The memory chip shortage that has already pushed up the price of new Android phones just lost one of its few proposed escape routes. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the Trump administration does not want Apple buying memory from Chinese manufacturers CXMT and YMTC — shutting down a workaround Apple had been pursuing since June, in a market where every buyer is drawing on the same strained supply.
Lutnick made the comments in an interview with The Wall Street Journal after touring Apple’s new Advanced Manufacturing Center in Houston, Texas.
“The Trump administration is not in favor of that,” Lutnick told The Wall Street Journal.
Asked whether he had put that view to Apple directly, he answered with a single word: “Plainly.”
Why the Memory Chip Fight Matters for Android Buyers
Nothing in this story is about Android on its face, and that is exactly why it is worth reading if you are shopping for a phone. Memory is a commodity. Phone makers, PC makers and AI data centre operators all buy DRAM and NAND from the same small group of suppliers, and demand from AI servers has drained that pool and driven prices up across the board.
Android buyers are already paying for it. Google raised the price of the Pixel 11 series, and a Google vice president put the blame squarely on the cost of RAM — a rare case of an OEM saying out loud what usually hides inside a spec-sheet downgrade. We covered that in Pixel 11 price hike confirmed.
Keep the scale honest, though: the reporting scopes Apple’s request narrowly. AppleInsider says Apple petitioned the administration in June specifically over Mac RAM, and TNW reports the Chinese parts were being tested as a prelude to use in devices sold in China. This was a slice of Apple’s memory buying, not all of it, and CXMT’s factories exist either way — a deal would have shifted where demand landed rather than created new capacity. What it would have done is take some pressure off the suppliers everyone else is queuing at. Blocking it is a defensible national-security call, but it is not a costless one, and the cost does not land on Apple alone.
What Washington Actually Objects To
The two companies are not in the same position. YMTC sits on the Commerce Department’s Entity List. CXMT does not, though the Pentagon has designated both as Chinese military companies. That designation restricts US defence purchasing, but it does not itself bar Apple from buying memory.
Nor do export rules, as things stand. A licence is required before a US company shares product design information with either firm — which would matter for a custom part. Apple’s chief operating officer Sabih Khan told the Journal that memory involves little customisation, which points to off-the-shelf parts and no licence requirement. In other words, Lutnick has stated a preference, not issued a rule. HP and Acer already ship CXMT memory in products sold outside the US.
The 21 August Deadline
A bipartisan group of US senators wrote to Tim Cook in July asking Apple to commit, on 21 August, to excluding these components entirely. Apple has not said what it will do. US memory maker Micron has lobbied the administration against approving the purchases, arguing it would undermine domestic production.
There is a commercial wrinkle too: per AppleInsider, CXMT has rejected Apple’s request for a discount and wants to be paid what Apple pays Samsung, which strips out much of the reason to switch in the first place. And the decision may not be Cook’s for much longer — he becomes executive chairman on 1 September, leaving John Ternus to inherit it.
The blunt fact under all of this is that new memory capacity takes years to build, so no announcement from Washington or Cupertino shortens the shortage. What the next week decides is only whether Lutnick’s stated preference hardens into policy — through Apple’s answer to the senators, or through CXMT being added to the Entity List. Neither outcome puts more memory on the market, which is why the phone you are waiting for is unlikely to get cheaper soon.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, via 9to5Mac and AppleInsider
