Apple is staking a lot of its political capital in Washington on securing memory resources from China in a puzzling move that does not make much sense, especially for its gargantuan ex-China market.

Apple appears to be going to a lot of trouble to lure the DRAM giant CXMT and flash memory behemoth YMTC into its China-focused supply chain

First, reports emerged that Apple might procure flash memory from China's YMTC, which went so far as to complete Apple's presumably stringent qualification process.

Then, Financial Times reported that Apple was lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to buy DRAM from CXMT, which remains in a Pentagon blacklist for its connections to China's People Liberation Army.

Now, just days later, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman is out with a re-hash, disclosing that Apple is working with the Trump administration to minimize any blowback in Washington if it does end up procuring memory resources from CXMT and YMTC for its products sold in China.

On the surface, this move makes sense. After all, Apple has just implemented sweeping price hikes across its Mac and iPad lineup after blaming a historic squeeze in memory prices, with Cook declaring to the Wall Street Journal just a few days ago that the ongoing surge in memory chip prices was unlike anything he had seen "in any area in over 40 years."

As we noted recently, after undergoing a 3x increase since Q1 2025, LPDDR5X 12GB contract prices were hovering at around $120 towards the tail-end of Q1 and into Q2 2026, and have increased by $68.8 since the start of the year to hit $145 per unit recently, with flash storage costs adding additional pressures.

What's more, CXMT is aggressively expanding its capacity right now, to the tune of 300,000 wafers per month by the end of this year from its current capacity of just around 200,000 wafers per month.

Yet, on a closer inspection, this thesis falls apart.

Why Apple's move reeks of desperation instead of the result of well-planned strategizing

First, as a lot of CXMT's capacity has already been converted from LPDDR to DDR for AI workloads, China's local smartphone OEMs are hurting a lot. In such a scenario, Beijing would naturally prefer that CXMT supply its limited stash of LPDDR chips to local OEMs first.

Second, CXMT is already neck-deep in LTAs, having concluded a $3 billion long-term agreement with Tencent just a few days back. This reduces its capacity that is available to Apple. Third, CXMT DRAM is not exactly cheap. In fact, its pricing is comparable to that of Micron.

Fourth, and most importantly, Apple is going to all this trouble just to ensure enough memory for its products sold within China. Understand this distinction: whatever DRAM and NAND Apple secures from CXMT and YMTC, respectively, won't be used in its products sold outside of China. Consumers in the US will continue to pay sky-high prices for tech products, including those from Apple.

Fifth, Apple appears to be burning a lot of its political capital in Washington on a move that won't entail sizable strategic dividends. The question then arises: why is Apple so desperate all of a sudden? Does it see China as the only major market with its growth story still intact?

About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025.

As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover.

When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.

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