Apple reportedly explores using Chinese memory chips in iPhones

Apple is reportedly exploring partnerships with Chinese memory chipmakers YMTC and CXMT to secure components for future devices, amid rising memory prices.

The company is considering Chinese memory as a way to reduce costs for iPhones and iPads, as DRAM prices rise globally.

Currently, Apple sources most DRAM from Samsung and SK Hynix, with Chinese chips not yet used in iPhones.

Industry analysts suggest that if Apple adopts Chinese memory, it could impact global market share dynamics and validate Chinese semiconductor technology.

However, due to ongoing US-China export restrictions, the immediate use of Chinese chips in iPhones sold in the US remains unlikely.

Some experts believe Apple’s interest may serve as a negotiation tactic with Korean suppliers.

The move could also influence Chinese chip development and competition with Korean firms, especially in high-margin and enterprise memory markets.

🔗 Source: Chosunbiz

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The AI boom is squeezing memory supply, and Apple may look to China

Memory is getting tight because Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron are steering more output toward high-margin High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators. That shift leaves less conventional DRAM on the market and lifts prices for standard memory 1.
Kioxia (a Japanese flash-memory maker) has only agreed to deliver NAND for the current quarter at roughly 2x prior prices. It is also pushing for quarterly talks instead of semi-annual ones, which makes Apple’s budgeting and procurement harder 2.
Chinese vendors could fill some gaps. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has working DDR5 designs, though mass production remains delayed. Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) is adding NAND capacity and is expected to steer about half of planned new Wuhan fab output toward DRAM rather than NAND 1.

Apple’s interest could shift how memory gets priced and sourced

Moving ahead could strengthen an alternative supplier pool. PC makers including HP and Dell are said to be qualifying CXMT, while Apple is also reportedly evaluating CXMT and YMTC 3.
This fits China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency drive. US-China export restrictions have pushed Chinese memory makers to expand local capacity and work toward a more vertically integrated supply chain for advanced memory products 1, 4.
YMTC and CXMT plan factory expansions that should come online around 2027. More capacity aimed at domestic demand could erode the pricing leverage of global incumbents over time and raise swings in a boom-bust market 1.
Export controls add a policy strain because limits on China’s advanced memory and packaging can overlap with worldwide shortages. Sources do not say this is sending “American champions” to Chinese suppliers 1, 5.