Apple Lobbies Trump White House to Buy Chips From Blacklisted Chinese Firm
Apple is seeking White House approval to purchase memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese company on the Pentagon's blacklist, the Financial Times reports.
Apple is pressing the Trump administration to grant it clearance to source memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese semiconductor firm that the Pentagon has placed on a restricted blacklist, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The iPhone maker's lobbying push is driven by a desire to relieve financial strain caused by surging memory chip prices, according to the FT. By securing access to CXMT's components, Apple would gain an alternative supplier that could introduce competition and help contain costs at a time when global chip supply chains remain under significant pressure.
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The move puts Apple in a delicate position, asking the administration to carve out an exception to national-security-linked trade restrictions that Washington itself has championed. The Pentagon's blacklist is designed to limit the flow of U.S. business to companies believed to support China's military modernization, making any waiver politically sensitive for both the White House and Apple.
Neither Apple, the White House, nor CXMT responded to requests for comment from Reuters outside business hours, leaving the scope and current status of Apple's request unclear. The outcome of the lobbying effort could set a precedent for how other U.S. technology companies navigate the growing tension between supply-chain economics and national-security policy.
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