Apple delays using Yangtze Memory Technologies’ chips in its products.
Nikkei said that Apple had previously planned to start using the NAND flash memory chips supplied by the state-funded YMTC as early as this year. At initially, the chips were only planned to be used in iPhones sold in the Chinese market.
The newspaper reported that it was thinking about eventually buying up to 40% of the chips required for every iPhone from YMTC.
A list of companies that U.S. investigators have been unable to check was updated last week to include 30 additional Chinese organizations, including the largest memory chip manufacturer in China, YMTC. This heightened tensions with Beijing and started a 60-day clock that could result in even harsher penalties.
Additionally, the U.S. Commerce Department is investigating whether YMTC broke American export regulations when it sold chips to the blacklisted Chinese telecom firm Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.
The Biden administration’s extensive export controls on China are meant to limit Beijing’s technological and military gains by preventing Beijing from obtaining particular semiconductor chips made elsewhere in the world utilising American technology.
YMTC declined to comment, while Apple took some time to answer Reuters’ request for a remark.
