Apple's testing of memory chips from CXMT, a supplier black-listed by the U.S. government, could help ease the RAM pricing crisis. It's nowhere near enough to solve the problem.
In late June, Apple reportedly asked the Trump administration to allow it to buy RAM chips from a supplier in China that the U.S. had blacklisted. As Cupertino waits on Washington, it is allegedly testing out the memory from the blackballed company.
According to two sources cited by the Financial Times, Apple has started to test DRAM chips produced by CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies). Apple has acquired memory chips intended for use in smartphones and devices sold in China.
The aim of the testing is to make sure the chips CXMT produces are good enough for use in Apple's own products. At best, this could result in memory chips from CXMT being used in Western iPhones, so long as Apple gets permission from the U.S. government.
The purchase may seem like a political problem in the making for Apple. It's really a lot simpler from Apple's point of view, as it tries to figure out how to get around the painful pricing of the memory market.
The CXMT problem
The crux of the problem is CXMT and how it is designated as untrustworthy by the United States.
CXMT is located on the Chinese Military Company Blacklist, also known as 1260H. It is a list of companies that the Pentagon insists have links to the People's Liberation Army, and therefore is a national security risk in the United States.
U.S. companies are able to buy components and products from firms on the blacklist. However, the Department of Defense is not able to make agreements with companies either on the list or those who use them as component suppliers.
In effect, Apple could buy the memory, but then it would immediately lose a lot of potential and lucrative sales to the U.S. Government. That's before you consider the political scaremongering of Apple possibly using parts from an apparent security risk to the country.
The problem is worse than that for CXMT, as it was going to be placed on the "Entity List" until the White House stepped in and delayed it. The Entity List would put a hard block on Apple buying anything from CXMT.
Though Apple has reportedly acquired chips for testing, this wouldn't go against the rules of the blacklist CXMT is on already. Apple won't have introduced products using the chips through the supply chain, and it certainly wouldn't sell them either.
We can even go as far as to say Apple's chip purchase for testing is to be expected of the company. It wouldn't be going to the trouble of petitioning the White House for permission if it didn't know if it could use CXMT's chips in the first place.
Government assistance and beneficial trouble
CXMT's inclusion on the CMC Blacklist makes sense, considering how CXMT was formed and funded.
Really, it is very much a local company for local people. Or at least for supplying firms servicing a Chinese audience.
The company goes back to 2016, when Zhu Yiming started a government-backed project to build domestic fabs. The intention was to reduce a reliance on imported memory.
Following the acquisition of patents from Qimonda in 2019, as well as hiring key personnel from elsewhere, it worked on its DRAM strategy. It also acquired deep ultraviolet (DUV) machines from the Dutch producer ASML to make semiconductors.
Memory is in short supply globally — Image credit: SK Hynix
However, throughout its existence, it has been helped by the Chinese government. This included cheap land and assorted financing to build up its production.
It is estimated that CXMT received at least $880 million worth of government subsidies between 2023 and 2025.
So far, the subsidies haven't really paid off. That is, until the memory crisis occurred.
In the last decade, the company saw losses totaling $5.4 billion. However, in the first quarter of 2026 alone, it hauled in $4.8 billion, and is expected to earn more as time goes on, and the RAM pricing crisis continues.
A potential help, but not by much
As the report explains, CXMT is the world's fourth-largest producer of DRAM, behind the usual suspects, and usual Apple suppliers of SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. While it accounts for 11 percent of global DRAM wafer capacity as of 2025, it's still not a dominant force in the market.
A lot of that is down to the whole China-US political climate, and things like the United States' blacklists. But also, that it is chiefly a supplier to the local market.
Apple's attempt to get the U.S. to rethink the political tensions in a very price-sensitive area of manufacturing makes sense from its viewpoint. It doesn't care about the potential threat of national security as much as it wants to sell the iPhone to consumers.
If Apple can get the U.S. to agree to let it buy memory from CXMT, it will certainly be a help. It will also be small and only temporary.
That 11-percent wafer capacity is decent, but Apple would still have to compete with companies in China that already get memory from CXMT.
Then there's the possibility of Apple not being alone. If it gets permission to purchase chips, so can other companies that are impeded by the same restrictions and issues.
The potentially cheaper memory pie will quickly be consumed by competitors doing the same thing. Eventually, it will then reach a point where the market returns to having limited supply and way too much demand once again.
Though CXMT has seen rapid growth in recent years, it too has to deal with limited capacity. As SemiAnalysis analyst Ray Wang said in the report, capacity is still extremely constrained and will remain so for the next two years, even if CXMT expands.
It's a very temporary solution to a very long-term problem that can only be alleviated as the memory industry as a whole expands production.
