U.S. government threatens DRAM tariff at the worst time ever

An offhand threat by the U.S. Commerce secretary could mean significant additional costs to upgrade or build PCs…or perhaps nothing at all.

As Micron broke ground on a new memory fab in New York, Bloomberg noted U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s backhanded threat to tariff foreign DRAM makers.

“Everyone who wants to build memory has two choices: They can pay a 100 percent tariff, or they can build in America. That’s industrial policy,” Lutnick said, as recorded by Bloomberg.