Apple and Micron Clash Before Trump Over Blacklisted Chinese Memory Chips

Apple's push to buy memory chips from Chinese suppliers facing U.S. restrictions has collided with opposition from Micron Technology, forcing the Trump administration to weigh lower consumer electronics prices against stronger U.S. semiconductor production.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook and top executives have recently pitched President Trump and officials including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on a plan to use memory chips from China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) in Apple products sold outside the United States.



The effort comes roughly a month after Apple began seeking clearance to purchase from CXMT. Both companies have been designated as Chinese military companies by the Pentagon, while YMTC is also on the Commerce Department's Entity List, a stricter trade blacklist.


Micron, the only sizable U.S. maker of memory chips, has warned Lutnick and other administration officials that allowing Chinese suppliers to sell to U.S. technology companies, even for products sold only outside the United States, could destroy the domestic industry, comparing the threat to the decline of U.S. steel and manufacturing.

Apple has countered that Micron's gross profit margins, now exceeding 80 percent, are evidence of price gouging. It also argues Micron is not reinvesting quickly enough to meaningfully expand supply, and that much of the additional capacity it is building will be directed toward AI customers rather than consumer electronics.

The dispute comes amid an ongoing memory shortage that has already forced Apple to raise prices across its Mac and iPad lineups. CEO Tim Cook warned in June that the situation had become unsustainable, describing it as a "hundred-year flood" for the supply chain.


Driven by surging demand for AI data center memory, chip prices have climbed sharply, and industry forecasts suggest the shortage could persist through at least 2027.

Micron says it can help ease the shortage by accelerating construction of domestic manufacturing plants and increasing investment in the United States. The company has said it plans to spend $250 billion to expand U.S. memory production, an approach that aligns with Trump's goal of reshoring semiconductor manufacturing.

Both companies have worked to build goodwill with the administration. Apple has highlighted its $600 billion American Manufacturing Program and a recently announced $30 billion agreement with Broadcom to produce chips domestically. Micron recently said it would invest $250 million to match federal funding for Trump savings accounts benefiting newborn children of employees and children in states where the company operates, according to the Journal.

A White House spokesperson told the Journal only that the administration would pursue "investments and economic relief for the American people while safeguarding our national security," offering little indication of how it plans to resolve the competing demands.

This is not the first time Apple has attempted to work with a Chinese memory supplier. In 2022, Apple conducted engineering work with YMTC before facing bipartisan backlash. The Biden administration later added the company to the Commerce Department's Entity List.