Apple's Reported Push To Buy Chinese Memory Chips Isn't About Lower Prices, It's About Surviving A Worsen

Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported effort to secure access to memory chips from a Chinese supplier reflects mounting concerns over future chip availability rather than a search for lower costs, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

AI Data Centers Are Reshaping The Global Memory Market

In a post on Sunday, Kuo said the “memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027,” arguing that this is the real reason Apple is lobbying the Donald Trump administration to keep ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) off the U.S. Entity List.

According to Kuo, the pressure on Apple has shifted “from soaring memory costs to a widening supply gap.”

He estimates that 15% to 20% of memory capacity currently allocated to consumer electronics in 2026 could be redirected to AI data centers in 2027, with that share likely to increase further.