Senators urge Apple to avoid Chinese memory chip suppliers

A group of U.S. senators are urging Apple to drop any plans to buy memory chips from Chinese suppliers ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies, citing national security risks, Bloomberg reported. #🇨🇳 ChinA.I. 🤖🧠🦾🤖 In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the lawmakers, led by Indiana Republican Jim Banks and New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, said using chips from those Chinese firms could make Apple dependent on a U.S. adversary for key components, according to Bloomberg. The lawmakers also noted that both of those two Chinese memory chipmakers, CXMT and YMTC, are on the Pentagon’s blacklist of entities with alleged Chinese military ties. The Financial Times reported last month that Apple was lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to buy memory chips from CXMT. The Pentagon’s military company blacklist doesn’t prohibit Apple from using CXMT as a supplier, but some U.S. lawmakers have urged the Trump Administration not to facilitate purchases of Chinese memory chips. The debate over whether U.S. companies like Apple should buy chips from those Chinese suppliers comes amid a worldwide memory chip shortage due to surging memory demand for AI data centers. CXMT recently went public in Shanghai and its stock surged 472% in its trading debut last week, as investors bet the company will continue to benefit from global AI demand https://www.bloomberg.com..