US imports of computers were $41.7 billion in September 2026, up $7.6 billion from August, according to the US Census Bureau and BEA trade release of 4 November (seasonally adjusted, Census basis). Computer accessories were $30.9 billion, up $5.7 billion, and semiconductors $14.3 billion, down $1.2 billion.
By our arithmetic, the three categories together came to $86.9 billion, up $12.1 billion from August and about 156% above September 2025. They made up about 25.2% of the $344.2 billion of Census-basis goods imports that month.
Business Pill · Concentration Explained
A short explainer on concentration. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss US trade data.
The key insight: By our arithmetic, US imports of computers, computer accessories and semiconductors reached $86.9 billion in September 2026, about a quarter of all Census-basis goods imports.
From January to September, the three categories totalled $590.8 billion, up 94.3% from $304.1 billion a year earlier, by our arithmetic. Census-basis goods imports overall rose $172.9 billion over the same months, so imports outside the three categories fell by about $113.8 billion, by our arithmetic.
By country, the release reports US imports of advanced technology products from Taiwan of $24.7 billion in September and $185.2 billion from January to September, up from $104.9 billion a year earlier (not seasonally adjusted). The release does not say how much of the computer imports are servers or AI systems.
Monthly US imports of computers, computer accessories and semiconductors combined, September 2025 to September 2026, from the Census Bureau FT-900 releases (seasonally adjusted). The sums and monthly changes are our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
BREAKING: US imports of computers, computer accessories, and semiconductors surged +$12.1 billion in September, to a record $86.9 billion.
This marks the 2nd-largest monthly increase in history, following the record +$14.7 billion increase in July 2026.
Since the start of 2024, imports of computers, computer accessories, and semiconductors have more than quadrupled.
YoY, these imports rose +151%, the largest YoY increase on record, compared with peak annual growth of just +34% during the 2000 Dot-Com Boom.
Based on September’s figures, these imports are now running at an annualized rate above $1.0 trillion for the first time.
US demand for technology hardware is exploding.
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) Nov 06 23:18
The Kobeissi Letter’s post at 23:18 UTC on 6 November, passed to us by a reader, put the September total at a record $86.9 billion and the year-on-year rise at 151%. The record and 151% figures are the post’s; our own year-on-year figure from the Census data is about 156%, and we have not checked the series before 2024.
Our Numbers
Adding the three end-use lines month by month, the total rose $14.7 billion in July 2026 and $12.1 billion in September, the two largest monthly increases in the 13 months from September 2025, by our arithmetic. September 2025 to August 2026 use each month’s first revision; September 2026 is as first published.
In January 2024 the same three lines came to $20.7 billion as first published, so September’s $86.9 billion is about 4.2 times that level, by our arithmetic. The $86.9 billion is the highest monthly total in the FT-900 releases we read for January 2024 to September 2026; the February 2024, February 2025 and May 2025 releases could not be parsed. At September’s pace, twelve months would come to about $1.04 trillion, by our arithmetic.
The Kobeissi Letter’s Claims
The Kobeissi Letter posted the September figures on X, calling $86.9 billion a record and the $12.1 billion rise “the 2nd-largest monthly increase in history, following the record +$14.7 billion increase in July 2026”. The post put the year-on-year rise at 151% and described it as “the largest YoY increase on record, compared with peak annual growth of just +34% during the 2000 Dot-Com Boom”.
We have not checked the series before 2024, and our own year-on-year figure, from the September 2025 first revision, is about 156%.
As we read Exhibit 8, computers and computer accessories carried the September increase, up $7.6 billion and $5.7 billion, while semiconductors fell $1.2 billion.
As we read the year-to-date figures, the three categories rose $286.7 billion while other Census-basis imports fell about $113.8 billion, by our arithmetic.
As we read the release, it reports values by end-use category and does not say which products or buyers drove the rise.
US Census Bureau / BEA, September 2026 trade release
FOR READERS TRACKING HARDWARE DEMAND By our arithmetic, the three categories totalled $590.8 billion from January to September, up 94.3% from a year earlier.
FOR READING THE TAIWAN LINK The release reports $24.7 billion of advanced technology product imports from Taiwan in September, not seasonally adjusted.
FOR THE COMPARISONS Monthly figures are revised over time, so the changes here depend on the release vintage.
The framework sets out to map the financing of AI: “How the money flows, where it cracks, what it buys, who can absorb it, and what happens when revenue can’t catch up.”
The framework does not discuss US trade data.
What Is Not Established
The Census release gives end-use categories, not products or buyers. It does not split servers from other computers, name importers, or say why imports rose. Monthly figures are seasonally adjusted and are revised, including each June, so the comparisons here depend on the release vintage.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
US imports of computers, computer accessories and semiconductors totalled $86.9 billion in September 2026, up $12.1 billion from August, by our arithmetic from the Census release. That is about a quarter of all goods imports and roughly 4.2 times the January 2024 level.
A note on sourcing. Import figures come from the US Census Bureau and BEA September 2026 trade release (FT-900, Exhibits 5, 8 and 16a) and earlier FT-900 releases from January 2024, read on 7 November 2026. Sums of the three end-use lines, monthly changes, shares, multiples and the annualised figure are our arithmetic; figures are seasonally adjusted except the country data, and are revised over time. The Kobeissi Letter’s claims are attributed to its post.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
