Apple starts testing China’s state-backed memory chips, and Washington is watching

Apple has begun testing memory chips from China’s state-backed CXMT for devices sold in China, the Financial Times reports. That puts it behind a supplier Washington has flagged as a security risk.

Apple has turned to Chinese memory chips for its own devices. It has begun testing DRAM from state-backed ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the Financial Times reports. The chips would go into products sold inside China. Apple has also lobbied Washington to allow broader use of CXMT parts.

The move lands in a tense spot. Apple’s ties to Chinese suppliers now draw political fire, just as the US pushes to slow China’s chip ambitions. Testing memory from a Beijing-backed firm cuts across that effort.

Who CXMT is

CXMT now ranks as the world’s fourth-largest maker of DRAM, the memory that sits in everything from phones to servers. Its share should hit 15 per cent by 2028, up from about 11 per cent last year, per SemiAnalysis. New lines in Hefei, Shanghai and Beijing will drive the climb.

It competes with Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. The company also sits at the centre of Beijing’s drive for a self-sufficient chip supply chain. Analysts expect it to become one of the most profitable tech firms to list in Shanghai.

It plans to raise at least 29.5 billion yuan (about $4.3 billion) in a coming IPO. At least 15 state-owned shareholders hold 36 per cent of the firm, and many private backers also draw on state money. It recently won a reported $3 billion memory deal with Tencent.

An old fight

Apple has faced this before. In 2022 it drew heavy pushback from US politicians after exploring Chinese memory suppliers. One critic, then-senator Marco Rubio, now serves as Secretary of State.

The company later leaned on its own custom silicon and US partners instead. The politics have not cooled since.

Reuters previously reported that Washington held off blacklisting CXMT, DeepSeek and more than 100 other flagged firms. The Trump administration wanted to avoid a fresh clash with Beijing. Apple and CXMT did not respond to requests for comment.

Why it matters

Testing does not mean buying. CXMT will not flood the market soon either. Customers have already booked most of its output, SemiAnalysis analyst Ray Wang told the FT.

Yet the industry fears a longer game. It has watched solar panels and electric vehicles follow the same script: state-backed capacity expands, global prices fall, and foreign rivals lose ground.

For Apple, the calculation runs narrower. A cheaper, closer memory supply helps its China business. Whether Washington lets that grow remains another question.