The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Apple not to purchase memory chips from Chinese manufacturers. The company is considering new suppliers amid a semiconductor shortage that has intensified as AI infrastructure rapidly expands. The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources.<\/p>\n
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he had directly informed Apple of the administration\u2019s position: major American companies should not purchase memory chips from Chinese manufacturers.<\/p>\n
According to the newspaper, Apple tested memory chips from Chinese companies ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) for potential use in devices sold in the Chinese market.<\/p>\n
Demand from companies building AI data centers has caused chip shortages and pushed prices higher. This has forced electronics manufacturers to reassess their costs and potential sources of supply.<\/p>\n
Apple Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan did not confirm that the company had tested Chinese chips. However, he said the scale of the shortage was forcing the company to consider all available options, including helping existing suppliers expand production in the United States.<\/p>\n
U.S. regulations require special licenses before information can be transferred to Chinese companies. Such information could be needed to develop customized chips for Apple.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the company can still purchase standard, off-the-shelf components from Chinese manufacturers and negotiate prices with them.<\/p>\n
Pressure is also coming from U.S. manufacturers. Micron Technology, in particular, has urged the U.S. administration to ban Apple from using Chinese memory chips. The company argues that such purchases could undermine U.S. manufacturing and conflict with Washington\u2019s policy of bringing semiconductor production back to the United States.<\/p>\n
Apple has also been approached by senators from states where memory-chip production is expected to expand. In July, they urged CEO Tim Cook not to work with Chinese suppliers.<\/p>\n
The dispute creates another point of tension between Apple and the Trump administration, which is seeking to accelerate the relocation of manufacturing supply chains to the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":152063,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-152062","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/152062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=152062"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=152062"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=152062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}