Apple is testing memory chips made by Chinese manufacturer CXMT for possible use in iPhones and MacBooks, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by outlets including Seeking Alpha, Investing.com, The Economic Times and Tech in Asia.
The Economic Times, summarizing the Journal's reporting, says the company has held preliminary talks. Testing and early conversations are not a purchase agreement, and none of the reports describe a completed deal.
The reason Apple is looking is the same force reshaping much of the tech industry right now: artificial intelligence. Data centers being built to train and run AI models consume enormous quantities of memory chips, and that demand has drained global supply. Tech in Asia frames the story around an AI-driven memory shortage, while Times Now notes Apple is evaluating CXMT amid rising chip prices driven by demand from AI firms. When AI companies buy up available memory at premium prices, everyone else — including the world's most valuable consumer electronics maker — has to compete for what's left or find new suppliers.
There is a complication. Mashable reports that any deal could face US regulatory hurdles, a reminder that chip sourcing between American companies and Chinese manufacturers is now a political question as much as a commercial one.
Why it matters: memory is a commodity component in almost every device you own, and if even Apple — with the deepest pockets and the most leverage over suppliers in consumer hardware — is shopping in politically awkward places to secure it, the AI build-out's squeeze on the chip supply chain is likely to show up eventually in the price and availability of ordinary phones and laptops.