Micron Technology was gaining early on Monday. Renewed momentum for the memory-chip trade might be boosted by the Trump administration's rejection of Chinese hardware.

Micron shares were up 3.5% at $1,005.65 in premarket trading. American depositary receipts of its South Korean rival SK Hynix were gaining 4.2%.

Investors look to be piling back into the artificial-intelligence hardware trade, with memory being the hottest subsector. Micron stock has risen nearly 700% in the past 12 months, although it remains short of its highs earlier in the summer of more than $1,200.

Confidence might be bolstered by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirming the Trump administration is discouraging American companies from turning to China for memory-chip supplies, saying "it's not great American companies using Chinese memory" in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published later Friday.

In particular, the administration has relayed that message to Apple, according to the interview. The Journal had previously reported that Apple held early talks with China's ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, about supplying components for some devices sold in China.

CXMT, which recently listed in China, has advanced rapidly in conventional dynamic random-access memory $(DRAM)$, taking 7% of the global market share by revenue in the second quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. But U.S. government rules mean American companies need a license before sharing product information with CXMT.