YMTC Targets Up To 70% Domestic Equipment For New Chip Plant

YMTC Plans Higher Domestic Equipment Share for Fourth Wuhan Plant

Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) plans to buy up to 70% of its equipment from domestic suppliers for its planned fourth plant in Wuhan, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. That target marks an increase from the share expected at the company’s third facility, which is scheduled to begin operating by the end of the year and where Chinese vendors account for poco più della metà degli acquisti di apparecchiature.

The Tech TL;DR:
• YMTC targets a 60% to 70% domestic equipment share for its fourth plant in Wuhan, up from just over 50% in its third facility.
• The new fab will manufacture advanced NAND flash memory chips featuring more than 300 vertically stacked cell layers for data centers and AI workloads.
• The expansion plan advances despite ongoing US export controls that restrict YMTC’s access to certain American chipmaking technologies.

Fourth Wuhan Plant Targets Advanced 300-Layer NAND Production

The fourth facility, planned in Wuhan where YMTC is headquartered, is slated to produce the company’s most advanced NAND chips with more than 300 vertically stacked memory cell layers, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. The plant is expected to focus primarily on memory chips built for data centers and artificial intelligence applications. Vertical stacking increases storage density to hold more data on a chip of the same physical dimensions. YMTC aims for a domestic equipment share of at least 60% in the new plant, with ambitions to reach 70%. Construction is slated to begin next year, though YMTC has only held preliminary discussions with suppliers so far and placed no formal orders.

US Export Controls Shape Localized Supply Chains and Rival Operations

The plans arrive while US export controls restrict YMTC’s access to certain American chipmaking technologies. In December 2022, the US Commerce Department placed YMTC on the Entity List, which requires licensing for American suppliers selling specific technologies to the firm. These restrictions also complicate efforts by South Korean competitors such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to expand capacity or execute major technological upgrades at their plants in China. Samsung is converting its Xi’an plant to produce 286-layer chips, while SK Hynix is upgrading a Dalian facility to reach at least 240 layers up from 192, Reuters previously reported. YMTC’s share of China’s NAND market rose to 38.5% in the second quarter from 28% in 2025, pushing the company past Samsung as the top NAND maker in the country, according to Omdia market research data. YMTC, Samsung, and the US Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment, while SK Hynix declined to comment.

Domestic Equipment Makers Capture Core Manufacturing Steps

The higher local content target could benefit Chinese equipment makers, including Naura Technology Group and Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment, sources reported. Most additional domestic orders are expected to involve core operational stages of chip manufacturing such as wafer cleaning, polishing, and etching, areas where Chinese vendors have already proven their equipment reliability on YMTC production lines. Chinese companies already supply the majority of YMTC’s cleaning and polishing equipment and have made headway in tools used to build the deep vertical structures required for advanced NAND chips. YMTC continues to rely on overseas suppliers for sophisticated equipment like lithography and inspection tools. In April, Reuters reported that YMTC planned to build two more plants in Wuhan, bringing its total to five facilities. When fully operational, the third, fourth, and fifth plants are each expected to process about 100,000 silicon wafers per month, more than doubling YMTC’s total manufacturing capacity.