Apple has put on hold plans to use memory chips from China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) in its products, after the United States imposed export controls against Chinese technology companies, the Nikkei news report said.
Apple planned to start using state-funded YMTC’s NAND flash memory chips as early as this year. Apple, the second largest smartphone vendor in the world, was planning to use the chips for iPhones sold in the Chinese market.
It was considering eventually purchasing up to 40 percent of the chips needed for all iPhones from YMTC.
The United States last week added memory chipmaker YMTC and 30 other Chinese entities to a list of companies that U.S. officials have been unable to inspect, starting a 60 day-clock that could trigger much tougher penalties.
YMTC is being investigated by the U.S. Commerce Department over whether it violated Washington’s export controls by selling chips to blacklisted Chinese company Huawei Technologies.
