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.
A bit of context
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.
For context, YMTC is on the US Commerce Department’s Entity List, and the Pentagon has designated both YMTC and CXMT as Chinese military companies due to their alleged ties to China’s military.
So, in addition to the alleged competitive disadvantage US companies could face from competing with Chinese state-subsidized rivals, another issue is that Apple typically needs customized components for its devices.
