Apple now testing DRAM chips from banned Chinese memory supplier, per report Marcus Mendes | Jul 8 2026 - 7:25 am PT | Jul 8 2026 - 7:25 am PT After Apple started lobbying the US government for approval to use memory chips from CXMT, The Financial Times now reports that the company is actively test… …
… They added that any initial restriction limiting CXMT memory to products sold in China would be unlikely to hold, since “once a part clears qualification for Apple production, extending it worldwide is a single procurement decision away.” Finally, in addition to asking Apple to commit by August 21 … …
Commerce Secretary says US opposes Apple buying Chinese memory chips Marcus Mendes | Aug 14 2026 - 7:15 pm PT | Aug 14 2026 - 7:15 pm PT The Wall Street Journal reports that US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has urged Apple not to turn to Chinese memory chips as the company looks for alternative… …
… Here are the details. iPhone sales surge in China as competition increases prices According to the report via Reuters , the rising costs of memory chips led Android manufacturers to raise prices to the point that not even government subsidies were able to curb the decline in smartphone sales. …
… Additionally, with Taiwan under prolonged threat from China, there is always the danger that TSMC could fall under Chinese control – or that the chipmaker’s plants would be sabotaged or destroyed. …
… In the piece, Cook hinted that Apple was interested in buying memory chips from Chinese firms, if granted approval. China has national champion companies in memory and storage, but due to national-security rules, American companies would likely require licenses to work with them. …
… Apple previously sought permission from the Biden administration to do the same thing back in 2022, and that did not go well – despite promising to use the chips only for iPhones sold in China … As we made clear yesterday, Apple is not legally banned from buying chips from either company. …
… Back to the report, Bloomberg says that Apple’s main challenges in its diversification efforts center on manufacturing scale and consistency, as “Intel and Samsung can’t reliably offer the type of production and scale that’s turned TSMC into the dominant made-to-order chip manufacturer — and one of… …