Story perspectives

Apple Pushes Trump for Blacklisted CXMT Chips Amid Price Hikes

6/27/2026

Summary

Apple Pushes CXMT

Apple is lobbying President Donald Trump's administration to buy memory chips from CXMT, a firm on the 1260H blacklist.
Apple raised prices on Macs and iPads, $300 for the 1 TB M5 MacBook Pro, $100 for the MacBook Neo and $200 for iPad Pro models, erasing $263 billion in market value.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Sen. Marco Rubio warned that a CXMT deal would be a mistake and could draw scrutiny.

Summary

US Blacklists CXMT

The U.S. Defense Department labeled ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) a Chinese military company during the Biden administration.
An interagency committee placed CXMT on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, requiring U.S. firms to secure export licenses.
The listing blocks CXMT from obtaining advanced chip-making equipment needed for high-bandwidth memory production.
Experts say the blacklist could hinder China’s memory-chip self-sufficiency drive and reshape the global semiconductor supply chain.

History

Historical Context

In 1998, the U.S. Commerce Department added China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) to the Entity List, citing national-security concerns. The move halted $2.5 billion in annual U.S. chip-equipment sales to SMIC, prompting Intel and other firms to seek export licenses. Today, the Department of Defense and Commerce similarly blacklist ChangXin Memory Technologies, forcing Apple and other U.S. companies to confront new licensing hurdles. The precedent suggests prolonged supply-chain fragmentation, urging policymakers to craft long-term strategies for semiconductor self-sufficiency and trade enforcement.

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Apple Pushes CXMT

Apple is lobbying President Donald Trump's administration to buy memory chips from CXMT, a firm on the 1260H blacklist.
Apple raised prices on Macs and iPads, $300 for the 1 TB M5 MacBook Pro, $100 for the MacBook Neo and $200 for iPad Pro models, erasing $263 billion in market value.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Sen. Marco Rubio warned that a CXMT deal would be a mistake and could draw scrutiny.

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