Apple is in negotiations to purchase chips from two Chinese semiconductor makers on a Pentagon blacklist to help reduce the impact of a global memory shortage that¡¯s forced the company to raise prices across its product line.
The iPhone maker is seeking to buy memory components from ChangXin Memory Technologies?and Yangtze Memory Technologies?for use in devices sold in China, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks between Apple and the companies are ongoing, and nothing is final yet, said the people, who requested anonymity to describe private discussions.
Apple¡¯s effort has included appeals by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, to help soften the political fallout from any possible deal with the Chinese chipmakers, the people said. Both CXMT and YMTC, as the two companies are known, are on a recently updated Defense Department list of Chinese entities believed by the U.S. to support Beijing¡¯s military.
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