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 alternatives to alleviate the ongoing global supply shortage. Here are the details.
Over the past few months, Apple has been seeking approval from the Trump administration to buy memory chips from two Chinese companies, CXMT and YMTC, a move that has been facing bipartisan pushback . Apple has made little secret of its intention to expand its memory supply options. There have also been reports that Apple was already testing memory chips from CXMT and exploring a potential deal with YMTC, prompting a bipartisan group of US senators to urge the company to abandon any plans to source memory from the Chinese companies. Apple may do so anyway. There have to be “other solutions to the memory issue, but it’s not great American companies using Chinese memory. However, it is increasingly looking like a deal allowing Apple to source memory chips from China will not be part of the package.
However, Apple COO Sabih Khan told the WSJ that while Apple does customize many iPhone components, “there isn’t a lot of customization” when it comes to memory, raising the possibility that Apple could simply use off-the-shelf Chinese memory chips. That includes Tim Cook arguing the US should “look at all supply,” reports that Apple had already been discussing the issue directly with the Trump administration, and Cook’s remarks on the company’s recent earnings call that Apple is “evaluating all options. The Trump administration doesn’t want Apple to buy memory chips from China, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview. “The Trump administration is not in favor of that,” Lutnick said in an interview after touring an Apple manufacturing facility in Houston. When asked by the WSJ whether he had relayed the Trump administration’s opposition to the idea directly to Apple, Lutnick said he had done so “plainly.”
