Overview
- Reporting on Saturday shows Micron executives met with senior White House and Commerce officials to urge rejection of Apple’s request to buy memory from China’s CXMT and YMTC while Apple renewed its push with technical tests.
- Apple has petitioned the administration to allow it to source DRAM from CXMT and to discuss YMTC so it can use those chips in devices sold outside the United States to ease supply pressure and lower prices.
- U.S. security rules complicate any approval because the Pentagon has labeled CXMT and YMTC as military-affiliated companies and YMTC is on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which would bar Defense Department procurement and create reputational and contract risks for buyers.
- The immediate urgency comes from an AI-driven shift in demand that redirected capacity to high-bandwidth server memory and sent conventional DRAM prices roughly four times higher over the past year, with new fab output unlikely to ease shortages before 2027–2028.
- The choice facing the White House is clear: permit Chinese-sourced memory for quicker consumer price relief but risk undermining U.S. manufacturers and Defense contracts, or block purchases and rely on Micron’s plan to expand U.S. capacity with a pledged $250 billion investment.