Apple reportedly tests China's CXMT memory chips to ease AI-driven DRAM shortage

Apple has reportedly been testing memory chips from China’s CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) for product lines that include iPhones and MacBooks, to ease component shortages driven by the AI data-center boom. CXMT is China’s largest DRAM chipmaker by market value, according to reporting published August 9, 2026.

Apple has held preliminary discussions with CXMT about supplying components for some devices sold in China, the reports said. Neither company confirmed the talks; Apple and CXMT did not respond to requests for comment, and the account could not be independently verified.

The move, if it holds, is a supply-chain workaround with political risk. Contract DRAM prices have risen sharply in 2026 as AI data-center demand pulls memory supply from Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron away from consumer devices, squeezing device makers. HP and Acer have already begun using CXMT memory chips in products sold outside the US to ease the constraint.

CXMT carries baggage that its rivals do not. The Pentagon has designated it a Chinese military company under its 1260H list — a designation distinct from the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which would trigger far stricter licensing curbs on US firms doing business with it. Apple separately lobbied the White House earlier in 2026 for assurance that CXMT would not be added to the Entity List, and Micron urged the administration in late July to reject Apple’s plan.

The reporting rests on a single outlet’s account that neither Apple nor CXMT has confirmed, so the scope and status of any qualification testing remain unverified. Sourcing decisions of this kind can stall in the lab stage without ever reaching shipping products.

The tell will be whether CXMT chips appear in teardowns of China-market iPhones or MacBooks, and whether Washington moves the chipmaker onto the Entity List before that happens.