CXMT fights Pentagon over “Chinese military company” label
Chipmaker says it's in the business of memory chips, not military hardware.
Image by Cybernews
- CXMT sued the Pentagon over its designation as a Chinese military company.
- The company says it makes DRAM chips for civilian and commercial use, not military use.
- The Pentagon kept CXMT on its Covered List after the company challenged the designation.
- China’s embassy accused the US of unfairly targeting Chinese companies under national security claims.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s largest memory manufacturer, has sued the US Department of War for placing it on a list of companies that, allegedly, conspire with the Chinese government.
CXMT is China’s top maker of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips, which are widely used in everyday devices, including smartphones, PCs, servers, and artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
In January 2025, the Pentagon designated CXMT a “Chinese military company” for being directly affiliated with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and indirectly with the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC).
For over a year, the chip memory manufacturer provided additional information to challenge the designation and seek removal from the list, but to no avail.
In June 2026, President Trump’s administration updated the Covered List and decided to keep CXMT on it.
CXMT has had enough and claims that these allegations are false and have no legal basis. Therefore, on Friday, the firm filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon for falsely labeling it a “Chinese military company.”
“CXMT is not affiliated with the Chinese military. CXMT designs, produces, and sells its DRAM chips for civilian and commercial use, not for military use,” the company says in a lawsuit that was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
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“None of these determinations is supported by the factual record, by applicable law, or by reasoned decision-making,” the company adds.
In a statement to Reuters, a Pentagon spokesperson says that the Department of War doesn’t comment on pending or ongoing litigation.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon added several major Chinese tech companies to its Covered List, which has been in place since 2021 and aims to identify Chinese companies with close ties to the Chinese military or Beijing.
Among others, the retail company Alibaba, the search engine Baidu, and the car manufacturer BYD were added to the Covered List this year.
The Chinese embassy accused the US of “overstretching the concept of national security” and “making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies.”
“The US should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies,” the embassy said in a statement.
