Apple Tests Chinese Memory Chips to Ease AI-Driven Supply Crunch

Apple is testing Chinese memory chips from CXMT to address a supply squeeze caused by the AI boom. The company aims to use these chips in iPhones and MacBooks. This move is part of Apple's efforts to diversify its supply chain and mitigate potential shortages.

AAPL has begun technical qualification testing of DRAM memory chips made by ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China's largest domestic memory producer, for use in iPhones and MacBooks, the Wall Street Journal reported. The early-stage talks center on parts destined for devices sold inside China, and follow an AI-driven squeeze that has pushed global DRAM contract prices sharply higher,.

The supply backdrop is the story. Memory is the component AI infrastructure and consumer devices now compete for directly, and rising DRAM prices compress margins for every large device maker at once. Qualifying a second-source supplier gives Apple negotiating leverage against the incumbent trio of Samsung, SK Hynix and MU, and Apple is not first through the door: HP and Acer already ship CXMT memory in machines sold outside the United States.

The offsetting exposure is political, not technical. CXMT sits on the US Defense Department's list of Chinese military companies, and on July 29 a bipartisan group of senators pressed Tim Cook to commit by August 21 to rejecting memory from CXMT and YMTC outright. That deadline, rather than the qualification testing itself, is the near-term event to watch: a commitment would close the second-source option and leave Apple absorbing DRAM pricing on incumbent terms, while proceeding invites a policy fight in an election-adjacent window.