GoKawiilThe Wall Street Journal reports that Micron is pressing the Trump administration to block Apple’s push to use memory chips from Chinese suppliers. Here are the details.
Apple’s Chinese chip plan would extend beyond China
Last month, just before Apple hiked prices for several of its products due to the ongoing memory shortage, Tim Cook gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal, where he suggested that the US should reconsider its decision to restrict access to certain Chinese suppliers.
In the days that followed, the Journal reported that Apple had already been seeking clearance from the administration to purchase chips from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). At the same time, the Financial Times said Apple was in negotiations to purchase chips from Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC). The FT would go on to claim Apple was already testing DRAM chips from CXMT.
For context, CXMT and YMTC have been designated as Chinese military companies by the Pentagon, and YMTC is also on the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
This does not necessarily prohibit Apple from using their chips in products sold outside the US, but it has made any potential deal politically sensitive and prompted pushback against the company in the past.
Now, the Journal reports that as Apple has continued to push the Trump administration to approve the use of Chinese memory chips in products sold outside the US, rather than just in the Chinese market, it has faced opposition from Micron, which is lobbying officials to block the plan.
From the report:
In recent weeks, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and top executives have pitched Trump and officials including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on a plan to use memory chips from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies in Apple products sold outside the U.S., people familiar with the discussions said. Those arguments have been countered by Micron, the only sizable U.S. maker of memory chips. Micron executives including CEO Sanjay Mehrotra have warned Lutnick and other administration officials that allowing CXMT and other Chinese companies to sell to U.S. tech companies, regardless of the region of sale, could destroy the domestic industry the same way China played a role in decimating U.S. steel and manufacturing plants, the people said.
In a nutshell, the general argument against Apple’s plan is that sourcing memory from heavily state-subsidized Chinese suppliers, even if only for the Chinese market, could ultimately undercut US producers and weaken competition.
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