🇺🇸🇨🇳 JUST IN: Bipartisan senators are demanding Apple promise, in writing, to never use Chinese memory chips, as Apple quietly tests exactly that.
The Wall Street Journal reports Apple has been testing memory chips from China's CXMT, China's largest chipmaker, across iPhones and MacBooks. Talks have gone far enough that Apple is exploring CXMT chips for devices sold inside China itself.
Here's the catch. Both CXMT and YMTC, the two Chinese chipmakers in play, are officially designated by the Pentagon as Chinese military companies. YMTC also sits on the Commerce Department's blacklist.
Apple isn't legally required to get government approval to buy from them. But doing it without Washington's blessing is politically radioactive, so Apple has reportedly been seeking White House sign-off while it runs these tests.
Now a bipartisan group of senators, led by Jim Banks and Chuck Schumer, is trying to shut the door entirely. Their letter to Tim Cook gives Apple a hard deadline: commit by August 21 to never use CXMT or YMTC chips, or face the political fallout.
Their warning is blunt. Buying from these companies would make the world's most valuable tech company dependent on a firm the US government has formally flagged as aiding China's military.
Why is Apple even considering it? A brutal global memory shortage, fueled by the AI data center boom, is driving prices on ordinary smartphone and laptop chips through the roof. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are all racing to serve AI demand instead, leaving everyday consumer supply squeezed.
Apple's leverage play against its Korean suppliers has reportedly already backfired, handing Samsung and SK Hynix more pricing power, not less.
The clock is now ticking toward August 21.
#Apple #China #Semiconductors #TechNews #Geopolitics
The Wall Street Journal reports Apple has been testing memory chips from China's CXMT, China's largest chipmaker, across iPhones and MacBooks. Talks have gone far enough that Apple is exploring CXMT chips for devices sold inside China itself.
Here's the catch. Both CXMT and YMTC, the two Chinese chipmakers in play, are officially designated by the Pentagon as Chinese military companies. YMTC also sits on the Commerce Department's blacklist.
Apple isn't legally required to get government approval to buy from them. But doing it without Washington's blessing is politically radioactive, so Apple has reportedly been seeking White House sign-off while it runs these tests.
Now a bipartisan group of senators, led by Jim Banks and Chuck Schumer, is trying to shut the door entirely. Their letter to Tim Cook gives Apple a hard deadline: commit by August 21 to never use CXMT or YMTC chips, or face the political fallout.
Their warning is blunt. Buying from these companies would make the world's most valuable tech company dependent on a firm the US government has formally flagged as aiding China's military.
Why is Apple even considering it? A brutal global memory shortage, fueled by the AI data center boom, is driving prices on ordinary smartphone and laptop chips through the roof. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are all racing to serve AI demand instead, leaving everyday consumer supply squeezed.
Apple's leverage play against its Korean suppliers has reportedly already backfired, handing Samsung and SK Hynix more pricing power, not less.
The clock is now ticking toward August 21.
#Apple #China #Semiconductors #TechNews #Geopolitics