Senator Cotton Urges Restrictions on Chinese CXMT’s Operations with US Companies
US Senator Tom Cotton has urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to add the Chinese memory manufacturer CXMT to the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List.
On Thursday, Cotton sent a letter to Lutnick requesting that ChangXin Memory Technologies be included in the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List. Such a decision would significantly limit the ability of US companies to do business with CXMT and would deny the Chinese manufacturer access to US technologies, explained Kyle Chan, an expert at the Brookings Institution.
CXMT produces DRAM, memory used in the basic functions of computers and smartphones. According to Counterpoint, the company’s share of the global DRAM market by revenue grew from 4% to 10% between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026. In July, CXMT conducted an initial public offering, after which its shares sharply increased in value.
Manufacturers can use DRAM as a basis for HBM—high-bandwidth memory used in AI chips by Nvidia, Google, and Amazon Web Services. Counterpoint considers CXMT’s capabilities in this area still limited; however, Reuters reported on the company’s plans to begin HBM production. According to a source, the yield of viable chips may be only 20–30%.
CXMT is already included in the US 1260H list, where the Pentagon places Chinese companies linked to the PRC’s military authorities. However, according to Chan, this list does not provide for strict restrictions on US businesses. Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had considered the possibility of purchasing memory from CXMT for iPhones and Macs amid a shortage caused by rising demand for AI infrastructure. Inclusion of the company in the Entity List could affect such an option.
