Chinese PC maker Lenovo, alongside U.S. brands HP and Dell and Taiwanese manufacturers Acer and Asus, is increasingly turning to Chinese-made memory chips as a looming global shortage threatens to drive up prices for notebooks, smartphones and tablets in markets such as Australia.

The shift comes as traditional suppliers Samsung and SK Hynix pivot their production toward higher-margin AI-focused memory products expected to dominate demand through 2026. As a result, PC makers are searching for lower-cost alternatives, with Chinese suppliers emerging as a viable option.

However, Western brands remain concerned that Chinese companies—including Lenovo, Motorola and Legion, Lenovo’s gaming subsidiary—could receive preferential pricing and priority access to supply due to close ties with domestic manufacturers and government support.

Lenovo has already been integrating Chinese-developed DeepSeek AI software into its products and has sourced memory modules from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) for several years. CXMT, a Chinese DRAM manufacturer founded in 2016, has raised billions of renminbi from China’s state-backed semiconductor investment vehicle, the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, commonly known as the “Big Fund.”

Other PC makers that previously relied heavily on South Korean memory suppliers are now qualifying CXMT products amid concerns that DRAM prices will continue to rise. HP has acknowledged it is closely monitoring the memory supply situation and said it would consider sourcing DRAM from CXMT for the first time if shortages persist. Dell is also in the process of qualifying CXMT’s DRAM products, according to Nikkei Asia, amid expectations that memory prices could surge through 2026.

The Chinese government, working alongside companies such as Lenovo, Hisense and TCL, is accelerating efforts to capture greater global market share in both components and finished electronics. These efforts are being driven by aggressive component pricing, large-scale automation, AI integration and lower labor costs, all aimed at shifting supply-chain dominance away from Western manufacturers.

Apple already sources billions of dollars’ worth of components from Chinese suppliers, underscoring China’s entrenched role in global electronics manufacturing.

Analysts say the memory crunch has created a significant opportunity for Chinese electronics contract manufacturers to expand their influence within global supply chains. Acer, the world’s sixth-largest PC maker, has increasingly relied on Chinese partners for design and production in recent years to control costs and has indicated openness to using Chinese-made memory chips.

“As long as Chinese suppliers’ new capacity comes online, it will help improve the memory crunch situation,” Acer chairman Jason Chen said earlier this week.

Asustek, the world’s fifth-largest PC maker, has also asked its Chinese manufacturing partners to help source memory chips for certain notebook projects, according to people familiar with the matter.

Historically, PC brands tightly controlled procurement of critical components such as processors, displays and memory, leaving contract manufacturers responsible mainly for assembly and lower-value parts. That model is now changing.

“Amid the massive global shortage of memory, PC makers are increasingly relying on their manufacturing partners’ supply-chain connections to expand sourcing options,” a supply-chain executive told Nikkei Asia.

A senior executive at a gaming PC company noted that qualifying a new memory supplier typically takes around two quarters. “On top of that, most new capacity is expected to be prioritized for Chinese companies like Lenovo, leaving limited supply for the rest of us,” the executive said.

CXMT’s DRAM products are already used by Chinese smartphone makers including Xiaomi, Oppo and Motorola, as well as by Lenovo and major cloud service providers such as ByteDance and Alibaba Cloud.

Meanwhile, Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp. (YMTC) has grown into a leading NAND flash manufacturer by market share despite being placed on a U.S. trade blacklist. The company has begun expanding overseas, recently launching its ZhiTai branded solid-state drives in Taiwan and other global markets.

For consumer electronics manufacturers, rising memory costs pose a significant challenge. DRAM is critical for system performance, enabling fast data access, while NAND serves as primary storage in laptops and computers. When memory prices rise by as much as 100%, those increases are often passed directly on to consumers.

According to Counterpoint Research, global memory manufacturing has long been dominated by companies from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan. However, CXMT’s share of the global DRAM market has grown to roughly 5% by revenue, while YMTC accounted for around 10% of the NAND market in 2025. Both companies are aggressively expanding capacity with heavy backing from the Chinese government.

“China’s memory industry has already reached economies of scale in NAND, allowing continued investment through operating cash flow. DRAM is expected to follow a similar path in the near future,” said MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint Research. He warned that the rise of new players could exacerbate the next industry downturn.

“China’s presence may prove even more consequential during a downturn than during today’s boom,” Hwang said. “Looking ahead, innovation in the memory market will be shaped not only by AI-driven competition but also by increasingly intense battles over cost efficiency.”

Nikkei Asia’s reporting shows China has become highly competitive across a wide range of components—from batteries and printed circuit boards to mechanical parts—following a national localization push triggered by the U.S. blacklisting of Huawei.

HP did not respond to requests for comment. Dell and Asus declined to comment. Acer said it does not disclose supplier details but maintains close relationships with multiple global manufacturers to manage component price fluctuations and strengthen supply-chain resilience according to Nikki Asia.