Chinese chip firm YMTC enters global top 3 in data-storage chip shipments

China's Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) became the world's third-largest NAND flash memory supplier by shipment volume in the second quarter of 2026, according to data released by Counterpoint Research.

YMTC captured 14% of global NAND bit shipments, narrowly surpassing Japan's Kioxia, whose share also rounded to 14% in Counterpoint's published figures. US-based Micron ranked fifth with a 13% share, followed by SanDisk at 11%.

South Korea's Samsung retained the top position with 25%, while the SK hynix group ranked second with a combined 22% share. SK hynix accounted for 13% and its subsidiary Solidigm for 9%.

YMTC's shipments increased 22% from a year earlier and 5% from the previous quarter as the company benefited from global supply shortages and expanded deliveries to Chinese device manufacturers.

The company is mass-producing 267-layer three-dimensional NAND chips and developing products featuring more than 300 layers using its Xtacking architecture, Counterpoint said.

Despite ranking third by shipments, YMTC remained fifth in terms of revenue, behind Micron and Kioxia. Its product portfolio is still concentrated on lower-priced consumer applications, with limited exposure to higher-margin enterprise solid-state drives.