Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT sues Pentagon over ‘Chinese military company’ designation

China’s top memory chipmaker, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), sued the Pentagon on Aug 28 over being placed on a list of companies the United States believes are aiding Beijing’s military.The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.The company was designated a Chinese military company by the US Defence Department under the Biden administration and was retained on the list by the Trump administration during a June update.“CXMT is not affiliated with the Chinese military,” the company said in the lawsuit. “CXMT designs, produces, and sells its DRAM chips for civilian and commercial use, not for military use.”The company is seeking to overturn the designation and remove the company from a Pentagon list that can trigger government contracting restrictions and reputational damage, a court filing showed.CXMT is China’s top maker of dynamic random-access memory chips, which are widely used in smartphones, personal computers, servers, artificial intelligence systems and other electronics.CXMT has an ambition to break into the US in the long term. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, names the US Department of Defence, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg and Assistant Secretary of Defence for Industrial Base Policy Michael Cadenazzi as defendants.CXMT argues that the Pentagon’s decision was “arbitrary”, lacked evidentiary support and violated its due-process rights.According to the complaint, the Defence Department first designated CXMT as a Chinese military company in January 2025. The company said it spent more than a year providing information to challenge the designation and seeking removal from the list.CXMT said the Pentagon published a notice in February 2026 stating that the company would be removed from the list, but withdrew the notice later the same day. The company alleged that the Defence Department subsequently relisted it in June without adequately explaining the change in position.“None of these determinations is supported by the factual record, by applicable law, or by reasoned decision-making,” CXMT said.CXMT’s lawsuit mirrors that of other Chinese companies.In June, Alibaba, the Chinese ‌technology and e-commerce giant, sued the US government over being placed on a list of businesses from China that the Department of Defence linked to that country’s military. REUTERS