for expansion in production capacity is also alarming. Global investment bank Morgan Stanley predicted that “CXMT will secure monthly wafer production capacity of 300,000 sheets by the end of this year,” adding that this would equal about 13% of global DRAM wafer production capacity and 11% of global bit shipments, and that it would increase to 500,000 sheets per month by 2028.
Following U.S. sanctions, Chinese companies have been shifting chips and components to domestic alternatives, and that trend appears to have reached memory as well. As China’s pursuit, which began with commodity memory, has moved up to next-generation high-spec products, Samsung and SK hynix now face the challenge of proving both faster mass production and performance superiority.