One week after The Wall Street Journal reported that Tim Cook's Apple was testing memory chips from China's CXMT, a company blacklisted by the Pentagon over alleged ties to the People's Liberation Army, the outlet published a follow-up story with an interview with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who publicly urged Apple not to proceed. The standoff comes as the AI data-center buildout absorbs global memory supplies, driving prices sharply higher and forcing consumer-electronics manufacturers to explore alternative sources.
"The Trump administration is not in favor of that," Lutnick said in an interview after touring a new Apple manufacturing plant in Houston, Texas. There have to be "other solutions to the memory issue, but it's not great American companies using Chinese memory."
Lutnick said he has told Apple "plainly" that US tech giants shouldn't use Chinese memory. Apple has tested chips from CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies for potential use in devices sold in China, though Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan declined to comment on the trials, saying her team must examine "all options."
Apple can buy standardized Chinese memory chips without government approval, but customized com
