Apple Lobbies Trump White House to Buy Chips From Blacklisted Chinese Firm
Apple wants a waiver to source memory chips from Pentagon-blacklisted CXMT as rising chip prices squeeze margins.
Apple is quietly pushing the Trump administration for permission to buy memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies — a Chinese chipmaker the Pentagon has placed on its blacklist. The Financial Times broke the story Friday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the lobbying effort. Neither the White House, Apple, nor CXMT responded to requests for comment.
The play here is straightforward: CXMT makes cheaper memory chips, and Apple wants relief from surging memory prices that are eating into its cost structure. Lobbying for a national-security carve-out is a bold move, but Apple has done it before on tariff exemptions. The company's leverage with the White House is real — it's one of the most valuable brands on the planet and a major domestic employer narrative.
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For traders, this is a two-sided story. A waiver approval could be a quiet margin tailwind for Apple, reducing component costs at scale across iPhones and other devices. A denial — or public blowback — puts Apple in the middle of a US-China tech war it has tried hard to stay out of. Either outcome moves the needle on how investors price supply-chain risk into AAPL.
The broader context: Washington has been aggressively expanding its entity and blacklists targeting Chinese semiconductor firms, and CXMT landing on the Pentagon's list signals serious national-security concerns. Apple securing an exemption would be a significant policy exception — and a signal to other US tech companies watching closely about what's possible under this administration.
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