Apple asks Trump to buy chips from blacklisted chinese company

Apple is lobbying the Trump administration to purchase memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese company the Pentagon designated as a military-linked firm and placed on a government blacklist.

Here the lobbying push reveals a conflict that the majority of the American technology companies are currently facing, which is the rising cost of chips clashing with the national security concerns of Washington regarding Chinese suppliers.

Apple increased the prices for its iPad and MacBook devices owing to increased costs of the memory and storage chips, caused by industry demand due to artificial intelligence.

It is reported that the company applied to the Department of Commerce for an exemption, enabling procurement from CXMT, the largest memory chip manufacturer in China, about a month ago.

CXMT became a Chinese military company in terms of the defence department's new regulations during the Biden administration and was placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List. The businesses listed on the entity list cannot ship products, technology, and software to the restricted company without a licence that is almost never issued.

Apple makes its appeal to Trump during his second term, at a time when trade policy and relations with China were flexible. Apple lobbied the administration through contacts at the White House and in Washington, D.C.