We learned yesterday that Apple is trying to persuade the Trump administration to allow it to buy memory chips from two Chinese companies blacklisted by the Pentagon, CXMT and YMTC.
Apple previously sought permission from the Biden administration to do the same thing back in 2022, and that did not go well – despite promising to use the chips only for iPhones sold in China …
As we made clear yesterday, Apple is not legally banned from buying chips from either company. However, there are two reasons why the iPhone maker would want to seek a green light from the White House before actually doing so.
First, the Pentagon blacklist means that Apple using chips from the two companies might see iPhones being banned for use by some or all federal employees. Second, Apple tries to stay on good terms with whichever administration is in power. For those reasons, Apple is seeking official clearance.
However, we’ve been here before, and although that was a different administration, there was strong bipartisan opposition to the idea. The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence wrote then:
We write to convey our extreme concern about the possibility that Apple Inc. will soon procure 3D NAND memory chips from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-owned manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC). Such a decision would introduce significant privacy and security vulnerabilities to the global digital supply chain that Apple helps shape given YMTC’s extensive, but often opaque, ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and concerning PRC-backed entities.
In addition, we write to convey that any decision to partner with YMTC, no matter the intended market of the product offerings developed by such a partnership, would affirm and reward the PRC’s distortive and unfair trade practices, which undermine U.S. companies globally by creating significant advantages to Chinese firms at the expense of foreign competitors.
Reuters reported at the time that Apple planned to use chips from YMTC only in iPhones sold in the Chinese market, but this did not mollify opponents.
Given that Trump’s acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio was one of those to sign the letter, it seems unlikely that Apple would be given the go-ahead now.
Via Daring Fireball. Photo: Apple.
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