The Fruity Cargo Cult Apple is leaning on Donald Trump for Chinese memory as chipflation chews through its margins.
Job’s Mob is reportedly lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to buy bulk DRAM shipments from China’s CXMT.
That is a spicy move, since CXMT sits on a Pentagon blacklist over alleged links to China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Samsung, SK hynix and Micron have Job’s Mob boxed in as memory prices go through the roof and Apple has for years made a killing by buying memory cheap and then flogging it to fanboys with a huge markup.
Now it seems that Job’s Mob has approached the US Commerce Department and is targeting “other officials across the administration and allies in Washington.”
The idea is to get political cover before shifting meaningful DRAM orders to CXMT, rather than relying on the usual memory trio.
Job’s Mob is not legally barred from buying CXMT chips, but the reputational stink could be impressive. The company seems to think the alternative is worse, short of building its own memory fabs and discovering that factories cost actual money.
Job’s Mob recently raised prices across Mac and iPad lines after blaming an historic squeeze in memory and storage costs.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the surge in memory prices was unlike anything he had seen “in any area in over 40 years.”
LPDDR5X 12GB contract prices have reportedly tripled since the first quarter of 2025.
They were hovering around $120 late in the first quarter and into the second quarter of 2026. Since the start of the year, they have climbed by $68.80 to about $145 per unit, with flash storage adding to the grief.
That is a proper kicking for a company that usually expects suppliers to smile while being squeezed.
Memory and flash storage accounted for about nine per cent of the bill of materials for the 256GB iPhone 17 Pro in 2025. For the upcoming 256GB iPhone 18 Pro, those parts are expected to make up a whopping 27 per cent of the bill.
CXMT may be the only credible escape hatch, because it is adding capacity while everyone else feeds the AI beast. The Chinese memory maker is reportedly pushing monthly capacity from about 200,000 wafers to 300,000 wafers by the end of 2026.
Even if CXMT cannot satisfy all of Job’s Mob’s demand, it gives Cupertino another stick to wave at Samsung, SK hynix and Micron.
If the Trump administration waves this through, Chinese flash outfit YMTC will probably start eyeing the same door. That would mark China’s awkward re-entry into Job’s Mob’s logistics, just as Washington keeps shouting about secure supply chains.
