Apple is planning to tie up with a Chinese chipmaker for new iPhone memory chips

[beijingwalker]

Apple is planning to tie up with a Chinese chipmaker for new iPhone memory chips​

• Published: April 1, 2022 1:33 PM IST

Apple is planning to tie up with Chinese semiconductor company Yangtze Memory Technologies which manufactures NAND flash memory chips.​

Apple is planning to partner with new iPhone memory chips suppliers after a major Japanese partner witnessed an output disruption, reported Bloomberg News.

As per the report, Japan-based Kioxia Holdings, a major Apple supplier for flash memory chips has reported contamination at its manufacturing facilities last month. Due to this, its production has been reduced.

The report further reveals that Apple is planning to tie up with Chinese semiconductor company Yangtze Memory Technologies which manufactures NAND flash memory chips.

Since the talks between Apple and Yangtze are private, the source has asked to remain anonymous.

Yangtze is owned by Beijing-based Tsinghua Unigroup Co. Since Apple has many Taiwanese chipmakers onboard, a deal with a Chinese chipmaker will be a major move by the Cupertino-based tech giant.

This deal will surely be a great deal for China as it aims to become self-sufficient in the semiconductor industry.

For the unversed, Apple supplier Foxconn had suspended its Shenzhen options because of a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases last month. However, it was resumed after some days as the company made arrangements for some staff members to live and work in a bubble.

It was recently reported that Apple may be reducing its production of iPhone and AirPods in view of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and Russia and rising inflation.

As reported earlier, Apple will be reducing the production of iPhone SE 2020 and iPhone SE 2022 by 20 percent. The report claims that this is the first sign of the Ukraine crisis impacting a mega tech company.

Just weeks after the launch, the tech giant is cutting down iPhone SE 2022 production order by about 2 million to a total of just 3 million units for the entire quarter. The Nikkei report claimed that even AirPods production is going to be axed by a massive 10 million units for the entire year.

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[beijingwalker]

Apple mulls more memory chip suppliers, including China - Bloomberg News​

Mar 31, 2022

(Reuters) - Apple Inc is exploring new suppliers for memory chips used in its iPhones, including a potentially first Chinese supplier, after a key Japanese partner had an output disruption, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

Japan-based Kioxia Holdings Corp — a key supplier of flash memory chips to Apple — had reported a contamination last month at two of its manufacturing facilities, which the company said will result in reduced production.

Apple is now testing sample NAND flash memory chips by Chinese semiconductor company Yangtze Memory Technologies Co, the report said, adding that the iPhone maker has been discussing the tie-up for months.

Yangtze declined to comment and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for a comment on the report.

Earlier this month, another key Apple supplier Foxconn had to suspend its Shenzhen operations due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.

A persistent industry-wide shortage of chips has also disrupted production in the automotive and electronics industries, forcing some firms to scale back production.

Apple mulls more memory chip suppliers, including China - Bloomberg News

(Reuters) - Apple Inc is exploring new suppliers for memory chips used in its iPhones, including a potenti…

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[beijingwalker]

US government wants to kill China's chip industry while US companies want to rely on China's chips. once all apple phones use the Chinese chips, it'll be fully integrated with Chinese tech industry and follow Chinese standard and norms, thus apple will totally become a Chinese company.

 

[beijingwalker]

Rubio blasts Apple for eyeing ‘unacceptable’ Chinese chip supplier deal​

Nihal Krishan, Washington Examiner
April 2 2022

Sen. Marco Rubio is calling out Apple for considering a purchase of phone memory chips from a Chinese state-owned supplier that he says would be disastrous for American tech leadership and national security.

The Florida Republican warned Apple CEO Tim Cook in a letter Thursday against striking a deal with Chinese chip manufacturer Yangtze Memory, which is funded by the Chinese Communist Party and has extensive links to the Chinese military, the People's Liberation Army.

The company plays a key role in China's broader national strategy of challenging American leadership in economic, military, and tech innovation by building up the technological capabilities of the Chinese military and allowing it to coerce neighbors into accepting Beijing's sovereignty claims and leadership position in the Indo-Pacific region.

"It is unacceptable that sales of the next generation of iPhones would end up strengthening the Chinese military and put the lives of American service-members at risk as a result," said Rubio in a letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner.

"If Apple goes through with any deal with YMTC, tens of millions of Americans who own iPhones will end up unintentionally enriching the Chinese Communist Party. If Tim Cook is serious about ‘loving this country,' he should not go forward with any sale," Rubio told the Washington Examiner.

Yangtze Memory, which the White House in a June 2021 report described as Beijing's "national champion memory chip producer," likely has the capacity to produce twice as much as American chip giant Intel and therefore represents a low-cost threat to U.S.-based memory companies, the White House warned.

If Apple were to help boost a huge, state-subsidized chip supplier in China, U.S. chip manufacturers and those of U.S. allies would face an uneven playing field and have difficulty competing in already unfair circumstances, Rubio said.

Enriching a Chinese-government-backed competitor such as Yangtze Memory would force American manufactures in the industry to consolidate further, downsize, or close down altogether, posing a significant threat to U.S. national defense and other critical sectors that rely on trustworthy advanced chips, Rubio added.

Yangtze Memory is known to be one of China's top companies for advancing the design and development of homegrown memory chips that are used widely for storing data in laptops, servers, smartphones, and gadgets in electric vehicles and other smart devices.

Rubio blasts Apple for eyeing ‘unacceptable’ Chinese chip supplier deal

Sen. Marco Rubio is calling out Apple for considering a purchase of phone memory chips from a Chinese state-owned supplier that he says would be disastrous for American tech leadership

gazette.com

 

[UKBengali]

What fabrication process is China now fully self-sufficient in?

Last I heard it was 14nm.