Apple’s aggressive lobbying campaign to alleviate rising costs by using Chinese memory chips is colliding with an equally strong push by major supplier Micron Technology opposing such a move, reports The Wall Street Journal (a subscription is required to read the article).
In recent weeks, Apple CEO Tim Cook and top executives have pitched Trump and officials including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to
Micron Technology argues that permitting such sales would harm the U.S. tech manufacturing industry in the same way that China decimated U.S. steel and manufacturing plants. Micron is an American multinational semiconductor company that manufactures computer memory and computer data storage products, including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, High Bandwidth Memory, and solid-state drives.
Apple is in talks to buy memory from Chinese semiconductor companies ChangXin Memory Technologies Co. (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC). While Apple isn’t barred from using CXMT as a supplier, the iPhone maker is seeking guarantees CXMT won’t be added to the US’s so-called Entity List that would impose stiff licensing restrictions as Washington and Beijing play hardball over trade and rare earths, the FT said.
The Pentagon, which had previously removed CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. from the 1260H list, restored the two memory chipmakers in its newest version. While the list carries few immediate legal repercussions, it’s widely considered a red flag to investors that can precede more punitive trade restrictions, notes Fortune.
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