Chinese NAND flash manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) has outperformed global rivals during a major domestic e-commerce event. Its consumer SSD brand ZhiTai claimed the top spot in both sales volume and revenue during JD.com's 618 shopping festival, surpassing Samsung Electronics to defend its title as the leading SSD brand in China.
This marks ZhiTai's second straight win, following its 2024 Singles' Day sales triumph over international competitors, according to SCMP. The back-to-back victories might reflect the rising competitiveness of Chinese brands in the high-end consumer memory market and suggest China's NAND flash technology is shifting from catching up to keeping pace with global leaders.
From price to performance, an all-out push
ZhiTai's 618 success was powered by two flagship SSDs. The TiPlus 7100, built on YMTC's proprietary Xtacking 3.0 architecture and TLC NAND, offers sequential read speeds of up to 7,000MB/s. Its strong balance of performance and value helped it dominate the mainstream segment and top SSD unit sales.
The second standout, the TiPro 9000, was co-branded with the highly anticipated Chinese game Black Myth: Wukong. Featuring YMTC's next-gen Xtacking 4.0 architecture and dual-layer stacking, it delivers sequential read speeds of up to 14,000MB/s. Targeted at enthusiasts and younger gamers, the model sparked major buzz during the shopping event.
China's 3D NAND stack surpasses 294 layers
YMTC is narrowing the technology gap with global chipmakers. A teardown by TechInsights revealed that the TiPro 9000 uses 3D NAND with 294 layers and a storage density of over 20 Gb/mm^2, placing it on par with top offerings from Micron and Samsung. This marks a notable advance in China's high-end NAND manufacturing capabilities.
The company is also expanding into enterprise markets, with a PCIe 5.0 SSD slated for release in 2025. The drive will target high-demand workloads such as cloud computing, AI model training, big data, and hyperscale data centers.
Localization gains momentum amid US curbs and legal battles
Amid tighter US export controls on China's semiconductor sector, YMTC is ramping up its supply chain localization. Industry estimates suggest over 14% of the company's production equipment now comes from domestic vendors such as Naura Technology and AMEC, a sign of growing self-reliance in chipmaking tools.
Rising geopolitical friction has also brought legal headwinds. In early 2025, YMTC filed a defamation lawsuit against US memory maker Micron, accusing it of spreading false claims that harmed its reputation, escalating the US-China tech conflict into legal and public relations arenas.
As Chinese consumers grow more receptive to locally made premium storage devices and localization advances, YMTC's 618 victory signals its evolution beyond the low-cost label. The company is now positioning itself as a legitimate global SSD competitor.
At the same time, Chinese memory chipmakers are benefiting from a strengthening domestic consumption cycle, now a critical engine for advancing national semiconductor self-sufficiency.
Article edited by Joseph Tsai
