Apple Weighs CXMT Chips for iPhones, MacBooks as AI Boom Drives 4-Fold Memory Cost Surge
Updated
Updated · Quartz · Aug 10
Apple Weighs CXMT Chips for iPhones, MacBooks as AI Boom Drives 4-Fold Memory Cost Surge
3 articles · Updated · Quartz · Aug 10
Summary
Apple has begun early talks with CXMT to supply memory chips for products including iPhones and MacBooks, with an initial focus on devices sold in China.
White House approval is being sought for that China-market use as a global memory shortage, fueled by AI infrastructure spending, squeezes consumer-electronics supply.
Tim Cook said about two months ago Apple raised prices after memory and storage costs became “unsustainable,” with chipmakers shifting output toward AI-server high-bandwidth memory.
Political resistance could complicate any deal: a bipartisan group of U.S. senators urged Apple in July not to pursue Chinese chips, even as HP and Acer already use CXMT for some non-U.S. products.
CXMT still trails SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron by roughly 2 to 3 generations, underscoring Apple’s trade-off between supply relief and technology leadership.