The AI-driven memory and storage chip shortage is driving OEMs towards Chinese chip manufacturers.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works .
This is the first recorded instance that a laptop from a major OEM is being sold in the United States with a YMTC SSD, which is particularly curious given that the company was added to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List in 2022. While this prevented the company from acquiring goods and services that were made with or contained American technologies, it does not prevent Lenovo, whose headquarters are in China, from importing such drives into the U.S.
Major PC manufacturers have traditionally relied on established storage chip makers such as Samsung, SK hynix, Kioxia, Micron, and SanDisk, but the ongoing AI buildout has driven prices through the roof. Even Apple, which previously held significant influence over suppliers, is now seeking a blessing from the U.S. government to buy memory chips from the Chinese firm CXMT . Although it’s not on the Entity List, it’s still designated as a Chinese military company, meaning that doing business with it would carry some risk for an American company.
Notebookcheck says that the YMTC drive’s performance “is below average for an SSD in an office laptop,” meaning it could not compete against the best SSDs you can buy today. Most buyers likely won't care about this, especially since the Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL is marketed as an office laptop for everyday use. This means that its target market will likely be unfamiliar with specifications like read/write speeds and will probably be satisfied as long as it’s faster than a hard drive.
Lenovo’s deployment of YMTC drives is particularly important because it’s one of the largest laptop brands in the U.S. by volume. In fact, even as PC shipments fell by 7% in the first quarter of 2026, Lenovo’s market share actually grew by 1.2%, making it the third largest desktop and notebook brand after Dell and HP. Since the Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL is a relatively affordable laptop designed for office use, it would likely sell many units through enterprise purchases and help increase the adoption of Chinese storage solutions in the U.S.
Chinese makers of DRAM modules, SSDs have a serious advantage over American and Taiwanese suppliers, says SMI SVP
Apple reportedly lobbies Uncle Sam for access to Chinese memory chips
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/ssds/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/chinese-ymtc-ssds-make-their-way-into-retail-lenovo-laptops-media-outlet-slams-ymtc-pcie-4-0-drive-for-below-average-for-an-ssd-in-an-office-laptop-in-review#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
- The ultimate 4K RTX 5090 gaming titan plummets $2,580 — huge discount makes the Alienware Area-51 with 24-core CPU and 64GB RAM irresistible
- Meta data center water discharges suspended after contaminating the city's reclamation water supply with bacterium — system offline for months for cleaning, clo
- Sony crammed an entire PS1 into a DualShock controller that connects to your TV, but killed the project — PlayStation Puga offered game studios a mere 10 cents
- NVIDIA BioNeMo Agent Toolkit Brings Accelerated AI to Life Sciences Researchers in Claude Science
- Chinese YMTC SSDs make their way into retail Lenovo laptops — media outlet slams YMTC PCIe 4.0 drive for 'below average for an SSD in an office laptop' in revie
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.