Apple lobbying over Chinese memory chips sets up clash with Micron

Apple’s effort to use Chinese-made memory chips in products sold outside the United States is facing growing opposition from Micron Technology as tight supply and higher prices shift bargaining power toward memory producers. The Wall Street Journal reported on July 26 that Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has personally lobbied President Donald Trump and other officials to permit Chinese memory in overseas Apple products, arguing the move could help lower device prices amid inflation pressures. Micron Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra has pushed back with senior U.S. officials, warning that China could do to memory what it did to U.S. shipbuilding and steel. The dispute has also become more public after Apple raised product prices by 20% last month and blamed memory shortages and supplier profiteering. Micron Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana rejected that argument, saying the shortage stems from 2023, when some customers, including Apple, pushed prices to unsustainably low levels during the downturn, leaving memory makers without enough profitability to add capacity. A similar clash is unfolding in China. Huawei’s pressure for lower prices from ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, has led the company to take a tougher line, and Reuters reported that CXMT last month removed personnel from SiCarrier, Huawei’s equipment-development affiliate, from its factory, with the engineers still barred from returning. The parallel disputes underscore how memory, especially DRAM tied to AI servers, has become a more strategic product, leaving governments and device makers weighing lower costs against support for domestic chip industries.