The True Cost of Cheap Chips
Chip scarcity is not an abstract technology race; it decides which militaries and industries can actually scale their plans.
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Faisal Akhter August 13, 2026
Given the relentless demand for computing power, electronic components are in scarce supply. Prices for certain memory chips, known as DRAM, have surged by more than 50 percent in a single quarter this year, and have roughly quadrupled since last fall. Because DRAM supply is tight, Apple, Dell, and HP are currently evaluating memory from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a company the Pentagon has designated as a Chinese military company. Apple, in particular, has sought assurances from the U.S. government that CXMT will not face future sanctions that would cut off its supply. Apple justifies its request by pledging to use CXMT chips for its products sold in China.
Even if every chip stays in China, the arrangement endangers national security. Such use and validation would build a state-backed champion into a global competitor in a market where capital is the attack vector. The Chinese government has successfully employed this strategy before. Recognizing this playbook, lawmakers published a bipartisan July 14 congressional letter demanding the Commerce Department add CXMT to its Entity List, an export-control designation that imposes licensing requirements on specified transactions involving listed entities. Given this history, the United States should not only refuse any assurances by these companies, but also place CXMT on the Entity List.