Chinese chipmaker CXMT overtook Tencent on Thursday to become the country’s most valuable company, as memory makers surf a tidal wave of AI-fueled demand.
The changeover occurred after Tencent, itself a CXMT customer, reported it had doubled its quarterly AI spending, worrying investors; Tencent has invested heavily in AI but is challenged by its fellow tech giants and smaller Chinese rivals like Moonshot and DeepSeek.
Another large Chinese chipmaker, the partly state-owned SMIC, reported a tripling of annual revenues Thursday, comfortably beating estimates. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Apple is testing CXMT chips for products sold in China, as consumer electronics makers cast about for alternate sources of the memory supplies being hoovered up by hyperscalers.