YMTC, China’s largest NAND flash manufacturer, has completed the three-month pre-IPO tutoring process required for a domestic listing and is expected to debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market in the first half of next year. The CSRC (China’s securities regulator) confirmed that the company has established the governance, accounting and internal-control systems required of listed companies. Tutoring was completed at the fastest pace permitted under China’s IPO rules, after YMTC registered with the Hubei Provincial Securities Regulatory Bureau on May 19. The process was jointly handled by CITIC Securities and CITIC Construction Investment. YMTC must now submit its IPO documents to the CSRC for review, inquiry and listing committee deliberation before registration. Founded in Wuhan in 2016, the company is China’s only integrated device manufacturer (chip designer and producer) focused on both the design and production of 3D NAND flash. It has no controlling shareholder, while state-owned Hubei Changsheng Development owns 26.5%. YMTC was valued at 160 billion yuan, or about $23.7 billion, last year. The company has begun mass production of 267-layer 3D NAND and held 14% of global NAND flash shipments by capacity in the second quarter of this year, overtaking Kioxia for third place globally. Samsung Electronics led with 25%, SK Hynix had 22%, and Micron ranked fifth. YMTC’s IPO plans follow CXMT’s 66.6 billion yuan, or approximately $9.9 billion, mainland listing late last month. CXMT’s shares surged after the debut, making it more valuable than Tencent and turning it into China’s most valuable listed company. The two memory-chip makers are central to China’s semiconductor strategy as AI demand drives a global memory supply crunch, industry profits rise and tighter U.S. export controls increase investor interest in China’s semiconductor supply chain.