ChangXin Memory Technologies v. Department of Defense is a suit filed on August 28, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by CXMT, China's largest DRAM manufacturer, seeking removal from the Department of Defense's Section 1260H list of companies the United States says are aiding China's military (Source: reuters.com).
| Plaintiff | ChangXin Memory Technologies |
| Defendants | Department of Defense; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg; Assistant Secretary for Industrial Base Policy Michael Cadenazzi |
| Court | U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia |
| Filed | August 28, 2026 |
| Relief sought | Removal from the Section 1260H list |
Background
The Section 1260H list is the Pentagon's annual designation, mandated by Section 1260H of the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act, of "Chinese military companies" operating in the United States. Its June 2026 update expanded the list to 188 entities and folded AI-sector firms into a mechanism originally aimed at defense-industrial entities. CXMT was designated under the Biden administration — the company dates its initial designation to January 2025 — and was kept on the list in the June 2026 update.
CXMT states that it spent more than a year providing information to the Pentagon to challenge the designation. It alleges that the Pentagon published a notice in February stating the company would be removed from the list, withdrew the notice the same day, and then did not adequately explain the change when it relisted the company (Source: reuters.com).
Claims
The complaint argues that the designation was "arbitrary," lacked evidentiary support, and violated the company's due-process rights. On the merits it asserts a civilian-use defence: "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 also states that its revenue rose 874% in the first half of the year.
The Defense Department said that as a matter of policy it does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.
Related challenges
CXMT is the second AI-relevant Chinese technology company to sue over a 1260H designation in 2026: Alibaba filed a similar suit in June 2026, after being added in the same annual update. Xiaomi was removed from the list in 2021 after suing, the precedent both later challenges follow.
The suit runs parallel to, but is procedurally distinct from, Anthropic v. United States (Pentagon ban challenge), in which a US developer challenged a Pentagon supply-chain-risk designation under a different statutory provision and obtained summary judgment on August 27, 2026 — the day before this filing. Both cases test whether a Defense Department designation that carries commercial consequences is reviewable and what process is owed before it issues, though on different authorities and with the designations pointing in opposite directions.
Open questions
- Whether the court reaches the merits of the designation or resolves the case on the adequacy of the Pentagon's explanation for the withdrawn February notice.
- What effect, if any, a favourable ruling would have on the separate Entity List addition a US interagency committee is reported to have approved for CXMT.
- The docket number and assigned judge, which are not established by the available reporting.
Relationships
- litigates: CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) — plaintiff.
- related: Section 1260H List (DoD Chinese Military Companies) — the designation under challenge.
- related: Anthropic v. United States (Pentagon ban challenge) — a contemporaneous challenge to a Pentagon designation, on different authority.
- related: Export Controls (AI), Semiconductor Supply Chain — the trade-restriction context.
- related: Alibaba / Qwen Team — filed a comparable suit in June 2026.