Apple tests CXMT Chinese memory chips for iPhones, MacBooks

Apple tests CXMT Chinese memory chips for iPhones, MacBooks

Mon, August 10, 2026 at 4:25 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Apple has been evaluating memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese manufacturer, for use in products spanning its lineup — among them iPhones and MacBooks — according to Reuters. The company has held early talks with CXMT about supplying components, with an initial focus on devices sold in China.

Apple is also seeking White House approval to use the chips in China-market products, according to Semafor. The outreach comes as a global memory shortage, driven by surging demand from AI infrastructure buildouts, has squeezed component supply for consumer electronics makers.

The move faces political headwinds. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wrote to Apple in July urging the company not to pursue Chinese chips, according to Semafor, as Washington has moved to tighten restrictions on Beijing's technology sector ahead of a summit next month. According to an analyst cited by CNBC, CXMT's technology lags the industry's front-runners — SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron — by roughly two to three generations.

Apple is not alone in turning to CXMT. HP and Acer are already sourcing CXMT chips for products destined for markets beyond the United States, a step both companies have taken to help offset tightening supply, according to Reuters.

The memory crunch has already forced Apple's hand on pricing. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced price increases on Apple products roughly two months ago, saying surging memory and storage costs had become "unsustainable" to absorb. Cook described the pricing environment as a "hundred-year flood," saying the volatility over the prior six months was without precedent in his career. "We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products," he said.

The shortage stems from hyperscalers including Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon dramatically expanding capital expenditure budgets, which caused memory and storage chip costs to rise fourfold. Chip manufacturers have redirected output toward the high-bandwidth memory that AI servers require, shrinking supply available for consumer devices. Cook signaled Apple was willing to use its balance sheet to help bring additional memory capacity to market, though he ruled out vertical integration into chip manufacturing.

Since its IPO in July, CXMT has climbed to rank among the highest-valued stocks trading on mainland Chinese exchanges. Apple and CXMT did not respond to requests for comment.