Sometimes three's a crowd. But when it comes to the memory boom there's room, and plenty of demand, for more chip makers.

China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) surged 466% on its trading debut in Shanghai on Monday, giving it a market capitalization of $484 billion. It's already the most valuable company listed in mainland China. Only Tencent, at $513 billion, sits above it on the Hong Kong market.

It's a stunning debut and underlines the strength of the memory-chip boom, amid shortages fueled by artificial-intelligence demand.

The three memory-chip giants -- Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix -- have enjoyed bumper gains over the past year. Micron's stock price is up more than 700% over the past 12 months, SK Hynix is up 580%, and Samsung has risen 285%.

CXMT's bumper first day certainly isn't hurting the trio. Micron shares rose 1.7% ahead of the U.S. open, while SK Hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) were up 4.2%, and Samsung closed 1.8% higher in Korean trading.

CXMT's IPO comes as Apple has been pushing to use the chip maker's products in devices sold in China. Apple has been lobbying the Trump administration to ensure that CXMT doesn't end up on a trade blacklist, The Wall Street Journal reported. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

There's another new Chinese memory stock coming, too. Yangtze Memory Technologies, or YMTC, is expected to conduct its IPO this year.

It remains to be seen what impact the existence of five publicly listed memory chip makers, up from three, will have on Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix stocks.

But for now the memory boom is alive and well.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires