Installing equipment now; Yangtze Memory's Phase 3 will start production this year.

According to the Wuhan Xinzhou District Government’s official website on February 1st, Wuhan’s third billion-level integrated circuit project — Changjiang Storage Phase III — is scheduled to be completed and put into operation this year, attracting 200 upstream and downstream companies.

At the construction site of Changjiang Storage Phase III, machines are roaring, tower cranes are standing tall, and workers are installing equipment for the massive cleanroom facilities.

Changjiang Storage was established in July 2016 and is a leading enterprise in China’s storage chip manufacturing industry, mainly providing 3D NAND flash wafers and particles, embedded storage chips, as well as consumer and enterprise solid-state drives and other products and solutions.

In December 2021, Changjiang Storage Phase II Technology Co., Ltd. was founded with a registered capital of 60 billion yuan. By September 2025, Changjiang Storage Phase III (Wuhan) Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 20.72 billion yuan.

Last November, Nikkei Asia cited industry sources saying that, by 2025, Changjiang Storage’s share of global capacity will be about 7% to 8%. If the Phase III expansion proceeds as planned, Changjiang Storage is expected to hold over 10% of the global market share by 2026 and may surpass U.S. storage chip giant Micron to become the world’s fourth-largest storage chip manufacturer.

In the same month, Hubei Daily reported that Wang Zhonglin, Secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, visited the Changjiang Storage Phase III construction site to observe the main building progress and hear about the company’s future development plans.

He emphasized that Changjiang Storage is a major national productivity layout project and a “national heavy equipment” for achieving high-level technological self-reliance and strength. The project must be carefully organized, with full efforts to provide construction services and support, ensuring early completion, early production, and early effectiveness.

Wang Zhonglin at the Changjiang Storage Phase III construction site

Wang Zhonglin also stated that storage chips, as the core hardware for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and other technologies, are a critical area in global technological competition. Changjiang Storage should adhere to planning guidance, follow the development strategy of “consolidating new advantages, opening new fields, and accelerating the development of the new integrated storage and computing track,” scientifically formulate development plans, reasonably optimize spatial layout, and strive to build a world-class integrated storage and computing industry base.

“To stay at the forefront, focus on technological breakthroughs, and fully promote R&D and design of next-generation flash memory chips, driving deep integration of technological and industrial innovation, and cultivating new productive forces. We must seize opportunities to expand scale and capacity, further improve the product matrix, actively explore domestic and international markets, and continuously increase market share,” he said.

Market research firm Omdia estimates that in 2025, Changjiang Storage’s capital expenditure will be more aggressive than its global peers, accounting for about 20% of the total global NAND flash investment, and is expected to continue accelerating. There are also so-called insiders claiming that Changjiang Storage plans to allocate 50% of Phase III capacity to the production of DRAM memory chips, though this has not been confirmed by the company.

As Changjiang Storage expands at full speed, the global AI computing boom continues to drive demand for storage chips, placing the industry in a new growth cycle. Market research firm Counterpoint data shows that NAND flash prices are expected to rise by over 40% in the first quarter of this year. According to QY Research, the global storage chip market sales are projected to reach 1.584 trillion yuan by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% from 2025 to 2031.

In September last year, Changjiang Storage’s parent company, Changjiang Storage Technology Holdings Co., Ltd., held a shareholders’ meeting, which may indicate that its shareholding reform has been fully completed. Meanwhile, in the latest “2025 Global Unicorn List” published by Hurun Research Institute, Changjiang Storage was valued at 160 billion yuan and ranked 9th among China’s top ten unicorns and 21st globally, becoming the highest-valued new unicorn in the semiconductor industry.

Source: Observer Network

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