Industry speculation has long suggested that overseas tech giants like Apple are eager to secure large-scale purchases of China's domestically produced memory chips. However, the latest feedback from the supply chain indicates that the likelihood of such large-scale cooperation materializing is nearly negligible. This stems not only from direct intervention by U.S. policies, but also from a more fundamental logic: China's memory industry prioritizes meeting its own domestic needs above all else.
According to industry insiders involved in supply chain planning, leading domestic memory manufacturers currently show little enthusiasm for supplying Apple on a massive scale. For them, entering Apple's supply chain would merely serve as a benchmark proving that the quality of their DRAM and NAND Flash products has caught up with international leaders—more of a technical milestone than a commercial priority. Rather than expending substantial production capacity and adaptation resources to compete for Apple's orders, these manufacturers are focusing on steadily expanding production capacity and raising the domestic self-sufficiency rate of locally produced memory chips. Their limited output is being directed to meet the rapidly growing demands of the domestic market, without disrupting their industrial rhythm for overseas orders.
Driven by the global boom in artificial intelligence, demand for high-capacity memory chips has surged, keeping the worldwide memory chip supply in a tight equilibrium. Many downstream manufacturers are willing to pay significantly higher prices than usual to secure capacity. Although there have been reports that U.S. authorities are considering a limited approval of Apple's request to purchase Chinese memory chips, domestic memory giants like Micron Technology strongly oppose this move. They argue that loosening such procurement restrictions would inadvertently help Chinese memory companies rapidly refine their supply chain coordination and enhance the process stability of large-scale production, thereby squeezing the long-term market share of U.S. memory manufacturers in return.
Sources familiar with the planning indicate that the two core domestic memory manufacturers, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.), are tasked with the industrial goal of achieving full self-sufficiency in memory chips. They are currently advancing new rounds of financing to continuously expand their own capacity. According to current progress, they aim to raise the domestic self-sufficiency rate of memory chips to over 50% by the end of 2027 to 2028 at the earliest. Amid the global memory supply crunch, many overseas downstream buyers are willing to pay premiums to secure capacity in advance. Domestic memory manufacturers have also begun small-batch, targeted shipments to Western clients, gradually expanding their share in the global cloud computing and enterprise storage markets, rather than anchoring their top orders solely to Apple.
The current strategy of prioritizing domestic demand is the most pragmatic approach for self-reliance and controllability. It avoids trading long-term industrial security for the allure of short-term overseas orders. Once the domestic self-sufficiency rate surpasses the critical 50% threshold, the entire industry's bargaining power and resilience against risks will reach a new level, which will, in turn, naturally enhance its competitiveness in the global market.
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