According to Reuters, people familiar with the matter revealed that Chinese memory chip manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) plans to build two additional wafer fabs on top of one new fab scheduled for completion this year. Once all three facilities are fully operational, the company’s total production capacity will more than double.
YMTC’s Phase 1 project currently achieves a monthly capacity of 100,000 wafers, while Phase 2 has a monthly capacity of 60,000 wafers. The Phase 3 project under construction is designed with a planned monthly capacity of 100,000 wafers.
Two sources stated that YMTC’s Phase 3 fab will begin production later this year and reach a monthly output of 50,000 wafers by 2027.
They noted that the main buildings of the new fab have been completed, and the company is now installing production equipment. More than 50% of the equipment is supplied by domestic manufacturers, including key tools for vertical chip stacking.
Since the U.S. Department of Commerce added YMTC to its Entity List in December 2022, the company has strengthened cooperation with domestic semiconductor equipment suppliers such as AMEC.
Three sources, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly, said that following the completion and ramp-up of YMTC’s currently under-construction wafer fab, the company will build two more new fabs. Once all three new facilities are fully operational, they will add an aggregate monthly capacity of 300,000 wafers.
Established in Wuhan in 2016 with strong support from the local government and major state-owned chip investment funds, YMTC has become a global leader in NAND Flash technology in just 10 years. Analysts pointed out that its latest Xtacking 4.0 technology architecture is on par with products from industry leaders including Samsung Electronics.
However, a UBS report showed that in the 2025 NAND Flash market, Samsung held a 30.4% market share, followed by SK Hynix (16%), Kioxia (15.9%) and Micron (13.3%). Although most of YMTC’s revenue comes from the Chinese market, it still accounts for 11.8% of the global NAND Flash market, equal to that of SanDisk. UBS forecasts that YMTC’s market share will exceed 14% by early 2027.
In addition, YMTC is expanding into the DRAM sector. Two sources said part of the capacity at the three new fabs will be allocated to DRAM production, adding that the exact volume will depend on the company’s progress in developing such chips.
YMTC has already provided low-power DRAM (LPDDR) samples to customers and expects to receive feedback by the end of this year, which will help guide its DRAM production decisions.
(Reprinted from https://news.eccn.com/）