US Senators Warn Apple Off Chinese Memory Chips
A bipartisan group of US senators has told Tim Cook to abandon Apple’s plan to buy memory chips from Chinese suppliers ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), warning it would leave the world’s most valuable company reliant on a designated Chinese military supplier.
Apple has been lobbying Washington to approve the deal as a memory shortage drives up its prices.
July 30, 2026 – 6:41 pm
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Apple wants to buy cheap memory chips from China to ease a shortage that is already pushing up the price of its gadgets. A bipartisan group of US senators has just told Tim Cook not to.
The senators wrote to Cook, urging Apple to drop any plan to buy Chinese memory. Their chips would leave Apple “dependent on critical supplies from a firm the United States government has formally designated as a Chinese military company.”
Why Apple is even considering it
The context is a brutal squeeze on memory. Prices have soared due to unprecedented demand from AI chipmakers such as Nvidia. In June, Apple raised prices across its Macs, iPads, home devices and the Vision Pro, blaming the shortage.
Cheaper Chinese memory would help. Apple has spent months lobbying Washington for clearance. It has sought the blessing of senior Trump officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and has been testing CXMT’s chips for its China-market devices.
CXMT is at the centre of it, fresh off a blockbuster Shanghai IPO. It is not named in US export regulations, though it runs advanced chipmaking facilities. YMTC is more clearly restricted. Apple’s earlier attempt to use it, in 2022, collapsed under Washington’s opposition.
The China-only loophole, and the jobs
Apple’s pitch is that the Chinese memory would only go into devices sold in China. The senators do not buy it. Once a part clears Apple’s qualification, “extending it worldwide is a single procurement decision away.”
They also punctured the savings argument, citing analysis that CXMT’s pricing is sometimes higher than its rivals’. And they asked what Apple has handed over to qualify the chips, given US rules that require a licence to send technical blueprints to Chinese factories.
There is a home-state interest, too. Many of the signers come from states where Micron and SK Hynix are spending billions on new memory plants. Cheap Chinese memory, the senators fear, could undercut those Chips-Act-backed projects.
An awkward moment
The timing is delicate. Apple this week became only the second company to reap benefits from the CHIPS and Science Act, which provides billions in subsidies for US chipmaking.