#长鑫科技市值突破4万亿元 Made a fortune in Q2—140 trillion! Samsung + SK hynix both deliver stellar earnings—how far is ChangXin Tech from becoming a storage giant?
The AI wave is sweeping the globe, and storage chips are entering an epic boom cycle. Recently, two major South Korean storage giants released their 2026 Q2 earnings reports one after another, with results directly刷新 the all-time high “ceiling,” sending the semiconductor industry into a frenzy. Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor DS division turned in the strongest performance on record: quarterly revenue of 127.5 trillion won, with operating profit as high as 81.7 trillion won. Nearly the entire Samsung Group relies on the semiconductor segment to generate profits; its mobile and display businesses are relatively flat, playing out a scenario of “one industry thrives while multiple industries stay stable.” Following closely, SK hynix also enjoyed a spotlight moment: single-quarter revenue of 79.32 trillion won (up 51% from Q1), operating profit of 60.54 trillion won (up 61% from the previous quarter), and net profit of 93.92 trillion won (up 133% from Q1). Combined, the two companies’ operating profits in 2026 Q2 surpassed 140 trillion won (about 1.27M RMB), making them the biggest winners of this AI compute-upside cycle. One detail worth noting: SK hynix’s operating margin is 76%, higher than Samsung Semiconductor’s 70%. The core password is HBM high-bandwidth memory. As a key supplier to NVIDIA, hynix was the first to begin large-scale production of HBM4, seizing the high-end storage segment that AI servers are most urgently lacking; Samsung’s edge is its larger scale, and it also holds multiple businesses—DRAM, NAND, and foundry—giving it stronger cycle resilience. On one side are the two Korean champions topping profits; on the other, domestic DRAM leader ChangXin Tech recently listed on the STAR Market. On July 27, 2026, it surged 465% on its first day, closing with a market cap fixed at 3.28 trillion yuan, topping the A-share market cap leaderboard.
Many people have started asking: Can ChangXin challenge Samsung and SK hynix?
Let’s see the gap clearly with a set of intuitive figures: Samsung Electronics’ overall market cap is about 8.5 trillion yuan, SK hynix is about 6.7 trillion yuan, and ChangXin’s market cap touched 4 trillion during trading (July 31, 2026), reaching 47% of Samsung’s and 60% of SK hynix’s. The market-cap gap may not look huge, but there is a massive divide in profitability scale. Samsung Semiconductor’s single-quarter operating profit is about 817k RMB; SK hynix’s single-quarter profit is about 793.2k RMB. Compared with ChangXin: in 2026 Q2, single-quarter revenue was about 64.2 billion RMB, attributable net profit about 28.7 billion RMB, with quarter-over-quarter growth of 26.4% and 15.9%, respectively; gross margin remains at a high 78%. The two sides use different statistical bases (Korean firms’ operating profit versus ChangXin’s after-tax net profit), so it’s not possible to simply equate them directly. But it’s undeniable that there is a difference in order of magnitude in the current profitability scale between domestic and overseas storage giants. In product competition, the competitive landscape is even clearer.
Samsung and SK hynix tightly control the high-end HBM market, capturing the richest profits from AI compute; ChangXin’s current main product is DDR5 general-purpose memory, targeting consumer electronics and ordinary server markets. HBM chips are still in sample validation, with some time before scaled mass production. Looking across the global DRAM market, Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron—the three overseas players—still hold over 90% share. ChangXin, with a 7.7% market share, ranks fourth globally, officially reshaping the industry pattern into “3+1.” By proactively shifting capacity toward higher-profit HBM and cutting general DRAM supply, Korean manufacturers have inadvertently created a rare window for ChangXin to expand.
Prosperity will never last forever. Storage is a typical cyclical industry; once AI capital expenditures cool and new capacity is released in a concentrated wave, chip prices will face pressure at any time. The massive profits Samsung and SK hynix are seeing right now depend, to a large extent, on this round’s super-boom cycle.
In the short term, ChangXin is unlikely to shake the leading position of the two Korean giants; in the long term, ChangXin’s significance is not about catching up immediately, but about breaking the overseas oligopoly monopoly that has lasted for decades. One side enjoys the AI dividend and record-breaking profitability as established storage giants; the other is a domestic newcomer that has landed on the capital market and is accelerating expansion. The competitive chessboard of global storage chips is only just turning a new page.
