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The Pentagon initially classified CXMT as a Chinese military company in January 2025, when Joe Biden was the president. The Trump administration subsequently maintained the designation when the Defense Department updated the list in June. CXMT says it spent more than a year supplying information to the Defense Department in an attempt to overturn the classification and remove itself from the list.
The company claims the DoD published a notice in February indicating that CXMT would be taken off the list but withdrew that notice later the same day without any explanation. In June, the Pentagon classified CXMT as 'directly affiliated with MIIT and indirectly affiliated with SASAC and MIIT.' MIIT is China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, whereas SASAC is the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, an organization that formally owns the government's stakes in non-financial state-owned enterprises.
While CXMT memory can certainly be found in systems used by the PLA or China's secret services, this does not automatically make CXMT a direct supplier to these entities and therefore does not prove that CXMT is a Chinese military company.
CXMT points out the Pentagon's original motivation to include the DRAM maker in its list was a remarkably weak-looking 'military grade' argument. According to the complaint, DoD's 2024 report said CXMT contributed to China's defense industrial base partly because its DRAM is dual-use and cited an advertisement describing CXMT products as 'military grade.' CXMT says that advertisement came from an unauthorized distributor, which later admitted the characterization was erroneous.
CXMT's DRAM ambitions could have it capture 30% of the market by 2030
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/chinas-top-dram-maker-cxmt-sues-pentagon-over-its-blacklisting-argues-chips-are-standard-civilian-jedec-spec-not-defense-hardware#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.