Apple Lobbies Trump White House to Buy Chips From Blacklisted Chinese Firm
Apple is pushing the Trump administration for a waiver to source memory chips from CXMT, a Pentagon-blacklisted Chinese company, amid rising chip costs.
Apple is quietly applying pressure on the Trump White House for permission to purchase memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies — a Chinese chipmaker the Pentagon has formally blacklisted. The Financial Times broke the story Friday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the lobbying effort. Neither Apple, the White House, nor CXMT responded to comment requests.
The play here is straightforward: memory chip prices are climbing, and Apple wants a cheaper alternative. CXMT is one of China's most aggressive DRAM producers, and access to its chips could give Apple meaningful cost relief across its iPhone lineup. That's real margin pressure we're talking about — the kind that catches Wall Street's attention fast.
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But the risk is just as real. Doing business with a Pentagon-blacklisted entity normally requires explicit government clearance, and the optics of America's most valuable company buying from a Chinese firm the Defense Department flagged as a security concern are, to put it mildly, complicated. The Trump administration has run hot and cold on China tech restrictions, so a waiver isn't out of the question — but it's far from guaranteed.
For traders, this is a story about Apple's supply chain strategy and its willingness to push political boundaries to protect profitability. Watch for any formal White House response or escalation from defense hawks in Congress — either could move the stock. If Apple gets the waiver, it signals a softer China tech stance from the administration. If denied, Apple's memory cost headache gets louder.
Continue reading at Yahoo.
