Apple Faced Bipartisan Opposition Over 2022 YMTC Memory Deal

*U.S. senators from both parties warned intelligence officials that Apple’s potential purchase of chips from a Chinese state-owned firm would create supply-chain security risks.*

In September 2022, Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio sent a letter to then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. They urged a formal review of Apple’s reported plan to buy 3D NAND memory chips from Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC).

The letter described YMTC as a People’s Republic of China state-owned manufacturer with “extensive, but often opaque, ties” to the Chinese Communist Party and other PRC-backed entities. Warner and Rubio stated that any procurement decision would introduce “significant privacy and security vulnerabilities to the global digital supply chain.”

The senators wrote that the move would affect the supply chain Apple helps shape. They asked the intelligence community to assess the national-security implications before Apple finalized any agreement.

No public record shows whether the requested review took place or what Apple ultimately decided. The letter itself was released only later and received limited attention at the time.

The episode illustrates how hardware sourcing decisions at major device makers quickly intersect with U.S. national-security policy. Memory components sit at the center of device performance and data storage; shifting even a portion of that volume to a supplier viewed as closely aligned with a strategic competitor draws immediate scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Companies that treat such sourcing questions as routine procurement matters now face the added requirement of anticipating formal intelligence assessments and congressional letters.

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Sources:

• Daring Fireball

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