Thread by @hellowo63335565

Memory prices have dropped significantly this year, in YouTube, many tech influencers in the US explain it as a "shift in supply and demand before and after the pandemic."
However, today I bring you a different story, and its name is YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd.).

Story might be a bit lengthy, and I apologize for y'all endure this long thread. Most of my socializing happens on Chinese apps, and I was originally just planning to casually browse on Twitter,don't know I'd end up sharing some tales about Chinese technology with all of you.😅

YMTC is an emerging company that was established in 2016. However, their astonishing technological progress has caught up rapidly.
By the end of 2017, YMTC developed 32-layer NAND flash memory, nearly five years later than Samsung at that time.

In 2019, they began production of 64-layer TLC NAND flash memory.
By 2020, they reached 128 layers, achieving Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron in terms of technology.

In 2022, they achieved 232 layers, and Apple chose YMTC as a supplier. Have to say the progress made by YMTC has been truely remarkable.

However, during this time, U.S. politicians started pressuring Apple, ultimately forcing them to abandon YMTC as a supplier in October of last year. In December, TechInsight, the same company that dismantled Huawei's CPUs, confirmed the 232-layer 3D storage chips from YMTC.

2 weeks later, the U.S. Department of Commerce added YMTC to the Entity List, which meant they could no longer obtain etching machines from Lam Research Corporation, and all repair personnel were withdrawn by the U.S.

What's interesting is that one week later, Samsung announced a 10% price increase for their entire line of technological products.
In the following months of this year, there wasn't much information about YMTC on the Chinese internet.

But, it is certain that they went through a difficult period. They were forced to lay off 10% of their employees and significantly reduce their orders. But something unusual happened in May. The memory market in China suddenly experienced a significant price drop,

both for Samsung and SK Hynix. Like, Samsung's 2TB memory was priced at 2399RMB(331USD) in June 2022, but a year later, it was only 979 RMB(135USD).
Because YMTC's chips started entering the market, I guess they must have made some technological breakthroughs at that time.

Afterward, people could clearly feel the drop in the memory market. For example, in the following months, a 2TB memory from Acer was priced at only 599 RMB (82 USD). Some even went as low as 468 RMB (64 USD), and they still had decent quality.

Due to the sanctions,YMTC was unable to sell their products overseas. When the prices of memory in China decreased, which in turn forced companies like Samsung and other foreign enterprises to lower their prices in China as well. Then it resulted in price drops on a global scale.

I believe it was this Chinese company that caused a seismic shift in the industry because there is a clear correlation between the technological advancements of YMTC and the decrease in SSD prices. However, I've scoured YouTube, and no one seems to have the right answer.

They all seem to be avoiding mentioning China. And I know, it's intentional.I'm not quite sure about the events that YMTC went through during this period, but just yesterday, they announced the mass production of the world's first 300+ layer NAND flash memory chip.

Other global manufacturers are only expected to achieve mass production by 2024 at the earliest. It seems like YMTC has managed to overcome most of the challenges and, despite the restrictions imposed by the US, they have achieved a remarkable feat of becoming the world leader.

This article has a simple message - as you use cheaper SSDs, don't forget to recognize this excellent company.
Their future achievements are definitely something to look forward to.