Congressional scrutiny is mounting over increasing consumer costs of memory chips as Congress looks to avoid yet another cost of living issue for American consumers.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) is “fighting like hell for a solution” to stop the rising costs of chip makers, he told the Washington Reporter.
Even though the largest memory chip makers, which are primarily based in South Korea, received massive U.S. government subsidies through the Biden-passed CHIPS and Science Act, prices have continued to skyrocket — despite subsidies for over $50 billion in domestic manufacturing of chips.
As demand for memory chips has surged with AI demand, many consumer goods manufacturers are now facing dramatically higher prices across many industries. In recent months, Microsoft dramatically raised prices on its Surface tablet due to the memory chip shortage. Ford and Tesla have also warned that cars could soon face price spikes as a casualty of these higher chip prices. Even washing machine makers are sounding the alarm.
“It’s not right that memory chip makers are getting large federal subsidies and turning around and raising pricing on chips for consumer products,” Lawler told the Reporter. “My constituents shouldn’t be facing a price hike.”
Rep. Gabe Evans (R., Colo.) has similar concerns, telling the Reporter that “American consumers are feeling the impact through higher prices and memory chip supply shortages.” Evans wants to “advance practical solutions that lower costs, strengthen supply chains, and protect working families from the ongoing impacts of the global memory chip shortage.”
Lawmaker concerns come as two of the largest memory chip makers, Micron and South-Korean based SK Hynix, both cracked trillion dollar valuations just this week as demand for memory chip continues to rise.
Across the Hill from Reps. Lawler and Evans, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) has been sounding the alarm for months.
In an April letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Moreno wrote that “according to S&P Global, memory chip prices could rise between 70 to 100 percent in 2026, while leading producers have acknowledged they cannot meet current demand… The result is clear: disrupted production, threatened jobs, and higher costs passed directly on to working families.”
