Micron Technology’s memory chips have reportedly failed China’s security review, resulting in the chips being barred from use in critical infrastructure.
According to Reuters, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) accused Micron’s products of having serious security vulnerabilities.
“The review found that Micron’s products have serious network security risks, which pose significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain, affecting China’s national security,” the CAC said in a statement.
Micron said it looks “forward to continuing to engage in discussions with Chinese authorities.”
The decision comes at a time when China and the West are increasingly at odds over developing technology, especially semiconductors and artificial intelligence. The West is eager to keep China from gaining a technological lead and has raised ongoing concerns over Chinese tech firms’ role in supporting Beijing’s espionage and surveillance efforts. As a result, it’s hard to know how much of the CAC’s actions are motivated by true security deficiencies in Micron’s products.
In the meantime, analysts don’t believe the decision will have much of an impact on Micron’s financial outlook.
“Since Micron’s DRAM and NAND products are much less in servers, we believe most of its revenue in China is not generated from telcos and the government. Therefore, the ultimate impact on Micron will be quite limited,” Jefferies analysts said in a note seen by Reuters.
