US tech hardware imports jump by $12.1B in September, hitting a record $86.9B

American buyers can't get enough tech hardware. US imports of computers, computer accessories and semiconductors jumped by $12.1 billion in September, landing at a record $86.9 billion, according to The Kobeissi Letter. It's the second-biggest monthly increase ever recorded, trailing only July 2026's $14.7 billion surge.

The year-over-year picture is even louder. Those imports climbed 151% compared with a year earlier, the largest annual jump on record. For scale, the peak annual growth during the 2000 Dot-Com Boom was just 34%.

Zoom out and the trend is just as steep. Since the start of 2024, imports in this category have more than quadrupled. On September's pace, they're now running at an annualized rate above $1 trillion for the first time in history.

That trillion-dollar clip puts the current buildout in a league of its own. The 2000 Dot-Com Boom was the benchmark for tech-driven trade for a quarter century, and its import growth never got close to what's happening now. September's number beat that old peak by more than four times over.

The takeaway from the data is blunt: US demand for technology hardware is exploding. Every category here — computers, accessories, chips — is feeding the same surge, and the annualized run rate shows no sign of cooling yet.