US Senator Tom Cotton has urged the Trump administration to impose tighter restrictions on Chinese memory chip manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), arguing that the company’s growing presence in the global market could threaten American economic and military interests.In a letter sent on Thursday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, which was obtained by CNBC, the Republican senator from Arkansas asked the department to add CXMT to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List. Such a designation would significantly restrict the company’s access to US technology and limit American businesses’ ability to conduct transactions with it.“CXMT, one of Communist China’s national memory chip champions, poses a growing risk to our economic prosperity and military superiority,” Cotton wrote. He urged the administration to prevent the Chinese manufacturer from gaining a stronger foothold in the global market.CXMT is the world’s fourth-largest producer of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), which is used in computers, smartphones and other electronic devices, according to Counterpoint Research.Cotton’s request comes as CXMT expands its position in the memory chip market. Its share of global DRAM revenue increased from 4% in the second quarter of 2025 to 10% in the same quarter of 2026, according to Counterpoint data cited by CNBC.The company is already named on the US Department of Defense’s 1260H list, which identifies Chinese companies with links to Beijing’s military. However, this listing does not impose the same restrictions on American businesses as the Commerce Department’s Entity List.Cotton also raised concerns about CXMT’s efforts to enter the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, which supplies advanced memory chips used in artificial intelligence infrastructure.“[CXMT’s] 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,” he wrote.He called for further measures to restrict the company’s access to financial and technological resources, arguing that these could strengthen its supply chain and undermine American growth.“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.