$CXMT This article is only for industry news sharing and does not constitute any investment advice.
The AI wave is sweeping the globe, and storage chips are entering an epic boom cycle. Recently, two major South Korean storage giants released their 2026 Q2 earnings reports one after another, with results directly刷新 the all-time high “ceiling,” sending the semiconductor industry into a frenzy. Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor DS division turned in the strongest performance on record: quarterly revenue of 127.5 trillion won, with operating profit as high as 81.7 trillion won. Nearly the entire Samsung Group relies on the semiconductor segment to generate profits; its mobile and display businesses are relatively flat, playing out a scenario of “one industry thrives while multiple industries stay stable.” Following closely, SK hynix also enjoyed a spotlight moment: single-quarter revenue of 79.32 trillion won (up 51% from Q1), operating profit of 60.54 trillion won (up 61% from the previous quarter), and net profit of 93.92 trillion won (up 133% from Q1). Combined, the two companies’ operating profits in 2026 Q2 surpassed 140 trillion won (about 1.27M RMB), making them the biggest winners of this AI compute-upside cycle. One detail worth noting: SK hynix’s operating margin is 76%, higher than Samsung Semiconductor’s 70%. The core password is HBM high-bandwidth memory. As a key supplier to NVIDIA, hynix was the first to begin large-scale production of HBM4, seizing the high-end storage segment that AI servers are most urgently lacking; Samsung’s edge is its larger scale, and it also holds multiple businesses—DRAM, NAND, and foundry—giving it stronger cycle resilience. On one side are the two Korean champions topping profits; on the other, domestic DRAM leader ChangXin Tech recently listed on the STAR Market. On July 27, 2026, it surged 465% on its first day, closing with a market cap fixed at 3.28 trillion yuan, topping the A-share market cap leaderboard.
Many people have started asking: Can ChangXin challenge Samsung and SK hynix?
Let’s see the gap clearly with a set of intuitive figures: Samsung Electronics’ overall market cap is about 8.5 trillion yuan, SK hynix is about 6.7 trillion yuan, and ChangXin’s market cap touched 4 trillion during trading (July 31, 2026), reaching 47% of Samsung’s and 60% of SK hynix’s. The market-cap gap may not look huge, but there is a massive divide in profitability scale. Samsung Semiconductor’s single-quarter operating profit is about 817k RMB; SK hynix’s single-quarter profit is about 793.2k RMB. Compared with ChangXin: in 2026 Q2, single-quarter revenue was about 64.2 billion RMB, attributable net profit about 28.7 billion RMB, with quarter-over-quarter growth of 26.4% and 15.9%, respectively; gross margin remains at a high 78%. The two sides use different statistical bases (Korean firms’ operating profit versus ChangXin’s after-tax net profit), so it’s not possible to simply equate them directly. But it’s undeniable that there is a difference in order of magnitude in the current profitability scale between domestic and overseas storage giants. In product competition, the competitive landscape is even clearer.
Samsung and SK hynix tightly control the high-end HBM market, capturing the richest profits from AI compute; ChangXin’s current main product is DDR5 general-purpose memory, targeting consumer electronics and ordinary server markets. HBM chips are still in sample validation, with some time before scaled mass production. Looking across the global DRAM market, Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron—the three overseas players—still hold over 90% share. ChangXin, with a 7.7% market share, ranks fourth globally, officially reshaping the industry pattern into “3+1.” By proactively shifting capacity toward higher-profit HBM and cutting general DRAM supply, Korean manufacturers have inadvertently created a rare window for ChangXin to expand.
Prosperity will never last forever. Storage is a typical cyclical industry; once AI capital expenditures cool and new capacity is released in a concentrated wave, chip prices will face pressure at any time. The massive profits Samsung and SK hynix are seeing right now depend, to a large extent, on this round’s super-boom cycle.
In the short term, ChangXin is unlikely to shake the leading position of the two Korean giants; in the long term, ChangXin’s significance is not about catching up immediately, but about breaking the overseas oligopoly monopoly that has lasted for decades. One side enjoys the AI dividend and record-breaking profitability as established storage giants; the other is a domestic newcomer that has landed on the capital market and is accelerating expansion. The competitive chessboard of global storage chips is only just turning a new page.
$CXMT This article is only for industry news sharing and does not constitute any investment advice.
