WASHINGTON — United States Senator Tom Cotton called on the Trump administration Thursday to place Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies on the Commerce Department's trade blacklist, warning that Beijing's rapid semiconductor expansion threatens American defense capabilities and commercial dominance.
Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in a formal letter to add CXMT to the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List. The sanction would sever the Hefei-based manufacturer from American tools, patents, and technical expertise. It would also block United States corporations from doing business with the firm without specialized export licenses.
CXMT has already climbed to become the world's fourth-largest producer of dynamic random-access memory—the workhorse DRAM chips running smartphones, enterprise servers, and consumer computers across the globe.
Pentagon officials already track CXMT on the Department of Defense's Section 1260H register, which catalogues commercial enterprises tied directly to the People's Liberation Army. Yet that military designation lacks export teeth. It permits American tech suppliers to continue shipping critical fabrication tools and design architectures to CXMT fabrication lines.
Cotton argued that loophole allowed the Chinese national champion to expand at breakneck speed. Industry tracking data from Counterpoint Research shows CXMT's share of global DRAM revenue surged from 4% in the second quarter of 2025 to 10% in the second quarter of 2026.
CXMT's market climb has outpaced Western regulatory barriers:
| Market & Regulatory Metric | Official Tracking Detail |:---|:---|Primary Semiconductor Focus | Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) & High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) |Global DRAM Revenue Share (Q2 2025) | 4% |Global DRAM Revenue Share (Q2 2026) | 10% |Global Production Rank | 4th Largest DRAM Manufacturer Worldwide |Current Defense Listing | Department of Defense 1260H (Military-Linked Entity) |Targeted Regulatory Action | Commerce Department BIS Entity List Blacklist |
Beyond consumer hardware, Cotton sounded alarms over CXMT’s aggressive pivot into high-bandwidth memory. HBM silicon stacks form the operational spine of artificial intelligence compute engines, powering the advanced accelerators that run military logistics and deep-learning platforms.
Cotton warned that Beijing is pushing through technological roadblocks to achieve domestic self-sufficiency at any cost.
CXMT, one of Communist China’s national memory chip champions, poses a growing risk to our economic prosperity and military superiority. Its decision to move forward in less than ideal conditions highlights both Communist China’s desperation for chips and manufacturing struggles without advanced equipment and knowledge.
Senator Tom Cotton, in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
Cotton insisted that Washington must stop supplying the rope.
"More can be done to ensure that CXMT is cut off from the financial and technological resources that aid its supply chain and undercut American growth," Cotton wrote.
Lutnick and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security have not yet issued an official response to Cotton's letter, with congressional defense committees preparing to review semiconductor trade enforcement before upcoming fiscal hearings.