Samsung and Apple resume alliances, as this time Apple is forced to abandon the use of Chinese RAM due to political pressure.
Instead of local supplier YMTC, Samsung will supply the RAM for iPhones destined for the Chinese market, as Apple continues to bow to US pressure to introduce export controls and political issues.
The official announcement of the veto occurred almost a month ago; At the time it was said that Apple would cancel the contracts already signed with the Chinese company due to recent political pressure from the US government.
The most obvious reason for the agreement with YMTC was to access a large production of memory chips at a lower cost than any other manufacturer and with the same performance.
Apple intended to purchase 128-layer NAND chips from YMTC for use in the iPhone. These chips are expected to be a generation or two behind those of Micron and Samsung, but also to be at least 20% cheaper.
Black list of companies.
In October 2022, it was reported that Apple had put its plans to buy YMTC on hold. Today, Apple has quietly “shelved” its plans after YMTC and 30 other Chinese companies were placed on an “unverified” list.
The seller is expected to be blacklisted in early December and is suspected of wanting to buy Samsung Electronics.
Businesses that are unable to provide the necessary information within 60 days may be blacklisted by US export control.
The US Commerce Department is also investigating whether YMTC violated Washington’s export controls by selling chips to already blacklisted Huawei.
For this reason, US companies are prohibited from exchanging designs, technologies, documents or specifications with companies on the unverified list without a license.
Due to these restrictions, Apple will turn to Samsung Electronics as an alternative supplier starting in 2023, according to supply chain sources.
Other Apple supplier companies.
It is not the first time that Samsung and Apple have and resume alliances and components for the iPhone are supplied. Over the past 20 years, the company has produced Earlu processors for iPhones and iPads, RAM for various models, and Apple displays, for example, for the iPhone 14 Pro.
Until now, Japanese companies Western Digital and Kioxia have covered much of the production of memory chips for iPhones.
The Korean company SK Hynix also contributes by supplying a larger proportion of chips. On the other hand, it is not clear that Apple will give up 40% to Samsung. And if it does, it’s unclear whether Samsung will be able to meet the requirements.
Samsung has not cut production in response to low demand in the NAND memory market, probably also due to its entry into Apple’s supply chain.
They resume alliances: Expectations and possible date of use of chips.
The creator of the Galaxy is also expected to be able to withstand price cuts and production increases, which has increased its competitiveness.
Samsung’s NAND chips are believed to be used in iPhones for China starting in 2023. This would indicate that they are intended for the iPhone 15 range, but it is also possible that Apple will use them for iPhone 14 production.
The new export policies and restrictions imposed by the Biden administration on China are an attempt to slow down the country’s technological and military progress by preventing the delivery to Beijing of some semiconductor chips made somewhere in the world from US materials.
It is also believed to be an attempt to increase production by US processors to avoid potential safety issues. It is said that with Samsung we will have four possible memory chips in the iPhone.
