China's leading flash memory maker, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), has officially begun its initial public offering process with plans to list on Shanghai's STAR Market, marking a major milestone for the country's semiconductor industry.

The filing showed that YMTC has no controlling shareholder and features a diversified ownership structure led by State-backed entities. Its largest shareholder, Hubei Changsheng Development — wholly owned by the administrative committee of Wuhan Optics Valley in Hubei province — holds 26.54 percent of the company.

Other key investors include phases I and II of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, as well as local State-owned capital and industry funds.

Guosheng Securities said in a research note that YMTC is expected to submit its listing application as early as mid-June, with market forecasts valuing the company at around 300 billion yuan ($44 billion) for the IPO.

YMTC is China's only company capable of end-to-end 3D NAND flash chip manufacturing. NAND is a type of high-end nonvolatile memory chip used for data storage in data centers, smartphones and other tech gadgets.

By the third quarter of 2025, YMTC held roughly 13 percent of the global NAND flash market, securing a top-tier position, the filing citing third-party market research said.

Guosheng Securities said that YMTC launched construction of its third phase base in Wuhan in September. By early 2026, the facility had entered the equipment installation phase for its clean-rooms.

Once the third phase base reaches full production, YMTC's market share of the global NAND flash sector is expected to exceed 15 percent. The company plans to build two more wafer fabs thereafter, which would double its total production capacity when fully operational, Guosheng Securities said.

Driven by surging demand from artificial intelligence-powered data centers, the company's revenue exceeded 20 billion yuan in the first quarter, doubling year-on-year.

The IPO plan comes as the rapid development of large AI models and computing infrastructure has ushered in a "supercycle" for the memory chip market.

Market research firm Gartner said global chip sales are expected to approach 9 trillion yuan in 2026, up 64 percent year-on-year, with memory chip sales estimated at around 4.3 trillion yuan.

Roger Sheng, vice-president of research at Gartner, said that YMTC has made significant progress, but there remains a significant capacity gap between Chinese memory leaders and their global counterparts, pointing to substantial room for expansion.

Soochow Securities said in a research note that South Korea's Samsung and US firm Western Digital each commanded around 410,000 and 400,000 wafers per month in the second quarter of 2025, while YMTC's monthly capacity stood at only 140,000 wafers.

masi@chinadaily.com.cn