Apple is lobbying the White House to allow Chinese-made memory chips in its products, according to the Wall Street Journal, as memory prices used in iPhones have surged this year. Micron, the US memory chipmaker, is reportedly pushing back hard, arguing the exemption should never be granted. Chip-industry commentator Jukan, writing on X, disputed Apple's stated reasoning. Apple has argued that rising memory costs are an inflation problem that forces it to raise iPhone prices, but Jukan calculated that a roughly fivefold jump in memory prices added only about $50 to Apple's per-unit cost, while Apple raised iPhone prices by $250, a gap he says undercuts the inflation argument and points instead to margin protection. Jukan also referenced Apple's practice in 2023 of buying NAND flash memory near cost and reselling it to consumers at what he described as a 90% margin, calling the move vicious, and said Micron chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra has held a grudge against Apple dating back to his time as a SanDisk co-founder. The dispute comes as Chinese memory makers YMTC and CXMT have been rapidly gaining NAND and DRAM market share, so if Apple does expand its use of Chinese chips, it could also weaken the pricing power of US memory makers including Micron. Those characterizations and anecdotes are Jukan's own framing rather than independently confirmed reporting, though the underlying WSJ account of the lobbying dispute between Apple and Micron is sourced reporting.
Why it matters · Apple is framing this as inflation relief, but the gap between its actual cost increase and its price increase suggests margin protection may be the real motive, and the outcome could reshape how much pricing power US memory makers keep.
Worth asking · Apple says it needs Chinese memory chips to keep inflation in check, but critics note memory costs only added about $50 per unit while iPhone prices rose $250. Is Apple's lobbying really about protecting consumers, or is it cover for defending its own margins?