US confounds Apple’s memory supply challenge

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is “not in favor” of Apple’s plan to alleviate the impact of rapid memory price inflation by purchasing RAM made in China for use in devices sold there. Trade by US firms with the biggest Chinese memory manufacturers, CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies, is restricted. Apple must secure a license before it can share product information with either firm, though it can still purchase off-the-shelf components that do not require any product details to be shared. That may be good for Apple, despite White House reticence. Apple has said there isn’t a lot of customization in how it uses memory on its systems, which means it might be able to purchase off-the-shelf RAM. Still, Lutnick seems ideologically against such a move, saying there must be “other solutions to the memory issue, but it’s not great American companies using Chinese memory.” No solution in sight Apple isn’t alone. HP and Acer are both using memory from CXMT in devices sold outside the US, which suggests a US-native solution to the memory crisis doesn’t yet exist. Pending discovery of any magical fix to the real-world supply challenge, the big three US-approved memory vendors continue…