Lawmaker Warns Apple Against Using YMTC Chips
Apple should “rethink” any decision to purchase chips from China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote in a Sept. 14 letter to the U.S. technology company. Cotton said Apple and “far too many” other American businesses “already rely on China for manufacturing and supplies. Adding another Chinese company to Apple’s supply chain, particularly one with close ties” to the Chinese government and military, “compounds these risks.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in April warned Apple against doing business with YMTC (see 2204010062), and other lawmakers have urged the Commerce Department to add the Chinese company to the Entity List (see 2207150023 and 2208020058). Commerce is reportedly reviewing whether YMTC deserves placement on the list for illegally supplying chips to Huawei (see 2204270056).
“As there is bipartisan support to address the threat posed by YMTC,” Cotton said in the letter addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook, “I must stress for you and your shareholders the risks of this partnership with an entity that may soon be the target of U.S. government action.”
Cook also asked Apple to answer several questions, including whether any of its products that may use YMTC chips will be available for purchase in U.S. markets, whether Chinese authorities required Apple to use YMTC chips in the new iPhone 14, how YMTC’s ties to companies sanctioned for human rights abuses factor into Apple’s decision, and whether Apple executives have considered the risk of doing business with YMTC given it’s “likely the target of future U.S. government action.” An Apple spokesperson didn’t immediately comment.