United States: After being named the latest target of US trade sanctions against the country's advanced semiconductor manufacturing sector, Apple has shelved plans to use memory chips produced by Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), the largest memory chip maker in China. has stopped.

The decision to suspend operations comes as the publicly traded chip maker prepares to supply NAND flash memory chips for this year's iPhones.

According to the report, which cited multiple sources, YMTC's 128-layer 3D NAND flash memory had already ended the US tech giant's months-long verification process for use in iPhones.

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Requests for comment made Monday to Apple and the YMTC were not immediately met.
If true, the news would be another blow to China's top memory chip maker, which Washington had already placed on a trade watch list.

On October 7, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security announced new export restrictions for China's advanced semiconductor sector.

As well as the involvement of "American individuals" in the development of chip facilities in China, there are limits on supplies and equipment that can be shipped to Chinese wafer fabs that make NAND flash memory chips with 128 layers or more.

On October 7, YMTC was one of 31 Chinese companies on Washington's unverified list. As reported in Chinese state media, its new chip has 232 memory cell layers.

Although export restrictions do not specifically prohibit US businesses from using state-of-the-art chips produced by Chinese businesses in their products, the ripple effects of US sanctions are wreaking havoc on China's semiconductor supply chain.

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South Korea's BusinessKorea reported that Apple added YMTC to its list of NAND flash suppliers for the iPhone 14 in September. Apple previously used NAND flash manufactured by Samsung Electronics in South Korea, SK Hynix in Japan and Kioxia in China.

According to a Nikkei Asia report, the US tech giant was looking to buy up to 40% of the chips required for all iPhones from YMTC.

According to a Financial Times article from September, Republican Senator Marco Rubio warned Apple against using memory chips made by YMTC because they "pose a security risk" and would subject the company to intense scrutiny "such as The federal government has never seen that."

According to market research firm Yole Development, YMTC had 5% of the global market share for NAND flash memory chips in 2021 and is projected to reach 10% by 2027.

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YMTC is facing impacts related to additional sanctions in the interim. According to a Wall Street Journal report last week, citing sources familiar with the situation, several major chip-making equipment suppliers, including wafer fab equipment supplier Lam Research and KLA Corp., have pulled process control systems for the semiconductor industry, from YMTC. American engineers out