Apple seeks approval to buy China’s CXMT chips- reports

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is lobbying the Trump administration for permission to source memory chips from blacklisted Chinese supplier ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), as it grapples with rising component costs.

Shares of the iPhone maker rose around 0.4% to $285.10 in premarket after closing 3.1% higher at $283.78 on Friday.

According to the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, Apple has approached the White House, the Commerce Department and other administration officials in recent weeks seeking approval to purchase memory chips from CXMT.

The effort comes as Apple grapples with rising DRAM and NAND prices, driven largely by booming artificial intelligence-related demand, which has increased costs across the consumer electronics industry.

The discussions highlight the difficult position facing major U.S. technology companies as Washington tightens restrictions on Chinese semiconductor firms while AI-driven demand continues to push memory prices higher.

CXMT, China’s largest memory chipmaker, has been designated a Chinese military company by the Pentagon and has been approved for addition to the Commerce Department’s Entity List. U.S. exports of goods, software and technology to companies on the list generally require a government license that is typically presumed to be denied.

The report follows Apple’s decision last week to raise prices on certain iPad and MacBook models, with the company citing higher memory and storage component costs that it said it could no longer fully absorb as AI infrastructure investment drives up chip demand.