Bipartisan Senate Group Demands Apple Commit to Rejecting CXMT/YMTC Memory Chips by August 21 Deadline

A bipartisan group of senators — Jeanne Shaheen, Jim Banks, Chuck Schumer, Mike Crapo, Andy Kim, Jim Risch, and Pete Ricketts — sent a letter July 29-30 to Apple CEO Tim Cook demanding the company commit by August 21 not to incorporate memory chips from CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) or YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies) into any Apple device sold in the US or abroad, WBIW and Bloomberg reported. Both firms are on a recently updated Pentagon list of Chinese entities believed to support Beijing's military; YMTC is additionally on a Commerce Department blacklist restricting all controlled items. The senators argued Apple's purchasing scale would send a market signal to other electronics manufacturers at a moment when domestic memory production is expanding in Indiana, Idaho, New York, and Virginia — and noted Apple had previously abandoned a 2022 effort to source YMTC memory after Washington opposition. The letter arrived three days after CXMT's blockbuster 466% Shanghai IPO debut (July 27) intensified Congressional scrutiny of Chinese memory suppliers, and follows an April 2026 MATCH Act that named CXMT, YMTC, SMIC, Huawei, and Hua Hong for tougher equipment/servicing restrictions.