AAPL Seeks Chinese Memory Chips
Apple's potential use of Chinese memory chips may not hurt Micron as much as expected, according to an analyst, since Micron has shifted focus to high-bandwidth memory for AI
Fears that Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL ) reported efforts to source cheaper memory chips from China’s largest DRAM maker could hurt Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU ) may be overblown, according to one AI-focused market analyst, who argues the move has little bearing on Micron’s biggest growth driver: high-bandwidth memory for artificial intelligence.
Why The Apple-CXMT Fears May Be Overblown In a post on X, Milk Road AI analyst Melvin said investors are focusing on the wrong part of the memory market.
While Apple’s potential use of chips from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) could pressure commodity DRAM suppliers, he argued Micron has largely shifted its focus to premium HBM products powering AI data centers, where CXMT remains years behind.
Melvin said that the market segment CXMT serves is dominated by commodity products such as DDR4, DDR5, and LPDDR chips used in phones, PCs, and other consumer devices.
He argued CXMT remains at least one generation behind in HBM and isn’t a meaningful competitor in the AI memory market.
Apple wants to buy cheap Chinese memory chips and the everyone thinks it's bad news for Micron but it's not (Save this).
CXMT is China's largest DRAM manufacturer, headquartered in Hefei and it was essentially irrelevant three years ago but today it holds 8% of the global DRAM… pic.twitter.com/DXdpzQVMlZ — Melvin (@MelvinInvests) June 27, 2026 Why Apple Wants Cheaper Memory Apple’s broader price adjustments have touched multiple devices, including MacBook Neo, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, iPad Air, HomePod, HomePod mini and Apple TV, while iPhone prices were left unchanged.
Apple attributed those increases to tighter supplies of memory and storage components as AI infrastructure spending accelerates.
Apple is seeking to lower memory input costs, while Micron is positioning its mix toward higher-value memory where supply tightness can support pricing.
Read Also: US Housing Market Tilts Toward Buyers As Record 46% Of Sellers Offer Concessions Micron CEO’s Warning Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told investors on the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call that the industry still lacks a clear timeline for supply to catch up. "We currently do not have line of sight as to when memory supply will be able to catch up with increasing demand," Mehrotra said. "We expect tight conditions to persist beyond calendar 2027." How Will CXMT’s Growth Impact Micron? Melvin contended the Apple-CXMT discussion matters less for Micron because major DRAM makers, including Micron, have been shifting capacity toward high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems.
He added that Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix have moved more than 70% of DRAM capacity toward HBM, framing that as a deliberate step away from lower-margin commodity DRAM.
Mehrotra has similarly framed AI as changing what "winning" looks like in memory, with demand rising for high-performance configurations that support training and inference workloads. "Memory has become a strategic asset," Mehrotra said, adding that AI system performance is "architecturally dependent on memory subsystem performance and capacity." Why AI Memory Demands Are Reshaping Markets Micron has also pointed to customer behavior that reflects longer planning cycles around AI infrastructure, including multi-year arrangements that can tighten available supply for other buyers.
The company has disclosed about $22 billion in customer commitments through strategic agreements, giving added visibility as it ramps HBM output used in AI accelerators. "The Trump administration has been tightening, not loosening, export controls on Chinese semiconductor companies and even if Apple gets a narrow license, it would likely come with restrictions that limit scale, product type, and duration," Melvin said.
He argued that even if Apple were to shift some consumer-device DRAM sourcing, that would not directly touch the HBM-heavy demand tied to Nvidia GPUs and large AI data centers.
In Melvin’s view, the AI memory market, not commodity DRAM used in consumer electronics, will remain the primary driver of Micron’s long-term growth, making Apple’s potential shift to CXMT largely irrelevant to the company’s broader investment thesis.
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