Apple Wants Chinese Memory Chips, But US Government Says Find Another Way

The memory chip crisis of the industry is choking all the smartphone makers, and Apple is no different in this case. Apple was reportedly in talks with Chinese manufacturers for chips, but the US government has different plans for them. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the administration does not want Apple to purchase memory chips from China and told the iPhone maker to look for other options.

Lutnick said in an interview after touring an Apple manufacturing facility in Houston that the Trump administration is not in favour of that, according to a report published by Wall Street Journal. He said that there have to be other solutions to the memory issue, but it is not great for American firms to use Chinese memory. When he was asked if the message has been sent to Apple, Lutnick replied by saying, 'plainly.'

The comments on the same come as demand for memory chips has increased at a skyrocketing pace because of the heavy requirement of the same by artificial intelligence data centres. The resulting supply shortage has pushed the memory prices towards the higher side. Talking about Apple, they have been testing memory chips made by Chinese companies CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies, as per people familiar with its efforts. Lutnick further stated that the US government would continue to push Apple to move more of its supply chain to the country.

He said, 'Relentlessly, more and more and more,' while talking about the pressure. Lutnick also said, 'They’ve built their supply chains on low-cost labour. And now they need to build a supply chain on advanced manufacturing. Can Apple do it? Of course they can. You’re going to see step by step, and piece by piece, they’re going to bring significant portions of their business home.' Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Sabih Khan, didn't comment on the company's testing of Chinese memory chips, but he said that they have to look at all options.