The global memory shortage has turned into a lobbying brawl, and Apple and Micron are on opposite ends of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Micron is pressing the Trump administration to block Apple’s plan to source memory chips from Chinese suppliers — a plan that, if approved, could reshape where the world’s biggest phone maker gets its DRAM.
Here’s the setup. Last month, just before Apple raised prices on several products because of the ongoing memory crunch, Tim Cook told the Journal that the US should reconsider restricting access to certain Chinese suppliers. Within days, reports surfaced that Apple was seeking clearance to buy chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), while the Financial Times said the company was negotiating with Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) — and was already testing CXMT’s DRAM.
The complication is political. Both CXMT and YMTC have been designated as Chinese military companies by the Pentagon, and YMTC also sits on the Commerce Department’s Entity List. That doesn’t automatically bar Apple from using their chips in devices sold outside the US, but it makes any deal a lightning rod.
Apple’s ambition, per the report, goes beyond the Chinese market. Cook and other executives have pitched Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on using CXMT and YMTC memory in products sold outside the US, not just domestically in China.
Micron — the only sizable American maker of memory chips — is fighting hard against that. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and colleagues have warned officials that letting heavily state-subsidized Chinese firms sell to US tech companies could gut the domestic industry the way China helped hollow out US steel and manufacturing. The counteroffer: Micron says it can ease the shortage itself by speeding up construction of domestic plants and pouring more investment into US capacity.
There’s history here, too. A Micron executive recently argued that Apple’s aggressive purchasing helped fuel the shortage in the first place, telling the Journal that some customers had been “very aggressive with pricing” during the 2023 downturn — squeezing prices so low that no one wanted to invest in new production.
The fight leaves the administration in an awkward spot. As the Journal frames it, Trump will likely have to choose between two of his stated priorities: cutting prices for US consumers and boosting domestic semiconductor production. Apple has been stacking up goodwill — its US$600 billion American Manufacturing Program, deals with Intel, and a US$30 billion agreement with Broadcom — as political capital to lean on.
Micron, meanwhile, has ridden the memory boom hard. Its stock is up 191% year-to-date and 727% over the past 12 months, though it’s been volatile lately, trading 23% below its late-June all-time high. A White House spokesperson stayed noncommittal, saying only that it would pursue “investments and economic relief for the American people while safeguarding our national security.”
