Apple is reportedly testing memory chips from Chinese supplier ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). However, the company may use these chips only in devices sold in China. The latest report comes just days after claims that Apple was considering Chinese memory suppliers, including CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC). The new information suggests Apple has already started evaluating DRAM chips from CXMT.
Apple May Limit Chinese Memory to China-Bound Devices
According to the report, Apple plans to use Chinese-made RAM only in products sold in the Chinese market. This approach could help the company avoid criticism in the United States.
The US government has placed both CXMT and YMTC on its Entity List. The list includes companies that allegedly have links to the Chinese military, which complicates the sourcing decisions for multinational corporations like Apple.
While Apple is not currently banned from doing business with these companies, sourcing components from them could attract political attention, especially from the previous Trump administration. By limiting the use of Chinese memory to devices sold in China, Apple may be taking proactive steps to reduce potential backlash from its operations in the U.S.
This interest in Chinese memory makers also reflects the growing pressures within the global memory market, where demand from AI data centers has surged sharply. As a result, non-Chinese memory manufacturers have been struggling to keep pace with the skyrocketing demand for memory components.
Apple’s exploration of Chinese suppliers isn’t a new initiative. Reports dating back to 2022 indicated that the company was also evaluating NAND flash memory chips from YMTC. This suggests that Apple has been closely monitoring the evolution of China’s memory industry for several years now.
As of now, Apple has not confirmed whether it will proceed with the use of CXMT’s DRAM chips in upcoming products. However, the latest indications show that the company is actively exploring new supply options in the competitive landscape of memory components.
For more detailed information, you can access the original report Here.
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