Micron Technology stock was edging up early Monday. The stock looks to be steady despite a report that Apple is testing Chinese memory chips.
Micron shares were up 1.4% in the premarket, having more than tripled this year so far through Friday's close. American depositary receipts of its South Korean peer SK Hynix were rising 0.6%.
Shareholders looked to be taking the news that Apple has tested memory chips from China's ChangXin Memory Technologies in their stride. Apple has had early talks with CXMT about supplying components for some devices sold in China and hopes to get the Trump administration's approval, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Apple didn't immediately respond to Barron's request for comment early Monday.
CXMT, which recently listed in China, has advanced rapidly in conventional dynamic random-access memory $(DRAM)$, taking 7% of the global market share by revenue in the second quarter, according to Counterpoint Research.
However, it's unclear whether U.S. manufacturers will get government approval to buy CXMT-produced memory and, in any case, the Chinese company gives priority to domestic companies, according to the Journal. That should limit its threat to Micron's market share.
A bigger problem for Micron could be if CXMT eventually makes inroads into high-bandwidth memory (HBM), crucial for artificial-intelligence servers. CXMT is set to increase its share of global HBM wafer supply from 1% in 2025 to 12% in 2028, according to semiconductor and AI research firm SemiAnalysis.
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