Apple is quietly pressing the U.S. government for permission to buy memory chips from a Chinese manufacturer that Washington has flagged for its military ties, according to a Financial Times report relayed by Tom's Hardware.
The company at the center of the story is CXMT, a Chinese maker of RAM — the working memory that lets phones, laptops, and servers juggle apps and data. Tom's Hardware reports that Apple is lobbying in Washington to secure approval to source cheaper RAM from CXMT.
The timing matters. The reported lobbying push follows what Tom's Hardware describes as a historic price hike in memory chips. With RAM costs climbing, a lower-cost supplier becomes far more attractive to a company that buys components at enormous scale.
There's a catch, and it's a sensitive one. According to Tom's Hardware, CXMT is currently designated as a Chinese military company. That label puts it in a politically fraught category for any American firm. Crucially, though, the report notes the manufacturer is not entirely banned by the White House — meaning there may be a legal path for Apple to buy from it, which is reportedly what the lobbying aims to clear.
It's worth stressing what is and isn't confirmed here. Tom's Hardware frames the claim as a report sourced to the Financial Times, using words like "reportedly" and "allegedly." Apple has not been quoted confirming the effort in the source provided.
Why it matters: the story shows how soaring memory prices are pushing even the world's most valuable companies to weigh cost savings against the political risk of buying from a blacklisted Chinese chipmaker.