Apple Lobbies Trump White House to Buy Chips From Blacklisted Chinese Firm
Apple is seeking White House approval to purchase memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese company on the Pentagon's blacklist, the Financial Times reports.
Apple is pressing the Trump administration for permission to source memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese semiconductor firm that the Pentagon has placed on its blacklist, the Financial Times reported Friday. The request marks a direct appeal to the White House as the iPhone maker looks to diversify its chip supply chain amid mounting cost pressures.
Rising memory chip prices are driving Apple's push for the waiver, according to the FT, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the lobbying effort. Securing access to CXMT's chips could give Apple an alternative supplier and potentially relieve some of the financial strain tied to current market pricing dynamics.
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The move puts Apple in a politically sensitive position, asking the administration to effectively carve out an exception to a national-security-focused blacklist for one of the world's most valuable companies. The Pentagon's designation of CXMT signals concerns about the Chinese firm's potential ties to military applications — a designation the White House would have to navigate carefully to grant any waiver.
The White House, Apple, and CXMT all declined to respond to Reuters requests for comment made outside of business hours, leaving the status of the lobbying effort formally unconfirmed. Should the administration grant approval, it would represent a notable divergence from the broader U.S. strategy of restricting American companies' engagement with Chinese technology firms flagged as security risks.
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