US lawmakers push to ban Chinese memory chips, even via allies

US lawmakers are asking Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to ban imports of memory chips from China, citing "unacceptable risk" to national and economic security. They also want allied countries to adopt similar bans.

Why it matters: Memory (DRAM/HBM) is a critical bottleneck for AI accelerators, so a ban targeting Chinese memory suppliers opens another front in the US-China chip conflict beyond existing logic-chip and EUV export controls. If allies comply, it could tighten global memory supply and raise costs for AI hardware makers.