Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says the Trump administration is not in favor of Apple buying memory chips from Chinese firms CXMT and YMTC. Apple faces an August 21, 2026 deadline to commit to avoiding the suppliers, as it weighs cheaper Chinese memory against national-security pressure from Washington and lobbying from Micron.
Washington just closed a door Apple wanted to walk through. On August 14, 2026, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration is "not in favor" of Apple purchasing memory chips from Chinese manufacturers ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC). The stance pushes Apple toward pricier alternatives just as AI-driven demand pushes memory costs higher across the industry.
Apple had been testing CXMT's DRAM chips and negotiating with YMTC for NAND supply, reportedly with an eye toward using them in products sold outside the US.
A supply chain under a microscope
Apple first raised the topic with the Trump administration back in June 2026, seeking clarity on whether sourcing from these Chinese firms would be permissible. YMTC has sat on the Commerce Department's Entity List since 2022, restricting US companies from doing business with it without a special license. CXMT joined the Pentagon's list of Chinese Military Companies in 2025.
A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter around July 29, 2026, demanding that Apple abandon its plans to source from these suppliers, citing their ties to China's military apparatus. Micron has been lobbying hard against Apple's sourcing strategy, warning it could harm the US semiconductor industry. Apple now faces a reported deadline of August 21, 2026 to commit to avoiding these Chinese suppliers entirely.
Why Apple went shopping in China
AI workloads, from cloud training to on-device inference, are consuming memory at a pace that has pushed DRAM and NAND prices sharply higher. Every iPhone, Mac, and iPad needs memory chips, and Apple ships hundreds of millions of devices per year. CXMT and YMTC offer competitive pricing partly because they benefit from Chinese government subsidies designed to build domestic semiconductor capacity.
Apple's pitch to Washington was essentially a geographic workaround: use Chinese chips only in devices destined for non-US markets. The administration appears unwilling to create any precedent that normalizes major US companies deepening their reliance on Chinese semiconductor firms, regardless of where the end products are sold.
The Micron factor
Micron is one of only three companies globally that manufactures cutting-edge DRAM, alongside Samsung and SK Hynix. It has received substantial CHIPS Act funding to expand US manufacturing capacity. The bipartisan nature of the Senate letter suggests both parties see strategic value in pressuring Apple, rather than this being a partisan fight.
Investors watching the semiconductor space should note the August 21 deadline. Apple's formal commitment to avoid CXMT and YMTC would remove a source of uncertainty for domestic memory producers while confirming that the administration's technology containment strategy remains intact.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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