Elon Musk: China’s Mass Production Capabilities May Surpass the Rest of the World

ChainCatcher report: On October 13, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated on the social platform X that once China masters the manufacturing method of a certain product, its ability to scale production often exceeds the combined capacity of the rest of the world. He cited lithium batteries and solar energy as examples, noting that China has already demonstrated this pattern in these fields. His comments were in response to a discussion about the memory manufacturer CXMT. The poster, Melvin, argued that CXMT has become a formidable competitor, but whether new technologies can achieve stable mass production still depends on yield, cost, and reliability. He also noted that memory demand continues to grow, and increased capacity does not necessarily mean immediate oversupply. Regarding memory, Musk said that about three years ago, memory was still a low-margin commodity, with LPDDR5 and LPDDR6 designed under common standards, and China appears to be rapidly resolving related technical challenges. Musk also pointed out that next-generation high-bandwidth memory architectures are more difficult to overcome. Another challenge involves placing a layer of SRAM beneath a logic chip and stacking RAM vertically above it, while simultaneously solving thermal management issues for the logic chip. Phoenix Tech, citing public information, reported that on September 7, CXMT announced the mass production of LPDDR6, which was first commercially deployed in the Xiaomi 18 Fold with a capacity of 16 GB, compliant with JEDEC’s LPDDR6 standard. Subsequently, CXMT announced the mass production of its fifth-generation DRAM process platform and launched two LPDDR5X products based on this platform, targeting smartphones and portable consumer electronics, with single-die capacity increased by 50% compared to the previous generation.