Six bipartisan U.S. senators have sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking the company to commit by Aug. 21 that it will not use products from Chinese memory makers CXMT and YMTC in any Apple device.
Bloomberg reported that the letter was led by Indiana Republican Senator Jim Banks and New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, with four other bipartisan lawmakers signing on.
A global memory shortage is driving Apple’s options
Apple’s interest in CXMT and YMTC comes against a backdrop of tight global memory supply.
DRAM, or dynamic random-access memory, is a core chip used to temporarily store data in phones, computers and servers while they run. Research cited in the report said DRAM contract prices rose about 90% to 95% quarter over quarter in the first quarter of 2026, while NAND Flash prices climbed 55% to 60%, both reaching record highs.
The report said a DDR5 32GB module rose in price from $149 to $239. It attributed the jump to AI computing demand led by companies such as Nvidia, which pushed major suppliers including Micron and SK hynix to direct advanced process and testing capacity toward higher-margin HBM and enterprise SSD products. That left PC and smartphone memory supply under pressure.
Apple had already raised prices in June for its Mac, iPad, home devices and Vision Pro because of memory chip shortages. Bloomberg also reported in July that Apple had been lobbying the White House for room to procure Chinese-made memory chips. MacRumors said in early July that Apple had begun testing DRAM samples from CXMT, meaning the “qualification” referenced in the senators’ letter was already under way.
For a company trying to secure supply quickly, a vendor with available capacity and a lower quoted price could look like a practical answer. The issue, though, is that these suppliers are already under scrutiny from the U.S. government.
Lawmakers laid out three objections
1. The price argument is not convincing
The senators cited analysis saying CXMT’s pricing can at times be higher than that of rivals, weakening any defense that Apple is turning to Chinese memory simply because it is cheaper.
The letter said: “This shortsighted move would be a mistake, and it would make the world’s most valuable consumer electronics company dependent on a critical supplier that the U.S. government has formally identified as a Chinese military company.”
Both CXMT and YMTC are on the Pentagon’s recently updated list of Chinese entities said to be assisting Beijing’s military.
2. A China-only restriction may not last
Apple had planned to limit CXMT memory to models sold only in China, but the senators rejected that as a durable safeguard.
The letter argued that once a component passes Apple’s high-volume qualification process, moving it into the global market is only “one procurement decision” away, and that such a restriction “cannot be expected to hold.” In other words, the qualification stage is the real gate. Once that gate opens, a China-only limit becomes a temporary promise rather than a lasting barrier.
3. Export-control questions center on technical data
The report said Apple would not need a U.S. license simply to buy products from CXMT. But under export-control rules administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security, controlled items including design blueprints and technical data sent to advanced Chinese chipmakers require Commerce Department approval, and such requests are often denied.
That led the senators to ask what Apple may already have shared with CXMT during qualification.
YMTC had been placed on the Commerce Department blacklist earlier. Apple tried to source from YMTC in 2022, but that effort was dropped after opposition in Washington. The report described the current fight as a return to an earlier script.
The deeper issue is U.S. manufacturing investment
The closing section of the letter pointed to what lawmakers see as the larger stake: domestic semiconductor investment in the U.S. Several of the signatories represent New York, Indiana and Idaho, where Micron and SK hynix are committing major capital to expansion projects.
Micron has expanded its investment plan to $250 billion and says it will create 90,000 jobs across New York, Idaho and Virginia, with a goal of bringing 40% of DRAM capacity back to the U.S. SK hynix is also preparing to invest about $4 billion in an advanced packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Those projects rely on incentives under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. If low-priced Chinese memory enters the market in force, the economics behind those subsidized investments could come under strain.
The senators wrote that if Apple does buy Chinese memory, it “would send a signal for other buyers to follow,” at a moment when “workers in Indiana, Idaho, New York, and Virginia are undertaking the largest expansion of domestic memory capacity in a generation.”
Apple was asked to respond by Aug. 21
The lawmakers asked Apple to pledge by Aug. 21 that it will not use chips from CXMT or YMTC. They also asked the company to explain any intellectual property transfer details, the status of qualification work, and whether it had asked U.S. or South Korean suppliers for priority allocations.
The standoff is unfolding before an expected September meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The report said chip and rare earth export controls are among the issues on the table.