An obscure Chinese company just listed in Shanghai: It’s a story about AI and your eye-watering gadget bill

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market on Monday, in what was Asia’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) of 2026.

The Hefei-based company raised 57.9 billion yuan (roughly $8.6 billion), pricing shares at 8.66 yuan apiece. Shares surged 470% within minutes of trading opening, changing hands at 49.50 yuan and briefly making CXMT the most valuable company on China’s stock market — a market capitalisation of 3.3 trillion yuan ($487.31 billion), sharply up from the roughly $85.5 billion valuation implied during the IPO process, even as global tech stocks have been through a recent selloff.