CXMT surges on STAR debut as valuation tops $512 billion

China’s STAR Market has become a standout destination for investors as foreign capital pours into the Shanghai tech board and enthusiasm builds around domestic semiconductor and artificial intelligence companies. The STAR 50 Index rose 34.80% from the start of the second quarter through July 28, outperforming the Kospi’s 19.22% gain, the Kosdaq’s 32.93% decline and the Nasdaq’s 15.22% rise over the same period. Guosen Securities said 219.3 billion yuan, or about $30.6 billion, flowed into mainland A-shares in the second quarter, a quarterly record, with analysts estimating that a substantial share went to the STAR Market. The board’s total market capitalization reached 15.6729 trillion yuan, or about $2.19 trillion, as of July 28, roughly double a year earlier, even as the number of listed companies increased by only 23 to 612 from 589. The reshuffle has been led by chip and AI-linked names. CXMT, after listing on July 27, became the market’s largest company by capitalization, while Cambricon moved to second after posting its first annual profit in 2025. MetaX and Moore Threads also climbed into the top ranks after unveiling domestic chips said to have narrowed the performance gap with Nvidia products to 75% to 80%. The new momentum marks a reversal for a market that had struggled under U.S. semiconductor curbs and years of weak global investor sentiment toward China because of geopolitical tensions, property-sector stress and regulatory risks. Analysts at KB Securities, Hana Securities and Samsung Securities said the concentration of companies tied to AI hardware localization and domestic substitution could help extend the rally, particularly if August earnings from fabless chip companies such as Cambricon are strong. A growing pipeline of potential listings, including Unitree, Yangtze Memory Technologies and DeepSeek, has added to expectations for further gains. Wall Street firms are also turning more constructive. Citigroup recently raised its rating on Chinese equities to overweight from strategic neutral, while Eva Lee, UBS’s head of Greater China equities, said leading Chinese AI companies have entered a historically very low valuation range that offers compelling opportunity. These broader market developments add context to CXMT’s blockbuster debut on the STAR Market, where the Chinese DRAM maker jumped 465.82% to 49 yuan on July 27 and later, in a July 29 update cited by PANews and based on 8MarketCap data, was valued at $512.75 billion, surpassing Mastercard in global asset rankings.