US Commerce Secretary Warns Apple Against Sourcing Chinese Memory Chips

US Commerce Secretary explicitly warns Apple $AAPL against buying memory chips from Chinese suppliers. Apple's been seeking federal approval to source memory from CXMT and YMTC to bypass the global supply shortage they're dealing with. The Pentagon designates both YMTC and CXMT as Chinese military companies, and YMTC is already on the US Commerce Department Entity List. Apple COO Sabih Khan noted memory components don't require heavy customization, raising the possibility of using off-the-shelf Chinese parts. Sourcing custom components would require Apple to share proprietary product data with the Chinese firms, which strict export-control licenses apply to. The administration's opposition arrives right as Apple announces a $600 billion domestic manufacturing investment they hoped would secure political favor. "The Trump administration is not in favor of that... there have to be other solutions to the memory issue, but it's not great American companies using Chinese memory." — Howard Lutnick. The $600 billion domestic pledge clearly wasn't enough to buy Apple a backdoor exemption from the absolute hardware firewall Washington set up.