WSJ: Lutnick asks Apple not to buy Chinese memory chips
The US Secretary of Commerce has called on the iPhone manufacturer to find alternative solutions to the chip shortage and soaring chip prices
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has asked Apple not to purchase memory chips from China, urging the iPhone manufacturer to find alternative solutions to the chip shortage and soaring prices. Lutnick made the comments in an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal. To help alleviate the supply crisis, Apple is turning to Chinese manufacturers, but “the Trump administration is not in favour of this solution”, Lutnick said after visiting an Apple manufacturing plant in Houston.
“There must be other solutions to the memory problem, but it is not a good thing for American companies to use Chinese memory,” he added. Clearly, he said, this message had been conveyed to Apple.
According to sources close to the company, Apple is testing memory chips manufactured by the Chinese firms Cxmt and Yangtze Memory Technologies, with a view to possibly incorporating these components into Apple devices sold in China. As previously reported by the Wall Street Journal, laptop manufacturers HP and Acer have started using CXMT memory chips in devices sold outside the United States.
Apple’s chief operating officer, Sabih Khan, declined to confirm that Apple was testing Chinese memory chips. However, he said that, given the scale of the chip shortage, “we must consider all options”, including working with existing suppliers to increase production in the United States.
Although Apple customises many of the components inside its iPhones, Khan said that ‘there isn’t much scope for customisation’ when it comes to memory, hinting at the possibility that low-quality Chinese memory chips might be used.
