US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Apple that buying memory chips from Chinese suppliers is not a wise move, according to a report from August 13. Apple was exploring memory chips from China's ChangXin Memory Technologies, known as CXMT, and Yangtze Memory Technologies, known as YMTC, as a way to ease rising component costs driven by a global memory shortage.
Lutnick made his comments after visiting the tech giant’s manufacturing facility in Houston, saying American companies need other ways to solve the memory crunch instead of turning to Chinese suppliers. His warning adds fresh pressure on Apple at a time when memory prices have already pushed up the cost of Macs and iPads.
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A bipartisan group of US senators, led by Indiana Republican Jim Banks and New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to commit by August 21 to avoid CXMT and YMTC memory across the company's entire supply chain, including products made and sold only in China.
The senators argued that Apple's plan would leave the company dependent on a supplier the US government has formally tied to China's military. They also questioned Apple's pitch that Chinese memory would stay limited to devices sold in China, noting that once a part clears
Apple's testing process, extending its use worldwide becomes a single procurement decision. Micron, the world's third-largest memory chipmaker, has pushed back strongly too, telling the White House that Apple's move would run against the administration's push to bring manufacturing back to the US.
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YMTC already sits on the US Commerce Department's Entity List, a trade blacklist that limits the flow of controlled technology to the company. Both YMTC and CXMT also appear on a Pentagon list of firms believed to support China's military, a designation that makes any deal with them politically sensitive.
Apple does not need formal government permission to buy standard memory chips, but sharing technical product information with either supplier would require a Commerce Department license.
The tech giant explored a similar deal with YMTC back in 2022, only to shelve those plans after facing scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The company is yet to respond to any purchase agreement with either Chinese supplier so far, while also awaiting a public statement on the latest round of pressure from Washington.