[News] China’s IC Export Value Nearly Doubles to US$177B in 1H26; Memory Price Boom Seen Behind the Surge

China’s integrated circuit (IC) export value rose sharply in the first half of 2026. According to South China Morning Post, citing data from China’s General Administration of Customs, the country exported 179.44 billion integrated circuits (ICs) in the first six months of 2026, with total export value reaching US$177.28 billion, an increase of more than 96% year on year.

The surge in IC exports was one of the key drivers of China’s double-digit export growth in the first half of the year, alongside strong overseas demand for industrial robots and other high-tech products. As South China Morning Post notes, exports of automatic data processing machines and parts rose 41.3% year on year to US$138.08 billion in the first half, while industrial robot exports increased 18.6% to US$927.7 million, reaching 141 countries and regions.

What’s Driving China’s Chip Export Surge?

However, according to Tom’s Hardware, the underlying data points more to a global memory price boom than to a surge in AI chip exports, as higher memory prices have increased the value of the commodity-grade chips that China exports in large volumes.

The first-half export figures also translate to an average value of roughly US$0.99 per chip, Tom’s Hardware notes, suggesting China’s IC exports consist primarily of memory, power management ICs, microcontrollers, and other mature-node devices, as well as chips packaged and tested in China for re-export, rather than high-end processors.

As global memory makers redirected DRAM capacity toward HBM for AI accelerators while phasing out DDR4 production, supplies of conventional memory tightened, driving both spot and contract prices sharply higher through late 2025 and into 2026. Tom’s Hardware says Chinese memory manufacturers primarily serve this commodity memory segment, allowing their export prices to rise alongside global market prices.

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